And there’s no doubt in my mind that it is a “game” (iow “scam”). The second time I ever played a Sunday money tournament, I finished in 65th out of 32000 and won over 2K. That should not happen to a newbie. It wasn’t talent, for sure, it was simply that I was getting cards and draws all over the joint. The only reason I didn’t finish higher was because of my own bonehead play (remember, I was a NEWBIE).

After that, it’s been nothing but a conglomeration of every comment found on this thread.

There’s no doubt that they want you playing. I’ve experimented on the free section with folding everything. They don’t like that. When 2/3 of the field is gone, they start loading your hands. I’d get AK, AQ, JJ in a five-hand sequence. I was finally getting low from all my folding so then so I played the jacks. Got the third on the flop. Sure, why not? All-in. Got beat by running diamonds. And before the river I KNEW that’s what was going to happen.

Another time, I CALLED an all in on a 9-6. Now, there is zero chance that any real player in a real game would do something that stupid, but I wanted to see if PS’s magic would work for me in this situation like it normally does against me when I’m packing a pair of good hole cards. Sure enough, two nines showed up on the flop. The poor guy that all-inned his pocket aces gets mad at me (as he probably should, though the game was free). I tried to explain I did it on purpose to prove a point – that he should be mad at PS, not me.

They are vengeful, no doubt about it.