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.