Dear Mark, Deuces Wild is my favorite video poker game. The casino where I normally play offers only a four coin return for four-of-a-kind. You suggest finding a machine that returns five coins for four-of-a-kind. How much more of an edge am I giving the casino? Grant S. Plenty! Try six percent. With maximum coin play and perfect strategy, a five-coin return for four-of-a-kind gives you a slight edge against the house-a 100.76% return versus 94.34% if the machine returns just four coins.

Dear Mark, Recently I got my first royal flush. That was the good news. The bad news is I only had two coins in it when it hit. Would I have still gotten a royal flush had I inserted the maximum amount of coins? Jennifer G. No, but not for the reason you're probably thinking. Many, many players believe that video poker machines are programmed to avoid a royal flush because the maximum amount of coins was inserted. As stated many times in this column, machines do not operate with artificial intelligence programmed to hit royals when you have less than the maximum amount of coins in the machine. The reason you would have received a different hand, Jennifer, is because in the short amount of time it would have taken to insert the additional coins you didn't play, the machine's random number generator (RNG) would have cycled to another outcome. A video poker machines RNG will typically continue to crunch those 1s and 0s until you hit the deal button. As many as a million hands per minute. So unless you pushed the deal button at the correct millisecond, Jennifer, no, the proverbial royal flush with five coins inserted would not have appeared.

Dear Mark, The video poker card that comes with your Hooked on Winning audio cassette series states that a 2-card royal (Ace, no 10) is a more powerful hand than a 2-card royal (10, no Ace). Why is that? Barney G. A two card royal with an ace (jack of hearts, ace of hearts) is a preferable hand because if you draw an additional ace, you will get your initial wager returned for the pair of aces. Whereas if you were to draw a second 10, zilch is your payoff.

Dear Mark, With all the different types of video poker machines to select from, how's a customer to choose which machine to play? Gerry B. There are more than a hundred different video poker machines to choose from. Games like Joker Poker, Louisiana Jacks, Gator Poker, etc., offer you a supermarket selection, but all have different paytables needing distinct playing strategies. I recommend learning and limiting your play to two, like my favorites, Deuces Wild and Jacks-or-Better.

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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.

Dear Mark, Could you please explain how much the progressive meter rises on both your average slot and video poker machine? Jane B. The rate at which the meter progresses upward is based on a pre-set percentage of all the money cycled through the machine. The meter rates will vary from machine to machine, casino to casino. If you are playing an individual progressive, expect an advance rate of five to 10 percent of the money played. Example: A dollar wagered, the jackpot goes up 10¢. Machines that are tied together, like a bank (carousel) or networked slots like Megabucks or Quartermania, involve a much lower progressive rate. In return, you are provided a mega jackpot-a.k.a. big, big bucks. On your typical video poker machine, the meters rise on the average of between .25 and two percent with one percent being the industry average.