Here’s a topic that will either really open your eyes...or close that one-track mind even further because of how close it hits to home. And because of the bold approach it takes regarding all aspects of the machines that those addicted to the game rarely if ever want to talk about, blood pressures will rise, hate levels will skyrocket, yet those who think they already know it all will be humbled. Let’s just call it “The Undeniable Truth About Video Poker MACHINES” for purposes of clarity.

First, we’re only going to talk about what I see going on with the machines in Nevada, because that is where I play for profit and it’s really the industry leader as it has always been. I’m ignoring Indian casinos because of the disturbing pattern of nebulous responses I’ve always received both from the tribes themselves as well as from the supposed state “regulatory” agencies where the casinos are located. My conclusion is that their machines are not to be trusted, and anyone who plays at them regularly and who will not even question why there is such a cloud of smoke screens surrounding machine regulation (obviously, because they are compelled to get their vp fix and therefore HAVE TO play at them) either resides in that comfort-giving place called Fantasyland, or they have an uncontrollable pathological gambling problem – or both.

Cruise ships are another totally off-limits place to play, and anyone who tries to make you think there are no on-ship machine biases is quite simply seriously misinformed and/or purposely misleading you because they are being paid to. If you’re the sort of person who books a cruise and for months prior to cruise day looks forward to playing video poker while aboard, you’re most probably a helpless addict. I’ve been to too many casinos all over the world to count, and I assure you, in nearly every one of them it was not difficult to determine something was up with the machines. And if you believe ANY cruise ship casinos are regulated or sanctioned by the US Government, try making believe again.

Of course, those who regularly play at Indian casinos, aboard cruise ships, or on-line will forever be in denial of the facts. And what causes this to occur? Yup, we're back to the same old problem which affects most gamblers who always likes to think it's "the other guy" - machine addiction. These people are such an easy tell simply because I've been there, I admit it time and time again, and I was lucky enough to recover from that curse before it took complete hold of my soul. Others....have been less fortunate.

As far as the machines in state-operated/regulated locations around the country, all I’m going to say is I believe they follow Nevada’s lead, which fortunately, while not nearly perfect, is still the best thing going. I had always believed the machines operated in 100% random fashion – at least up until about 4 years ago. Then, I started to gather somewhat disturbing information that apparently, even to this day, only I have tried to do. I have the time, I have the interest, and unlike those who couldn’t live with themselves if anything turned out to be different because they’d have a conflict with that which helps them justify playing far more than they should – I am far more interested in the truth about the game than I am about pretending everything is math-pure and theory-indelible.

My initial introduction to machines not being totally random came from a machine manufacturer employee telling me how the vp machines were and always have been programmed to run in mostly cold and some hot cycles, which was absolutely in-line with Nevada Gaming Commission regulations. The whiners who proclaim how the regulations just don't say that will never understand how Governmental Agencies work. If anyone thinks the public gets to see every pertinent document relating to any of their largest business deals, then they are just out of the womb. Besides normal hot/cold cycles being inherent in all human-oriented programming, these cycles were needed to keep them in compliance with the min/max payout requirements that every machine has because the regulations require it. When I released this information in a Gaming Today column, it completely ruffled the feathers on every advantage player and video poker famous name around. Hmmm...isn’t that the same thing the Undeniable Truth about ANYTHING in video poker does?

It stands to reason that anyone who’s playing a machine which just isn’t paying should move. Duh! It can’t hurt. Yet there are still a faction of advantage-play fundamentalists who want to go on thinking that changing machines means absolutely nothing, because all of them are random and you’re just on one long continuum anyway. They claim a string of many hands can be "read" as we enter the supposed "long-term". But that’s a little strange – and surprisingly contradictive – given that we all understand (and THEY all agree) that any hand dealt is totally unrelated to any that have come before or are yet to come. But these people want to continue believing they are right whenever they choose to talk out of either side of their mouths. Never underestimate the conviction of a neurotic.

Another signal the machines – as well as my gaming manufacturer employee friend – gave me 2 years ago was about machine patterns. While I am not at this time sure if these hurt or help, what I am sure about is that they exist. I profited nearly $26,000 overall last year by taking the time searching for, detecting, and trying to plot what they’re all about – and I explained it all in detail in several columns - but I lost $9000 on my last testing effort which says to me that it’s too early to determine what they really mean. As far as the critics, well, let’s just say they can’t handle this one either. I think it’s more like they don’t WANT to handle the issue because it would just be something else that would put their world on tilt.

Finally, there’s the most telling of all phenomena – the 5th card flip-over statistics. Over the years I’ve received a great many passing e-mail & in-person comments from players who’ve been telling me how weird they think it is that whenever they hold four to a straight, a flush, or hold two pair, it seems far too often they’ve been getting a flip-over. Not everyone has the aptitude to detect such things when they’re gambling, so receiving input from about a hundred different players developed real meaning when I started to pay attention to the occurrence. I began to see what they were talking about, only what good would it be without doing a true test? Naturally, if I wrote about it the critics would simply do what they always do when something “peculiar” pops up in front of their eyes associated with the vp machines: They’d claim it was selective memory - first to make it appear they had superior thinking ability; and second, because it’s always easier to brush something under the rug than to have to deal with it.

So I decided to do a serious test on the subject, which I’m 2/3’s the way through with right now. What I’ve found has surprised me but not overwhelmingly so, because I already accept that there's no such thing as a randomly programmed machine – at least in the context that the gurus and other math people want us to believe there is. (BTW—can you just IMAGINE what acknowledging that fact AND TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT IT would do to all that income they receive from a marketing philosophy based on totally random machines?)

At this point in time I’ve played and documented the testing results from 30,000 hands which have yielded about 3500 opportunities, where I play one credit of the smallest denomination I can find in multiple casinos around Nevada. While the math says that the 5th card should flip over just a little over 6% of the time, the actual result is running nearly EIGHT TIMES that! When I first brought this up, the math people were claiming I was just using my own “selective memory” which proved nothing. Then I went out and took the time to document results, so what do they do? They claim I’m, what else, “making it up” of course! Have you ever seen a group of people get more agitated from issues that rattle their little worlds, instead of using all that intellect they claim they have by taking the time to follow up my testing with testing of THEIR OWN?

They never will of course, because they just want it all to go away so they can continue on selling what they sell in order to keep them rich with gambling money. Others will pretend it just isn’t happening so they can have nothing stand in the way of their pathological gambling problems they themselves created by chasing the misrepresentation of long-term strategy. But their is one very interesting point to make here. Although I am certain the machines are not programmed in totally random fashion, based on the way most people play it is very difficult to determine if this hurts the players - and if so, to what extent. Strangely enough, I had the best year of my playing life in 2008, winning slightly over $192,000 in just 25 hours of play. And this year playing just once for 4 hours, I've won $8000. Still, I feel compelled to alert video poker players everywhere on the truth about the machines. Most probably, the majority of players will take the time to comprehend just what is going on, and while I’m still trying to determine if these uncoverings are doing any harm or not, all players everywhere really should be paying attention to this.