Question of the Day - 03 August 2017

The reason this QofD wasn't asked about "slots" is because it's so much more obvious, to players, how they're "tightened". {Personally, I have noticed that Caesars Casinos same to pay out smaller "bonuses" than say Boyd, Station, or MGM slots. Also, WMS machines, for example, pay off poorly (by design) unless you hit a bonus round. So if a casino wants to "tighten" its payoffs it is as easy as "peppering" the playing field with certain brands or styles of slots.

If the RNG never stops shuffling its deck, does the RNG nevertheless remove from its deck the cards that the player is holding during a game, or is it theoretically possible for the player to wind up with 5 identical cards?

Oops. I know the basics of 5 card draw and since the player only gets to toss his cards once, I realize it would be impossible to get 5 identical cards as I posted above. But if the RNG always deals from a shuffled full deck, it would be possible to get 5 of a kind, or two identical cards, both impossible in a live game. So my question, albeit with a stupid example, remains.

So you're saying it's no easier to get a royal flush from Casino than another correct they just changed the payout amounts

I think you may have misread the answer.  It says that when the hand is dealt the RNG stops, and does not begin again until the hand is finished.  Thus, it deals five cards from the 52 card deck, and after you discard whatever number of cards, it then deals those cards from the remaining 47 card deck, and the payout is based on those now 5 card hand.  Only after that, does it begin reshuffling all the card in the deck.

That's correct. On a 'fair' machine the odds of getting a royal do not change from casino to casino.

I think you are incorrect about the dealing process.  You get 5 cards, ahd lets say you discard 3 cards.  The RNG is still shuffling but it is now shuffling 50 cards from which you are dealt 3 replacement cards making it possible for yo to get one or more of your discards returned to you.  The odds of that are slim but I have witnessed it happening numerous times.  This is the fault of the Gaming Commission for poor programming and not one of the Casinos but the Casinos are aware of it and let's face it, they are advantage players also.  Alas why do you think you need "correct play" cards for Video Poker??

Yes, thanks, I see that now. What threw me off was, "the random number generator is shuffling away every second of every day of every week of every year." 

But according to Jackie above and different from what you wrote, discarded cards are put back in the deck which is different from how discarded cards are handled in the live game. That doesn't seem fair.

@Jeff
It's not a matter of fair, it is a matter of programming.  For some reason they couldn't stop the RNG handle the present deck and restart the RNG.  Stopping a TRUE RNG stops the randomness but there are RNGs that can be stopped and then continue but you missed out on thousands of possible hands.  It only takes an RNG 1 microsecond to shuffle so for it to continue shuffling the discards are returned and at worst you have a 1 in 10 chance in getting any of a 5 card discard returned.  A better way they should have used is an AI that "grabs" a deck from an RNG that is shuffling several decks, play that one, return it to the RNG and grab another on the next deal.  But who ever said they were intelligent?

The RNC keeps on shuffling the remaining 47 cards (or 48 in Joker Poker) until you hit the draw button and the discarded (empty) slots are filled with whatever is at the top of the deck at that time. You cannot be re-dealt a card you have just chosen to discard. Any claims that this happens is erroneous and merely a trick your mind is playing on you.

I think more research needed for this answer. My understanding is there is no "Random number generator" involved in VP. You have a "computer program" that controls what cards you receive. When you hit the deal button you have ten cards (10)issued. The first five you see and the rest of them are dealt in the order they were dealt as you ask for them. Just saying what I have been told.