I've been a professional player for 15 years. I played Twisters on iPoker, playing 50-100 EUR for the last 3 years and 200 EUR since it started (about a year ago). I was successful at 50 EUR before rakeback and had a massive EV after rakeback on 100-200 EUR games. 6-8tabling. Before that, I played spins on other sites and was also a winning player.
Certainly, it was always frustrating to play against the same regulars on a 3-handed table, but I felt I had an edge in heads-up play, so it was fine even if they colluded 3handed.
Recently though, I've noticed that many long-time players, who have been in the game with me for years, have stopped playing. Some had pretty unique stats, so when they changed accounts in the past, I was always able to identify them. I guess that's life; some people will just lose their edge.
Somewhere around March, the games started to become a lot tougher. There were still some fish, but the new regs played incredibly well. I've experienced many springs and summers in poker, and I know they are always tougher. Also, I'm aware that there's insane variance in these games. It's BRUTAL in bi-s still can be a lot in chipEV.
Still, especially in the last six months, my EV has been way worse, and many times I get folds pre-flop with premium hands, get no action with my monster hands post-flop, but constantly face pressure with my marginal holdings.
I thought that maybe some CFP came into play with multiple players, so I started using a total new skin. I always used multiple skins to hide my identity (its legal,never at the same time) before but always the same acc. This was brand new. This way, I had a lot of hands on them, and they had none on me. I also completely changed my bet sizes in iPokerTools, even preflop. I started to balance my timing tells even more than before, sacrificing some spins per hour. I began using unconventional bet sizes as well, but it still felt like I was playing with my cards face up.
I tightened the security of my home network even more than before. Threw out some bad IOT device with bad security. I had this feeling that they might be colluding more heavily than before, combining it with some sort of Real-Time Assistance (RTA), or they could straight up see folded cards, my equity, or my hole cards. My affil has a shitty website with years old architect and I guess huge security leaks and I never opened it on my computer after reinstalling everything and tightening up because I could have been attacked that way (small chance ofc). still, like they mindread me.
Then, I considered the possibility that these new players were simply better than me, or maybe I had forgotten how to play. I even started thinking about learning a completely new format or quitting poker altogether and starting a new business (although the money would still be insanely good in poker).
I came to this forum to see if anyone else had similar experiences, besides some recreational players who think they're losing because it's rigged. I'm talking about serious regulars.
In the Bovada topic (
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...index2787.html), you can find many similar experiences. I also observed a huge botnet on WPN (
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...7/index10.html), and of course, the infamous Moneytaker on GG.
Then, I started to wonder if I wasn't going crazy or had forgotten how to play, as many players elsewhere were complaining that something fishy was going on in the games.
So what are the experiences on Ipoker in this sense? even in other formats: heavy botting, collusion,RTA-> did things changed a lot in last 6 month or year?