Please be the queen of spades
Dear Mark,
Why is it that every time I'm dealt one card short of the
royal flush, when I draw I never get the card I need? Just
yesterday I was dealt all but the queen of spades, and sure
enough, I got the lousy three of hearts. It makes me believe
the casino controls who and when someone hits a jackpot.
Why can't that queen of spades show up just once? Katherine
R.
What do you expect, Katherine? The queen of spades represents
Athena, the Greek goddess of war. Pull out a deck of cards
and look at her closely. She's the only armed queen in the
deck. Even Homer in the Illiad, described her as a fierce
battle goddess who continually intervened on the side of
the Greeks in the Trojan War. Expect her to arbitrate on
behalf of the casino every time.
Seriously, Katherine, I could bore you to tears by trying
to explain how the pseudo-random number generator determines
the cards you will get, but instead, I'll simply describe
the difficulties you're up against when fate blesses you
with four of the five cards needed for a royal flush.
Because there are 2,598,960 possible poker hands using a
52-card deck, you're going to feel pretty good when your
hand is one card shy of gaming ecstasy. But although the
big jackpot appears to be only one card away, your chances
are really only one in 47 or just over two percent. Another
way to visualize its difficulty is taking a thousand video
poker players lucky enough to start with your proposed hand.
A ten of spades, jack of spades, king of spades, ace of
spades and a three of hearts. Naturally, all in my controlled
group will discard the three of hearts, leaving only 21
mathematically hitting the royal flush, then 150 flushes,
128 straights, 191 high pair hands and 510 who think, like
you, the big fix is on.
Sorry, Katherine, it's just not as easy as it seems, but
keep trying. Someday Athena may look favorably on you.
Oh, yes, a final thought. In case you want to know what
the remaining better halves of the kings represent? The
queen of diamonds is Rachel, wife of Jacob and mother of
the twelve sons who founded the twelve tribes of Israel.
The queen of clubs is an anagram of Regina, signifying queen.
The queen of hearts is Judith of Bavaria, daughter-in-law
of Charlemagne. And of course, we've already met Athena.
Dear Mark,
I would like to know a little about the four suits and their
rank from highest to lowest. Does one suit on a video poker
machine rank higher than another? Joe C.
Generally no, but occasionally a casino will have a promotion
with designated video poker machines paying higher jackpots
if certain straights, flushes or royals are in a particular
suit. There are also a few video poker machines that pay
a mega-jackpot if you hit a royal flush in a predetermined
suit with cards in sequential order. (Example: 10 of Hearts,
JH, QH, KH and Ace of Hearts.) And what are the possibilities
of hitting a consecutive card royal in a prearranged suit?
Let's just say, Joe, it's easier to hit your New York state
lottery.
Now for some bar stool trivia. Though cards have existed
since the earliest Asian civilizations, France had the greatest
influence on the creation of the modern deck. They eliminated
the major arcana and combined the knight and page, reduced
the size of the deck to 52 cards and simplified the suit
symbols to red diamonds and hearts, black spades and trefoils
(clover leaves). They were produced in mass quantity after
Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1455, and
the four suits reflect the structure of the medieval society.
Hearts-priesthood; spades-nobility; clubs-peasantry; diamonds-the
wealthy merchant class.
By the way, after Gutenberg printed the 1,284-page Gutenberg
Bible on the printing press, the second impressions made
were of playing cards.
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