PokerTH

After playing nearly 50 games on PokerTH, I’ve noticed serious irregularities in card distribution that suggest a possible bias:

Flush Distribution

In ~50 games, I did not receive a single flush.

However, flushes consistently appeared for players with larger stacks/coins.

This creates the impression that stronger stacks are systematically favored.

Repetitive Hands

Cards are dealt in suspiciously repetitive patterns.

Example: one round I received 6♠ Q♦, and in another round I received Q♣ 6♥ — same ranks, just swapped suits.

This kind of repetition occurs too often to feel random.

Impact:

The game feels biased toward experienced players or those holding bigger stacks.

Predictable card sequences undermine trust in the randomness of the shuffle.

This directly affects game fairness and player retention.

Expectation:

True randomness in the shuffle (uniform probability for all players, regardless of stack size).

No detectable bias in favor of chip leaders or experienced players.

Notes:
PokerTH has great potential, but unless the fairness and randomness logic is reviewed and corrected, it’s difficult to take the outcomes seriously.

Hahaha ... that still is totally subjective.

If you'd take the time and check source-code and check the random generator which is used, we might talk about some improvements. But your subjective observations really do not do the job = 50 games are not representative at all.

A few years ago we did an intensive test with the RNG - with about 10000 shuffles or more ... the result was as expected: it is really random enough for this game.

Thx for repeating that PokerTH has potential and that there is great effort - we already do know that.

Hello,

Thanks for your response. I understand your point about subjectivity and the need for statistical validity. However, from a player’s perspective, the experience still feels biased. I’ve also noticed that whenever two players go All-In, the river card almost always seems to favors the more experienced player. It feels a bit suspicious. That’s just been my experience so far.

While 50 games may not be “proof” statistically, it is enough to raise doubts among players about fairness — and perception of fairness is just as important as the underlying math.

I don’t have the resources to run 10,000 shuffle simulations, but perhaps the dev team could consider.

Thank you for considering.

Best regards,

Hi,

you are still talking about perception and feelings which are subjective words.

What do you want us to do? You really want that we repeat the test with 10.000 shuffles and then give you the result? ... instead of you taking an own look at the source-code and checkout how the RNG is used?

https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Apoke ... &type=code
or directly
https://github.com/pokerth/pokerth/blob ... /tools.cpp

I do not understand maybe.

Regards

BlazingLion wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 11:07 pm I’ve also noticed that whenever two players go All-In, the river card almost always seems to favors the more experienced player.

How should this be achieved by an RNG? It would mean that before it shuffles, it checks the stats of each player and also makes a prediction at which hand players go all-in?

Please check the source-code ... and still: 50 games are not representative at all.