Disclaimer: This post is full of rumors, conjectures and guesses and is based on my limited poker experience only. This is neither an endorsement nor a rejection of Zynga. I like their games, but I don’t think the company is worth the $10 billion that they are trying to be valuated at. This post is for your entertainment only.
You may ask, when does Mr. RB40 find time to play Zynga poker on Google+? Well, sometimes after I’ve finished all my chores and blog related activities, I like to spend 5-10 minutes on a few hands before going to bed. Anyway, I think Zynga poker is a bit like video poker in that they are both rigged.
If you ever play video poker, you’ll often notice that you are only missing one card to make your hand a winning hand (flush, full house, etc…) The computer is programmed to display an almost winning hand so you will keep playing. (Last warning, this is a rumor. Treat everything that follows as pulp fiction.) The casino operator can adjust the odds on these machines to match the house payout %. This leads me to believe that the machine controls whether you win or lose and it doesn’t really matter what cards you keep/discard. The computer uses a random number generator (RNG henceforth) to figure out if you win or not.
Zynga Poker
Back to Zynga poker. If you ever play Zynga poker and real poker, you will notice a huge difference. In Zynga poker, you will see a big winning hand very often. You’ll see a flush, straight, full house, and 4 of a kind at least once every few hands. In real time poker, I rarely see these winning hands.
I deduced that the computer’s RNG determines if you win or not and the program will show the most exciting winning hand as possible. So if you draw a 2 and 7 off suit, don’t worry, you can still win with a full house. Since the RNG figures out the winner, everyone has more or less an equal chance to win. On a table of 5 people, if everyone bets every time and carries their hands to the conclusion, each will win around 20% of the time over the long run. So it comes down to – do you have the guts to check or raise every bet? Many times, I had crappy cards, chickened out, but still ended up with the would be winning hand.
Here is the cheat
How do you improve your odds? Well, you can have more seats at the table. You can create a dummy Facebook account and have 2 seats at the same table. An easy way to do this is to have another browser open and log in to your alternate account from there, i.e. player 1 on Firefox, player 2 on Internet Explorer, player 3 on Chrome, etc… If you have multiple computers or if you can remote log in to another one, then you can have even more dummies at the table. This is called collusion according to Wiki.
Baby RB40 won this hand with a straight!
Anyway, if you have 3 players on a table of 5, all you need to do is bet every time and you’ll win more than 60% of the time. The other 2 players won’t bet every time so you win those by default. It’s just a game, why does it matter? It matters because some people pay for those virtual poker chips. That’s one of the ways Zynga makes money. You can also buy Zynga poker chips on the black market; the exchange rate is around 10 million poker chips for $30. I don’t know how much Zynga sells their chips for since I would never exchange cold hard PayPal “cash” for virtual goods.
update: Zynga sells pokers chips at various rates. You can buy 1 million chips for $50. That is pretty expensive and I’d rather spend $50 going out to a restaurant…
Of course there are ways to detect the cheaters. In real online poker, the operator logs every hands. If they notice a pattern like 3 players sitting together all the time, they will catch the cheater. Zynga, on the other hand, should at least detect if one computer is having 3 browsers open. It shouldn’t be that difficult to check, right? Poker is one of their oldest and most popular game and it lowers my confidence in their competency if they can’t even prevent this easy cheat.
In conclusion – Play Zynga game for free and good luck if you decide to invest in their IPO next week. All right, I’m off to play a few hands before hitting the hay. Have a great weekend & don’t blame me if Zynga kicks you out for cheating. 
ps. You should play Zynga poker for fun and not cheat.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m the worst gambler ever! Virtual poker for free could be my cup of tea, but I don’t think I’ll be looking too closely at that IPO.
That IPO is way over valued. Zynga should be valuated like other game companies, not social media powerhouses.
I don’t have any experience with online gambling. A 5-10 minute time sink doesn’t sound too bad though. I had assumed you were going to say a few hours a week or something. Anyway, I have lately stayed away from any electronic games. It’s way too easy for me to waste a lot of time if I am not careful.
I spend a few hours a week on the XBOX. Usually Friday & Saturday night at 11pm after everyone went to bed.
I know it’s not a productive use of my time, but I need to decompress once in a while.
I can very accurately predict the outcome of me gambling!
That’s why I don’t gamble with real money. I work too hard to lose it.
Interesting take joe – if you want to double down, you can also open a google incognito window and long in to another account that way
Ahh… another way to get more seats on the table. It’s not fun when you’re cheating though.
Hi
This is shuvo
I am a fan of your post. i like this a lot.
Thanks a lot for this post
I haven’t liked the company since I heard about this: http://kotaku.com/5858425/report-zynga-demands-stock-back-from-employees-threatens-to-fire-them
No kidding. I smell lawsuits. The software developers work crazy hours in start up companies for the hope of a big pay off like this. I hope the company doesn’t win, it would set a terrible precedence.
And the house always wins! What’s the rake on Zynga poker?
They just sell the chips, no rake.
I’ve played Zynga poker a few times. It might be easy to cheat but there isn’t much point to it since the chips aren’t worth anything. I know some people do pay for chips but it doesn’t make any sense to me.
Right, I don’t understand why people pay for these virtual items. They must have a lot of extra money.
I thought US government banned all poker sites for US players. Is Zynga poker exception?
I guess Zynga doesn’t count because they are not playing for real money….
I used to play this game on my iPhone. Sometimes I would win just by bluffing like crazy and scaring people into folding.
I don’t think I’ve played a single zynga game before but I know lots of people who are hooked. I didn’t realize they had a poker game! Makes sense though as poker is still super popular. -Sydney
I played some games when they first came out, but they were too much work to keep track of. These days I just play poker once in a while.
Hey Joe, I’m a bit of a poker nut myself and used to play quite a bit online before it was banned. I don’t have experience with Zynga, but I have played on several other real money sites. I think they are play money in the US, but have real money sites overseas (waiting for U.S. legislation to change).
There’s definitely some cheating that transpires but I think the operators are pretty good at detecting it. Sure you could create dummy accounts, but they check for shared IP addresses. There are ways around that of course, but as you mention they also look for patterns and the same players sitting together often.
As for the sites themselves being rigged, aside from the occasional issue (see the UltimateBet scandal), the sites have way too much too lose to cheat. Online poker makes billions with a relatively simply model and a scandal can easily wipe that out. I also think more and more regulation and auditing will come into play as the U.S. market legalizes it once again and safety will not be an issue.
And lastly, even if there was some cheating by operator and players, it’s still an easy way to make money if you play smart!
p.s. Can you tell I’m a little passionate about poker?
Great information, thank you! I agree that a real poker site do not cheat, but Zynga is just a game. ( Do they really play for real money oversea????)
I think they try to pump up the players and my feeling is the game is a bit rigged.
i just want a chips but i don’t know how to get free chips………………….
I have only 3128 chips now
ANY BODY CAN HELP ME TO GET FREE CHIPS ON TAXES HOLDEM POKER GAME??????????????????
I want to be a millionre
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