I have a poker game on my cell phone that I like to play on my breaks just to have something to do… Verizon Casino, if it matters.
It’s a “Jacks or Better” game, and you start out with $5000, with max. bets of $500. I have been playing for a couple of months now, occasionally winning, occasionally losing (but miraculously finding a $5000 chip on the floor when I went bust. Woo Hoo!).
In my current incarnation of the game, I have gone from the starting $5000 to $4.8 million as of a few minutes ago (my last break). This has me somewhat dubious as to the veracity of my cell phone…
So, is there a way to tell if this game is rigged? Should I just quit my day job and make my living at the casino?
Why would the game be rigged? You think Verizon has a deal with Harrah’s to give people unrealistic expectations to get them into the casino?
The simple answer is that computer simulation of poker suck. Something like blackjack is extremely simple because the dealer doesn’t make any choices. Simulating a table of real people is a ways off.
I suspect the OP is talking about video poker, a game in which the computer does not make any choices. Basically, we need more information. After all, if you play enough video poker hands, you will eventually hit a royal flush, which has a (relatively) huge payout - it’s possible this happened to the OP in this particular game, but this isn’t clear.
Based on the OPs mention of “Jacks or Better” I think it is fair to assume this is Video Poker and not a table game with simulated people.
Now I have no idea if your game is rigged or not. I’m not sure if there is a way to find out short of getting the source code for the game. However, I don’t see any reason why they would rig the game.
“Rigged” implies that the computer is pre-programmed to cheat. I suspect what the OP is really asking is whether his success playing this video poker game reflects the same level of success he’d expect playing in the casino. Clearly, the answer is no. Many free video poker games use a payout model that’s heavily slanted towards the user. Otherwise, they’d lose interest pretty quickly. Your ability to score 60 touchdowns in Tecmo Bowl or master “Black Magic Woman” on Guitar Hero doesn’t translate to the real world either.
On the other hand, video poker games inside the casino are obviously slanted heavily towards the house, but that doesn’t stop people from paying through the nose for the privilege.
As well as the OP’s mention both in the title and the post that it is a game on my cell phone.
Ah ha! I thought so… I was reluctant (based on real life) to believe that my luck was quite so good… do you have any cites? I’d be interested in reading more.
So, keep the day job, you say?
BTW: the build up to $14 million wasn’t the result of a big score like a royal flush or anything… it was gradual and took a couple of weeks. I did get a few 4 of a kinds, etc. that helped me along.
For any given casino game, a few people will win far beyond expectations for the game. The casinos like this: Those people tend to tell stories about their big wins, which makes other people think “hey, that could happen to me”, and gets many hopeful suckers into the casino. The losses the casino takes on the occasional big winner are more than balanced out by the gains from the very common losers.
Your cell phone game is based on a casino game, so it’s not surprising that it has the same payout distribution. You just happened to be one of the lucky ones who lands up in the high-winning tail. Note, of course, that this doesn’t say anything about the luck you’d have in a real-money casino game, so you’d probably end up as yet another of the nameless schmucks.
I once coded an absolutely fair version of Keno. In Keno, you have a grid of a particular size, and choose a particular number of squares within the grid. Random squares are then selected, and you win based on how many you had chosen beforehand.
There were particular patterns of squares that would consistently lose you money and others which would consistently win you money. But like I said, I’d coded it to be entirely fair. Which means that your selection of squares should be irrelevant to your chances of winning.
The problem is that the computer was using a pseudorandom number generator to figure out the final squares. Something about the generator and the size of the grid led to a numerical pattern of results that would make you win or lose if you took advantage of it. That’s not supposed to happen, but it is an accepted artifact of pseudorandom number generators. It was quite interesting to discover that it wasn’t a theoretical thing that such a pattern could emerge.
Now, I could have fixed it, but letting the user win seemed perfectly fine for a game that was fully single player. It wouldn’t really have made a difference one way or the other if it had guaranteed fair games.
That’s a HORRIBLE pay table. WizardOfOdds (for all your gambling needs) has a pay table analyzer. Using what you stated above and, using the default paytable for what you don’t know it comes out with a 30% HOUSE EDGE!!! :eek:
My guess is the game ISN’T straight up. If it were, not many would keep playing a game you’re guaranteed to lose at. My guess is it’s programed to give you more bonus hands than you would have in a real game. Either that or you just used up all the luck for the rest of your life.
Your game doesn’t resemble a casino Jacks or Better machine at all.
Professional video poker players expect to routinely lose while playing, then gain that all back and be somewhat ahead when they hit the royal flush. Being ahead after weeks of grinding without hitting a royal is not in the cards.
In standard casino style Jacks or Better, assuming correct play, you can expect to hit a royal about every 40,000 hands. Experienced players will play somewhere between 700 and 1000 hands per hour, casual players more like 300 to 500.
