Here's another mini-rant. The reason I rant a lot is because whenever I lose a large pot, it is usually to someone who has played unconventionally, erratically or bloody badly against my textbook-like play. Sometimes I get outplayed - don't have a problem with that, nor do I have a problem with the fact that an occasional fishy play will get lucky and take a big pot off me. But it happens too much.

I once suggested that internet poker had to be rigged - I now readily concede that this is not he case and was wrong to put this forward. What I do believe is that there is much, much more fishy play online than in live play. Eg, many players will play any two suited cards and any two high cards (i was always taught not to call a preflopm raise with, eg QJo) from any position. The result is that a lot of straights and flushes appear.

True, as internet poker is faster than live poker there are more hands played per hour, but this is not the reason for all the flushes and straights. Comparing my two local card clubs and casinos, straights and flushes appear around 5% of the time, whereas online the figure is more than 10% (on the site on which I play at least). And the reason is that many players play weak drawing hands without proper odds and hit out.This happens less in live play where the action of physically moving the chips or the cash has an effect on players!