vpFREE2 Forums

It Goes Cold After Quads

#1

vegasvpplayer wrote:

Dan wrote:

But I still feel that anyone who believes that anomalies can't
possibly exist in video poker games is putting entirely too much
faith in government regulations.>>>

If I recall correctly, wasn't there found to be an anomaly in some of
the early multiline machines? I can't remember if it was in IGT's
Triple Play or Silicon's Lucky Draw platform. As I recall some pros
noticed that there was a higher then predicted occurrence of duplicate
cards appearing on multiple lines on the draw. There was no way to
exploit the anomaly that I know of and pros said it was no more likely
to produce duplicate good cards versus duplicate bad cards so the net
effect was zilch. (It probably increased variance much like in
SpinPoker but I'll leave that discussion for Harry :slight_smile: ) I believe the
manufacturer corrected the problem, probably in the form of trekking
the RNG in some way.

Yes, several anomalies have occurred and been well documented, but I doubt that the RNG was the root cause of any of them. Here are a few that I recall. (Note: This is from memory from quite a few years ago, so I'm sure someone here will correct me if my memory is faulty.) :wink:

At one time, Palace Station had about 20 Joker Wild (2 pair) machines that offered about 102% ER. I think they were Sigma machines. The machines also offered a double-up option that had a theoretical EV of 1, but it turned out that a bug in the firmware was causing the feature to return about 103%.

When the Odyssey 4-play machines first came out, there was a bug in the program that occasionally caused two of the same card to appear in the same hand. I saw this happen once. This was quickly fixed by the manufacturer after one player at the Fiesta had this happen to him, and he demanded all of his losses returned (I think he lost that battle).

There were reports of very early (mid to late 80's) IGT machines would sometimes deal a duplicate card. Supposedly, when dealt quads, if you didn't hold the fifth card you might get a duplicate of one of the quads cards on the draw. A friend claimed that this happened to her when dealt four aces on a Double Bonus machine and got a fifth ace on the draw. I have never seen any documentation on this, so it may be just rumors.

Almost all such anomalies are very short lived because once a problem is documented, Gaming Control typically shuts down the machines until the problem is fixed.

Dan

···

--
Dan Paymar
Author of best selling book, "Video Poker - Optimum Play"
Editor/Publisher of VP newsletter "Video Poker Times"
Developer of VP analysis/trainer software "Optimum Video Poker"
Visit my web site at www.OptimumPlay.com

"Chance favors the prepared mind." -- Louis Pasteur

#2

For vegasvpplayer; Those duplicate cards on triple play are still
around. Out of my last 8 royals on triple play IGT 6 of my royals
were 4 cd royal draws and I filled in two royals. Not an amazing feat
but caught my attention. I agree that if true, what help is it?

For Dan; The glitch that used to drive me crazy was IGT especially
JOB. When dealt a 4 straight open and an off card, the draw would
duplicate itself in another suit. Example: 5h, 6d, 7h, 8c and any
other card not filling straight - let's say a 2. The draw would
produce another 2 in a different suit. This is also well documented
and I believe there was even a complaint made to gaming control in
Nevada. This also was a glitch of no help to player.

There have also been a lot of cases where progressives don't reset.
Of course this is a different animal. I was in Frontier playing for a
7s bonus at $900+. Someone on bar hit the bonus, it flashed hit and
number of machine, but didn't reset. Shortly after I hit 7s and
machine registered the $900+. It took a while but Frontier paid me
anyway. Was in Laughlin playing prog at a bar. The royal was just
below 10G. I was watching my screen and it jumps over 10. I mention
to bartender it's over 10 thousand. Bartender says, "No it stops at
10 thousand". As many know, the big progressive meter on wall runs
behind the meter on video screen. As the meter went over 10 thousand
the bartender couldn't believe it. So the whole bar plays for about
half hour. Meter keeps running. Suddenly the meter leaps back to
$10,000. The players went crazy. On guy asks for casino super. After
hearing complaints from a few players the super leaves and meter is
restored above 10G and a couple hundred. They let it run. The sad
part is I got stuck on progressive, missed Kenny Rogers and someone
else hit the progressive.

I don't know about that quad thing, but I always would hold all 5
cards when dealt a quad. We all would hold 5 in case the machine
malfunctioned. Why we thought it would malfunction, I don't know.

Yes guys, the anomalies are there. There are more. I think way less
today. Probably almost none.

Cheers....Jeep
.
.

vegasvpplayer wrote:
>the early multiline machines? I can't remember if it was in IGT's
>Triple Play or Silicon's Lucky Draw platform. As I recall some

pros

>noticed that there was a higher then predicted occurrence of

duplicate

>cards appearing on multiple lines on the draw. There was no way to
>exploit the anomaly that I know of and pros said it was no more

likely

>to produce duplicate good cards versus duplicate bad cards so the
Yes, several anomalies have occurred and been well documented, but

I

doubt that the RNG was the root cause of any of them. Here are a

few

that I recall. (Note: This is from memory from quite a few years

ago,

so I'm sure someone here will correct me if my memory is

faulty.) :wink:

At one time, Palace Station had about 20 Joker Wild (2 pair)

machines

that offered about 102% ER. I think they were Sigma machines. The
machines also offered a double-up option that had a theoretical EV

of

1, but it turned out that a bug in the firmware was causing the
feature to return about 103%.

When the Odyssey 4-play machines first came out, there was a bug in
the program that occasionally caused two of the same card to appear
in the same hand. I saw this happen once. This was quickly fixed by
the manufacturer after one player at the Fiesta had this happen to
him, and he demanded all of his losses returned (I think he lost

that

battle).

There were reports of very early (mid to late 80's) IGT machines
would sometimes deal a duplicate card. Supposedly, when dealt

quads,

if you didn't hold the fifth card you might get a duplicate of one

of

the quads cards on the draw. A friend claimed that this happened to
her when dealt four aces on a Double Bonus machine and got a fifth
ace on the draw. I have never seen any documentation on this, so it
may be just rumors.

Almost all such anomalies are very short lived because once a

problem

is documented, Gaming Control typically shuts down the machines

until

···

.--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Dan Paymar <Dan@O...> wrote:

the problem is fixed.

Dan

--
Dan Paymar
Author of best selling book, "Video Poker - Optimum Play"
Editor/Publisher of VP newsletter "Video Poker Times"
Developer of VP analysis/trainer software "Optimum Video Poker"
Visit my web site at www.OptimumPlay.com

"Chance favors the prepared mind." -- Louis Pasteur