Pete... I think you're looking at it the wrong way. The correct way to look at it would be to ask what reason you have to believe it is NOT an honest game.

Consider this... if a site were proven to be running a dishonest game, ALL of the players would leave the site. Absolutely. These sites can make millions a day. Why do you suppose they'd risk this for any reason? Once the infrastructure is up and running, it costs very little to run the games. It doesn't make sense to believe that they would jeopardize their earnings.

Consider this too... it is virtually impossible for just ONE person at a site to know that it is run dishonestly. If more than one person knows, it wouldn't take long for the "secret" to be out.

As for Mark's question about unusual hands on internet poker sites, it's a common question. Don't forget that you are seeing MANY more hands than you do in a brick & mortar site... maybe double, maybe triple the number of hands. There will therefore be double or triple the number of bad beats ande unusual hands.

Another reason for the seemingly amazing number of bad beats in online poker is this: there are millions of absolutely awful players playing on these sites who would not consider embarassing themselves in a live cardroom. I really think this is an overwhelming factor, particularly at low limits. The anonymity provided by internet poker brings out some amazingly poor players.