Gambling Guide
Video Poker - Dealing
Jack from Detroit, USA
Thanks for your support. I encourage everyone to click through the banners to help support the site. To answer your question, no, it is not possible to get the same card back. The machine represents a fair deal from a single deck. Once you discard a card you can’t get it back. To the answer the second question, no, the casino can not change the probability of each hand. The video poker machines deal a fair game. How often you get each hand depends on the random draw of the cards and your skill in playing them.
Joe from Las Vegas, USA
They are predetermined. Once you hit "deal" the first time both the deal and the draw cards are chosen.
"Anonymous" .
I think different video poker makers do it different ways. On all at least the draw cards are determined when the player presses the button. I think some also determine the draw cards at this time. Others keep shuffling the remaining 47 cards until the player presses the button to draw the replacement cards.
Kevin from Fallon
Thank you for the kind words. I passed along your question to an industry insider. Here is his reply.
Manually stopping video reels early has no impact on the outcome. If it did, this would make it a true physical skill game, which is not legal in any US class 3 gaming jurisdiction that I know of. In fact, in some states, physical slot games which can award cash or prizes are allowed only if they offer a true physical stop mechanism which turns the device into a physical skill game.Jack from Rockaway, NJ
Thanks for helping in the fight against betting systems. First let me say that I have never worked for a major slot machine company and don’t have direct knowledge of this. However, I know many people in the industry and those I trust pretty much are in agreement on this topic.
That said, it is my understanding that in all forms of electronic games, including video slots, video poker, and video keno, the outcome is usually determined the moment you make your decision. Meanwhile the possible outcomes are constantly being shuffled, thousands of times a second. I can’t speak for every slot machine but I believe that with the major U.S. slot makers the outcome is not predestined but depends on the exact microsecond you press the button to make your play.
