Bad beats happen all the time in poker, but there are unusual spells of outrageous back-to-back bad beats I've observed, especially in tournament play. I should've gathered hand histories in the past since I play low-stakes cash games for fun instead of SNG's and such. Everyone suffers a bad beat once in a while of course, but if it's simultaneous bad beats that happen over and over again in a very short time period, then that would render me suspicious.
In tournament play, there is a bit more luck involved where there are situations where you have to win more than your fair share of coin-flip battles. However as I was gathering FPPs to reach my initial deposit bonus, not only did I lost a huge number of coinflips, I lost countless 20:1 odds where a donkey calls whatever I bet, and right when I go all-in, I get beat on the river. Yes, this can happen due to bad luck, but out of about 30 situations where this occured, I lost 95% of them with 90% or more favored odds in each hand. It wasn't like I could get whoever in the hand to fold, since no matter how much I bet, there was always someone who calls and calls. Playing poker in real life, I see bad beats happen once in a while, and I win a few hands from bad beats, but in
pokerstars, they happen way too often for it to be simply luck.
As I said before, after getting my bonus, things were normal again. The purpose of rigging hands against such players would have then deposit over and over agian to reach their bonus and for the company to receive more rake.
Sounds farfetched, but after hearing some of my friends as well as strangers telling me the same thing, I learnt I wasn't alone.