The Casino Answer Man

Blocker cards are illegal. A casino using machines with blocker cards, or a manufacturer producing such things, would risk losing its license to operate in Nevada.

Under Nevada law, video poker games must deal from a randomly shuffled 52-card electronic deck in which any card has an equal probability of turning up as any other. Operators who have used non-random programs have been prosecuted on felony charges.

My first thought when somebody tells me a particular draw has been coming up 90 percent of the time is that there's some selective memory at work. A player sees something happen a few times, thinks there's a pattern, and then every time it occurs thereafter it's regarded as further evidence. Sometimes the player just doesn't notice hands that don't fit the pattern. Try keeping track with pencil and paper sometime. Each time you start with three of a kind, mark down the two cards you draw. I think you'll find that the pattern disappears.

As for the way cards are dealt, current machines deal serially. When you draw a card, you receive the next card off the top of the deck. Older video poker machines dealt a shadow hand "beneath" the initial hand on the screen. If you discarded card No. 3, it was replaced by shadow card No. 3. That is no longer the case.