All online card rooms use random number generators to choose the cards. All random number generators are not "random" and they can be seeded to produce a bias, e.g. lots of face cards on the flops, etc.
Try sitting at a royal jackpot table and be amazed at the continuous stream of low rainbow flops, then switch to a standard ring game and observe the frequency at which aces or three flushes are dealt on the board??
Online sites want the tourneys over as quickly as possible, so that players will buy into another one as soon as they take an early bath and earn the poker site more money, so of course there are bad beats a plenty, because they are not running the games for the benefit of the players.
Therefore you have to approach online play with the attitude that you are playing against the software as well as your opponents at the table. The essential skills of reading your opponents, reading the board and sensing when to make moves or fold are all still extremely pertinent. You just have to learn the quirks of each particular site and adapt your game accordingly.
At the end of the day, bad beats are a part of the game, and even if you get your chips in as 3 to 1 favourite, one time out of 4 on average you will lose.
I was donked out early in the English Amatuer Open live game in Walsall. I had pocket nines, my opponent had KQ. It flopped KQ9. The train wreck inevitably happened. I hit a ten on the turn to give me more outs by way of a gut shot straight draw but surprise surprise, out popped a king on the river giving my opponent a 4 outer full house and all my chips. So it happens live as well. In this example it was unavoidable, my opponent believed he had the best hand and so did I, and despite the fact I was way ahead on the flop, he had outs and got lucky.
Every week I get my low pairs counterfeited, my big aces get sucked out on with people hitting their 2 kickers, underpairs crack my trip aces when they hit a backdoor flush, morons push all in with 5 3 off and hit 2 pairs. These things happen all day and every day. When things go right, and you make the final table, rejoice and congratulate yourself that even if it took a bit of good luck along the way to get there, all the bad beats you suffered previously mean that you have earned it.
If your game is solid you will eventually get the results you deserve.
