Question about random card generator

[DVO]

Or whatever it's called.

My understanding is that the flop ( or turn or river) is 'plucked', for lack of a better word, when the action closes. ( My image is of a bunch of cards on a carousel, going around until it's time for the flop).

IOW, if you wait another X seconds to make a decision, it changes the flop. ( Like how slots work).

1) Is this true?
2) How 'fast' does it 'run' In other words, is a 3 second delay going to change the outcome, or 1/5 of a second, etc etc?

This is being totally results oriented, but I want to know if that flop would have been mine or not when it comes JJ7 and I folded AJ. Anyone know?

[Tapin]

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1) Is this true?

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It's a vast oversimplification of a single aspect of typical sites' RNG, but for illustrative purposes it's not the worst I've heard.

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2) How 'fast' does it 'run' In other words, is a 3 second delay going to change the outcome, or 1/5 of a second, etc etc?

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One one thousandth of a second will change the outcome, assuming it's based in part on the system clock. Of course, there are other inputs to the typical RNG that operate on sub-millisecond time intervals, so it's actually less (eg, "faster") than that.

[Nathan183]

I was under the impression that the flop, turn and river are predetermined as soon as the hole cards are dealt. In other words, it is exactly the same as a B&M game. I think it was either Stars or Party that I read this about.

[citanul]

you could just go to any of the poker sites' home pages and learn about how their specific rng works.

[MentalNomad]

The quick answer for sites suchs as Party:

No. The river card is not determined until after the last player has acted.

The tiniest timing change -- milliseconds, less than you can perceive -- would change the outcome.

In fact, even if you could replicate your table state and the state of the RNG and did the exact same timing, OTHER forces come into play which would almost certainly prevent your table from getting the same outcome.

Slightly longer answer:

Timing changes of milliseconds will change the outcome. Also, the amount of time it takes that last action to REACH the server adds randomness, because packet transfer speed is not constant on the internet. On top of that, there are thousands of other processes snatching random numbers before and after your table, and they affect the timing, too!

The slower answer:

The card is not even determined by the server where your game is played. There is a special server which constantly creates random numbers (not cards). It has very specialized processes to ensure a proper distribution of random numbers, so you can't guess the order. Also, it has several processes running on it which have no purpose other than to vary they rate of speed at which the machine runs, so you can't guess how fast the numbers are going by even IF you knew the order. Lastly, the server's speed is affected by requests for numbers which come in from all the thousands of tables playing poker.

So, when the last player at your table makes their action, the server handling your table will request a random number. The exact number you get depends on the exact timing of that request, but is shuffled in with any requests from thousands of other tables (including the play money tables) all of which may pull a number just before or just after yours.

So in the end, you can be certain that the cards dealt after you fold are NOT the cards that would be dealt if you stayed in, since your action would change the timings. (Of course, there is the teeny-tiny random chance that the same cards would be dealt, but that has nothing to do with you.)

For anyone who wants to read more about the actual RNG process: Paryt's RNG page

[RainDog]

The BIG question is, what is the effect of Quantum Theory on RNG's and card randomness? I thought about going off on a tangent here, but I'll let someone else do so should they feel inclined.