Do you know your blackjack Basic Strategy DOWN COLD?

This is so true, I've come across a lot of weirdos that think a butterfly farting in Singapore might affect their play in Las Vegas.  ...hmm, maybe it actually might... ha!

Superstitions are a funny thing and gamblers are wired differently.

My peeve is I have a choice of two machines, I pick one, start playing, then think I picked the wrong one, then someone else sits down at the alternate choice and within a few hands (VP) or pulls (slots) they hit quads or a bonus round while my machine is sucking my bankroll dry.  Happens more often than not.  I'm sure if I sat at the other machine the same would happen as well!  But its an RNG thing versus sitting at a lucky machine.

That has happened to all of us.......my wife was playing a WoF machine at the Flamingo about 15 years ago.  She played through a hundred, but stopped, saying she felt like the machine was "ready to hit."   I mentioned to her to play another $20 and see what happens.  She said "no".  A guy gets on the machine and first pull get the Wheel of Fortune bonus, spins the wheel and hits the $1000 spot.  Wife was livid. 

Bottom line it's all about the RNG and you never know what is going to happen. 

As the RNG is continually cycling, even when the machine isn't being played, and there are at least 256,000 combinations of results moving through that RNG every second, the chances that Player A "would have" gotten the jackpot are extremely slim.

Of course, convincing your wife of this reality may be an impossible task. You might be able to show her (somehow) that the machine wasn't "ready" for the next spin to be a jackpot when she quit playing. A slot machine (or a VP machine) is never* in such a state.

Imagine the slot's RNG as a huge keno ball globe with 256,000 balls instead of 80. Someone walks up, hits the plunger, and out pops Ball #256,000. Was it "ready" to come out? No.

No, not ever.**

**Never.

Hence my last sentence that it's all about the RNG.

The wives I'm familiar with are smart and would have no difficulty understanding how a random number generator impacts the outcome of a video poker machine.

In fact, many of them could quickly explain the process to their husbands if needed.

We obviously socialize in different circles.

You should be extremely proud of yourself for associating only with female friends who view mathematical concepts astutely and rationally and who never succumb to superstition or magical thinking, in any endeavor or holding any opinion. It is a blue ribbon bedecked with gold stars for you that they're so smart.

My son got trapped.Dumped lot of money in The Devil Machine.Continues the near miss.I am always drawn to The Wheel Of Fortune.When I get a spin. What do I usually get 25 Not dollars anymore spins.Fool me once shame on you.Fool me twice shame on me.Time to learn the tables.

This is kind of interesting to me as I've written code for decades.  Is there something published about RNGs in slots/VP that describes the RNG continually cycling in some kind of Rube Goldberg service?  I don't think that makes any kind of difference versus running it once after an action occurs, i.e. button pushed.

There is also the issue that RNGs are not truly random unless using quantum computers.  Our current computers in slots/VP are pseudorandom.

Technopedia:

There are two main types of RNGs: pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs) and true random number generators (TRNGs).

• PRNGs use mathematical calculations to generate sequences that seem to be random because numerical patterns are difficult to detect.
• TRNGs use unpredictable physical phenomena or quantum effects to generate genuinely random number sequences.

Weirdly enough, and probably my own perceived bias, but the last 3 VP Royal Flushes I've gotten have been on sessions where 88 comes up repeatedly.  Also if a session keeps showing 77, I rarely, if ever even hit quads.  Maybe that pseudorandom generator is stuck in a pattern?

More likely I had too many beverages in Vegas.  But, there you are...a superstition perhaps? ;)

That is interesting. I think we have all been on a machine that keeps putting up the same low pair.  Tens or Sixs, or Sevens etc.  It would be interesting to track those pairs with profit or loss results

It would be statistically impossible to play a machine for any length of time when one or two low pairs did NOT predominate. We notice it, but it's just random noise.