B. As we sit and play for hours on end, it is obvious that the VP
programs have "gotcha" hands. For example, how many times does a
machine give you an 8 in place of a needed 3, or a 4 in place of a
needed Ace, etc. just to make you think for a split second that you got
what you needed! Clearly sadistic programmers at work, but how can
that be random?
No; the phenomenon you describe isn't real, but your brain thinks it is. When you're looking for that 3 you really want, your brain works really hard to find it for you... so if it sees anything resembling a 3, it triggers a reaction in your mind. This reaction causes the memory of this event to become more strongly cemented in your mind, so you'll recall these events more strongly than the times when you got a card that didn't look like the one you wanted. Similarly, when you're drawing for that 3, how many times do you "just miss" with a 2 or 4? It seems like it happens all the time, but not disproportionately so. If you don't believe it, tally (on paper) how many of each card you draw in these situations, over significant time (hundreds or thousands of hours of play). You should be able to determine to your own satisfaction that there's no bias.
Similarly: Some time ago I reported on this group about an experiment my wife and I did with SpinPoker. We had "observed" that on occasions when we were looking for a single specific card -- say, the 10 of hearts -- that we more frequently saw the 10 of hearts scroll by on the "spin the reels" animation prior to replacement cards being dealt. We wondered if this was in fact happening, courtesy of some "sadistic programmers". (One interesting tidbit is that I'm guessing this would even be legal, since it's just a transition graphic and doesn't affect the final hand.) So we did a simple experiment: in the same example draw of needing the 10 of hearts, we instead mentally wished for (say) the 5 of clubs, and hit Draw. Sure enough, we "saw" a lot of 5 of clubs spin by. We found this to be consistently reproducible (although it's annoying to wish for a card you really don't want :-).
The human brain is a superb pattern-matching machine. While this can be a detriment, like in the above examples, it can also be helpful: I'm guessing many veteran video poker players automatically KNOW that (say) there's a pair to be held from the deal, even if you haven't yet consciously figured that out. More high speed brain pattern-matching at work there, that time to your benefit.
--Joe