Annihilated by 1600 (bullet)

Sometimes, if I have aborted too many games, I am placed in what I refer to as "the pool" — this is a dark place where you must play or resign, typically with players rated hundreds of points below you. It's a high-risk low-reward setup, because it happens that these players possess skill far above their ratings. I have examples of losing terribly to 1800, 1700, 1600, even 1500 players when in this "pool" — here's a game from today:

    I haven't played on Chess.com in years, but in lichess my rating hovers at just over 1700. And I've beaten some 2000+ players. I've wondered if some such algorithm is at work there. Of course, I have no way of knowing if my opponents are aborting a lot of games and ending up in some pool,.