Guys, Here's something interesting to ponder about video poker
that I found while reading Miron Stabinsky's & Jeremy Silman's "Zen
and the Art of Casino Gaming." ( Summit Publishing, 1995 )
"Randomness is an indifferent, uncaring bitch." --VP Pappy
IS IT ALIVE?
"Although these electronic machines are supposed to give purely
random results, some of the people in the know insist that video
poker machines have crossed the border and entered into a sort of
twilight zone. They say certain computer chips often begin to act
differently than others and this "personality" creates certain trends
that the player might be able to take advantage of.
I must admit that I don't completely buy this point of view, but
out of curiosity I sat down with a well-known casino's top slot man
(Harold) and asked some questions.
QUESTION?: What's all this rubbish about these video poker machines
being alive?
"Of course they're not alive, but some of these machines do show a
personality that sets them apart from the norm. Instead of giving you
a truly random deal, which is what they are supposed to do, these odd
machines will religiously hand you certain combinations of cards. A
sharp player can take advantage of this.
"For example, let's supposed that your machine keeps giving you
lots of sevens. You take note of this and, after playing for awhile,
find yourself facing a horrible hand with a single seven and lots of
other unrelated cards. The best thing to do is to keep this seven,
even if this is not the right thing to do as far as the basic odds
are concerned. Your demented machine may very likely throw another
couple of sevens your way and leave you with trips or even a boat."
QUESTION: This is insane! Does anybody really believe this stuff? How
is it possible?
"Originally, these poker machines had only one chip and only one
standard deck of fifty-two cards. The house got blasted, though, when
the players noticed these personality trends and made use of them. It
became so obvious that the casino laid out a tremendous amount of
extra money and had up to seven computer chips placed in each
machine; each chip represents a new deck of cards so, personality or
no personality, the alternating chips brought back the randomness
that the house wanted. It works like this: the first time you ask for
cards to be dealt, you get action from one deck/chip. The next time
you are dealt cards, the second deck/chip is used. And on and on.
"As for how a computer personality is possible, I think it all
hinges around the effects of magnetic fields. In electromagnetism,
which is essentially the system that makes a random probability
character generator work, you're dealing with electronic fields of
magnetism that form recurring patterns. Theoretically, these fields
have a physical influence on the chip that might create small periods
of time which numbers repeat then selves."
QUESTION: It sounds like the same wishful thinking that I've seen in
all the table games. You notice field numbers in craps repeating over
and over again, or you feel that the dealer is hitting twenty-one way
too often in blackjack. These things happen all the time, but it
really doesn't mean anything at all. If you began to count on these
mystical factors to come to your aid, you will be setting yourself up
for a big fall.
"Miron, I agree with you as far as the law of probabilities or
superstition goes, but here we are talking about an actual physical
influence. You have to understand that the computer aspects of a
poker machine operate at a very low energy output; something like two
volts. The sad thing is that these chips are stuck inside a steel-
lined case which has a video monitor on top of it running on 40,000
active volts. This creates a tremendous field --energy that might be
doing all sorts of strange things to you and to the microchip.
"Just imagine two-volt character generators hovering around all
that energy. I've seen dozens of strange things come out on the
display panel. We've had royal flushes come up and go away without
the customer even touching the panel buttons. I had a guy walk up to
the screen, put his finger on it, and it sparked. Nine-hundred
credits magically appeared on the monitor! He ask to cash out and I
had to pay him those nine-hundred coins."