For those of you who are not on Mark Pilarski's "Deal Me In" email
list, here's an interesting snip... enjoy.
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Dear Mark,
Let's say I am dealt four cards to a royal in video poker. I discard
one and
hope for the card that will give me a royal flush. My question is: is
the
card already behind the card I just discarded, or dealt from the top
of a
deck? Dylan F.
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O.K., we've said it. Jurisdictional gaming regulations do vary, from
place
to place, but most poker machines operate on a "serial" and not
a "parallel"
basis. "Huh?" Dylan says aloud, while thinking "Whaaa"?
On the serial basis, cards are shuffled and dealt off the top of the
virtual
deck..just one after another as they come off the top. An example of
the
parallel basis, on the other hand, is where five cards are dealt face
up,
and five additional cards are then dealt unseen underneath the
initial,
face-up five.. parallel to them, get it?
So, Dylan, if it's serial, which it probably is, that next card is
determined at the time of player interaction with (draw from) the top
of a
virtual deck, and not at the time of the deal and card placement
behind your
five initial cards.
But either way you get those cards, Dylan, by gaming regulations in
all
legit casinos, they will be randomly drawn.
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