One of the most passionate topics that players e-mail me on has to be about what they see in the various machines they play. Yes, sometimes the input is a bit on the kooky side, but I try to look at every event and opinion with an open mind. After all, I see some very strange things myself, and I’m surprised about it every single time just as much as they are.

There’s a lot that’s been written over the years by all kinds of players about what may be the cause behind sometimes very odd occurrences at the machines. Most say whatever happens are just events occurring at random, and I usually tend to concur. But not always...not when a rash of them pop up on so many machines so often.

A few weeks ago I wrote of a $5 machine continuously handing me three or four cards to the royal at Sam’s Town. After half a dozen of them in less than 2 minutes, I hit the Royal. The following week on $10 Triple Bonus Poker+ at the Rio I was dealt 3 fours in 4 straight hands – failing each time to get the fourth or even a full house. But on the very next hand I was dealt just two fours, and naturally the other two appeared on the draw for another huge winner.

Then just a week ago while playing at Wynn, I was dealt an open-ended four to the straight flush two hands in a row – and both were in diamonds and BOTH were 3,4,5, & 6. I didn’t hit either one, but within 5 minutes I was DEALT the 3-7 of diamonds. Coincidence...I really don’t think so, and after what I experienced on the previous trips, it becomes increasingly easy to throw “random” out the window at times like these.

I received an e-mail from a player in Pennsylvania not too long ago that detailed a strange occurrence he had while at the Stratosphere. His 25c machine hit two quads in a row – 5’s & 10’s and neither dealt – not very odd since I’ve experienced similar hits myself twice. But within 15 minutes he hit them (5’s & 10’s) AGAIN, and again in back-to-back fashion!

How strange is THAT! This player swears something was up with the machine. He said he knew by the pattern of deals and draws that he was headed for something a little off the cuff, and that’s exactly what he got. You can bet that no matter who says what to him from here on out, he’ll never believe in random again.

And can you blame him? How about this one. We all know how frustrating being dealt four-to-the-royal is because you hardly ever convert. We like it when we see it rolling out in front of us because of the tremendous opportunity, but as we begin to recall how many times nothing ever came of such a deal, we digress some. But a player from Minnesota says she has even more to gripe about.

Most or all of the math people always write off other players’ experiences as “coincidental” of constantly seeing the one card they need to fill in the quad, straight flush or royal show up as the first card out on the very next hand, instead of coming out on the previous draw when it would have meant something.

Well, I know a lady in St. Paul who’ll go to her grave believing they’re all full of baloney. In one session at a 50c machine in Laughlin about 4 months ago, she was given the opportunity of being dealt four royal cards four times in 2 hours. First of all, how many times does that really happen anyway?

Anticipation does run high in such cases, yet each time she lost, and each time ON THE VERY NEXT DEAL out came the one card she needed the hand before to make the royal. Not once – but FOUR TIMES! Still believe in totally random, Einsteins?

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’ve heard from a player who 2 years ago says he was DEALT TWO ROYALS consecutively! The claim is true, but I admit, I’d have to have seen this one with my own eyes to believe it really happened. I did ask to see the W2G’s for time stamp verification that would add some credibility to this event, but that’s when I found out it was on quarters. The odds are in the billions against it, but who knows...

When all is said and done, what do we really know about these machines anyway? Sure we want them to be random and we read regulations all the time that seem to verify that. But do we...there’s always a behind-the-scenes with everything in this world, and it always seems to fit the scenario just enough so that nothing’s really wrong and the edge has not been stepped over.

One thing I do know, 3 fours do not get dealt 4 times in a row unless there’s no shuffle, and four more don’t just pop up out of nowhere on the very next hand. Try that at home every day for 50 years with a real deck of cards and you won’t see it. And the first card out on the next hand being the needed royal card the hand before, happening FOUR TIMES in 2 hours? C’mon.

In the end, players will play on and go for their thrills regardless. There’s plenty of places outside regulated venues -- in other countries, on cruise ships and in Indian casinos perhaps, and definitely at on-line casinos -- where the machines are obviously set to do certain things. So anything’s possible, and nothing will keep players away from any of it. But the REAL thrill is seeing these things happen where you least expect them.