Contributing expert Bob Dancer writes:
On modern IGT video poker machines (which represent something like 85% of the video poker market nationwide), the 47 cards in the pack (original 52 cards in the deck minus the five that are initially dealt) continue to be shuffled until you hit the draw button. At that point, cards are dealt from the top of the 47-card pack and empty spaces are filled in left to right.
In the past, this was something of a trade secret and when I wrote a similar answer in another publication a year or so ago, I received a call from an IGT vice president asking me not to reveal the secrets of their games.
More recently, however, John Daley, IGT's Director of Video Poker, addressed this whole issue in a candid and widely quoted interview with a Chicago newspaper. So I guess it's not a secret anymore. In the same interview, he also revealed that when video poker was first introduced, some manufacturers did develop games in which 10 cards came out at once, but that in the interest of keeping the game random, IGT for one now only employs the system outlined above.
To read the interview in full, click here.
