Reader Eyewear Required

Home » Columns » Reader Eyewear Required

I’ve never seen this question answered regarding this winning hand in video poker, so possibly you could indulge my curiosity.  Say for instance I have the following hand: Three fours and a pair of queens. I realize I have a full house, but why wouldn’t I get paid separately for the three fours and the pair of queens? Bruce D.

With reading glasses in hand, Bruce, you’ll notice that somewhere in fine print on the face of the machine it most likely says something along these lines: “Pays only highest combination.” Yes, occasionally you will come across a specialty game like Multi-Pay Poker that will reward you additionally for the trips and the Jacks-or-better, but with almost every other machine out there, a hand that includes a grouping of more than one winning hand is paid only the highest winning combination.

When playing video poker, when are the draw cards actually dealt? Immediately, and then placed behind the initial draw cards, or do they come off the top of the deck? It seems I’ve seen it described by experts both ways. Larry G.

About a dozen years ago, Larry, I wrote that it depended on the company who produced the machine and how old the machine was, and that some video poker machines of yesteryear operated using parallel dealing. Meaning, all 10 cards were dealt simultaneously, and you were dealt both the display cards and their draw replacements.

Today, machines employ what’s called serial dealing. Here, a player starts a game by pressing the deal button, and the top five cards of the deck are displayed. The program now continually shuffles the remaining cards until you hit the draw button, with the required replacement cards being dealt right from the then top of the deck—as in a live poker game.

The reason for the switch, Larry, was that when all 10 cards were dealt straight away, the RNG could be vulnerable to a sharpie who tracks sequences, entering the cards dealt and drawn into a computer program, possibly determining what the future draw cards might be and winning the maximum amount on each hand.

Sounds farfetched? It happened, hence the universal change to dealing the draw cards off the top of the deck.

Since the screens are completely different, playing cards vs. symbols, am I to assume correctly that a video poker and slot machines use different random number generators? Chris D.

Even though a video poker machine uses the output from a random number generator (RNG) to shuffle an electronic deck, and a slot machine uses a RNG to determine which symbols will land on the payline, they are the same chip since the singular purpose of a RNG is to crunch numbers.

Yes, Chris, the screen scenery is different, cards opposed to cherries, but that chip doesn’t give a hoot what is done with the numbers it generates, so the same RNG chip can be used in a slot as well as in a video poker machine.

Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Casino owners count system players when they’re trying to relax and fall asleep at night.” –Andrew Brisman, Mensa Guide To Casino Gambling

Top Casino
Share
Latest Casinos
3.3 rating
Lotus Asisa 200% bonus up to $1500 Bonus with code 200LOTUS
3.8 rating
Get up $7000 bonus + 30 Free Spins on Big Game
4.3 rating
Get up to 20% cashback up to 10,000 USDT
3.3 rating
Get up to $120 Welcome Bonus No Deposit Free Chip
3.5 rating
Get up to 150% Bonus + 33 Free Spins Welcome Package
Latest Games
Dream Drop Diamonds

Play Dream Drop Diamonds from Relax Gaming at this Casino

Wolfpack Pays

Play Wolfpack Pays Slot from NextgenGaming at this Casino

Giga Jar

Play Giga Jar Slot from Push Gaming at this Casino