Why Do Video Poker Machines Pause from Time to Time?

When playing video poker, every 40 or 50 hands, there will be a significant pause between the time you hit the button to deal the initial five cards and the actual time the cards are dealt. Why is this?

When a video poker or slot machine pauses momentarily in its operation, it's just like when your computer does the same: Both are processing information. Gambling machines are generally updating their memories, so that no information about the machine's operation is lost.

Does the pause affect the outcome? (We know you didn't ask, but others no doubt would in the comments or future QoD submissions.) The answer is yes. The random number generator will start from a different place than it would have without the pause.

That said, whether the outcome from the pause is better or worse than it would've been without the pause is impossible to know. It's no different than if you yourself paused for the same duration at the same time. The result remains random.

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Deke Castleman Sep-18-2019

This in via email from the inimitable Pahrump Jackie

1. To count its winnings.

2. To shuffle the deck.

3. Didn't like the number picked by the Random Number Generator.

4. You were playing too fast for it to keep up.

5. Security was checking to see if you were a Dancer graduate.

6. Seeing if you were cheating.

7. Taking your picture.

8. Just catching its breath.

9. Just to make you wonder "Why do video poker machines pause from time to time? "

10. Sorry - - no one knows why!

Kevin Lewis Sep-19-2019

It's dealing seconds

It pauses when it realizes, to its horror, that it's about to deal you a four of a kind, a wild royal, or God forbid, a natural royal. The pause is when it wipes that hand out before it displays and redeals you J8653 of four different suits, the way God intended.

If you play Double or Double Double Bonus, undealt cards are assigned to hold down the Aces to keep them from reaching the screen. This takes a second or so, generating the pause.

David Miller Sep-19-2019

Pausing

 I can never remember the time after the machine I was playing paused that I was dealt any playable (winning) cards. I now quit a machine when it "pauses" and move to another. I now consider this "pause" as a message from the machine that I need to move on.

O2bnVegas Sep-19-2019

ha ha ha ha ha ha

Thank you, Pahrump Jackie, Kevin Lewis, and David Miller.  I needed a laugh this morning, and you all made it happen.  Love it.

Texas Transplant Sep-19-2019

Good sense of humor, Jackie!

Pahrump Jackie, you have a great sense of humor...or possibly are VERY insightful.

Deke Castleman Sep-19-2019

This in via email from a different Kevin

IGT video poker machines, at least the older Game Kings and before those the Players Edge Plus (PE+), would have a noticeable pause after exactly every 100 hands. At that time the machine is writing statistical data (total number of hands played, coins in, coins out, etc.) to an EEPROM -- non-volatile memory -- as a backup of that bookkeeping data in the event of a catastrophic failure of the primary memory on the processor board. Because it takes a second or so to write that data, there's a small noticeable pause on the screen. There's nothing nefarious going on inside the game causing you to get bad cards on that next deal or anything like that.

David Miller Sep-19-2019

nothing nefarious

 Sure, I want to but just can't believe you...

Question of the Day - 19 September 2019

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