ShareIn any industry that has experienced both sustained and remarkable success over a multi-decade period, it can feel as though the stars have aligned, creating a perfect cocktail of factors that have propelled the industry into uncharted territory.
While this is certainly true for some areas of casino gaming, our focus today, video poker, has been able to find success across a multitude of different platforms, especially online, and the Fisher-Yates algorithm has played an integral role in this rise.
We're going to dive in and find out why the Fisher-Yates algorithm, despite all the innovations and forward-thinking ideas that have come since, is still considered the gold standard of fairness and arguably the biggest wheel in the cog of the global video poker market.
The Ingenuity Of The Fisher-Yates Approach
The Fisher-Yates algorithm is one of the oldest algorithms still widely used in casino gaming worldwide. First designed over 80 years ago, it was updated for computer programming languages in the mid-1960s, but the crux of the original method remained intact, as it does to this day, allowing it to move from conventional video poker terminals to the vast array of online video poker games we see in the market today.
Fair online casino video poker games use certified random number generators and virtual deck shuffling as the backbone of their design. If, for any reason, the randomness and the arbitrary nature of the shuffle are called into contention, then this could eviscerate the fabric of fair video poker games as we know them. It’s why it relies on such a proven and ironclad formula.
If you’re familiar with multiple versions of video poker, you might be surprised to learn that the Fisher-Yates algorithm plays a crucial role in ensuring fairness across the board. It doesn’t matter if you play Joker Poker, Multi-Hand Poker, or Bonus Deuces Wild; they all have very different approaches to video poker, but they are welded together by this universal algorithm.
5 Basic Steps To Understand The Fisher-Yates Algo
In its most basic form, the Fisher-Yates algorithm has 5 key principles that, despite many attempts to poke holes in it or propose alternative methods, remain the best way to ensure that cards are shuffled as randomly as possible.
Designing the algorithm or typing it up from scratch yourself is not simple. However, there is an easy way to remember this algorithm, and it provides a good framework for why it is so effective. You don’t have to be a coding expert to understand how online video poker companies engrain it into their design. Here are the five basic steps that illuminate its effectiveness:
1. Create an ordered list of numbers (cards) from 1 to N.
In the case of video poker, the numbers correlate with the exact number of cards in a deck.
2. Pick a random card.
Say – the ace of spades.
3. Move that card to a new list, as illustrated by the pile below. For illustration purposes, it’s easier to think of them as two distinct piles.
Now, you have two piles: the cards that have been picked and the ones that have yet to be picked, of which the ace of spades is the first. From a programming perspective, the algorithm is designed to pick these numbers at random and put the chosen ones into a list of their own.
4. Repeat until no new cards remain in the first pile.
As the second list grows with cards picked at random and added to it, the original list shrinks until all cards have been selected.
5. The new list is now a perfectly randomized version of the original sequence, and the selection starts again from the first step with the new list.
We have compiled the graphic below to illustrate how it applies to a deck of cards and to bring the algorithm to life, using some of the most basic programming languages to ensure the system remains resolute, fair, and, most importantly, as random as possible.
Sticking With What Works
We’ve seen so many forms of video poker emerge in the digital age. Research shows that, particularly in the US, the average age of gamers is increasing, and while there are other elements that have contributed to this, there are millions of gamers who have become familiar with the methods adopted by the
Regulation and an industry-standard auditing process are crucial to the validity of poker. We have seen how games that are driven into underground markets can be manipulated, essentially leveraged as a complex scam by those who hold the cards.
You don’t have to look far to find examples of this, but in the earliest days of video poker, we’re going back 50 years here; the Fisher-Yates algorithm was the first widespread piece of code used to ensure that cards were picked at random.
Because of this, globally renowned regulatory bodies such as eCOGRA have been able to determine how to properly monitor and verify that the Fisher-Yates algorithm has been correctly integrated into a video poker game.
As it is something they understand, and as it makes up an integral part of certification across other regulatory bodies throughout Europe, it has become the foundation of the game’s security and reiterates that, despite the fact there’s no human oversight, the simplicity and reliability of the design ensure the game is fair for all.
Providing Competition For The Conventional Game
Conventional poker is still an enormous global business. We’ve seen the incredible prize pools on offer in some of the world’s top tournaments, such as the WSOP. However, from a marketing perspective, poker remains a lucrative avenue that many casinos use to showcase their brands.
The World Series of Poker is the most prestigious tournament, but toward the latter stages of the 20th century it lost popularity, and it wasn’t until the broadcasting rights were picked up by major TV stations that its popularity surged once again.
It is a wave the industry has continued to ride, as global streaming services and social media influencers leverage their audiences, which can be in the tens of millions, to capture their own market. With some even looking to cross disciplines, such as Magnus Carlsen, who switched from elite chess to elite poker.
Within this complex web of poker options, video poker also strays across the divide. Some of the world’s top football stars have been spotted at poker tables all over the world, and for video poker to provide competition, it needs to ensure that the design's foundation is rock solid. But a version of the game often played in solitude needs to ensure it delivers in other areas, too.
However, without a clear formula demonstrating that games are fair, there would have been no version of online poker that would have taken off. By getting the basics right, working with regulators, and allowing those who know code to look under the bonnet to see how the intricacies of video poker work and how it maintains fairness, it lends legitimacy across the market.
Is There A Place For Fisher-Yates In Video Poker’s Future?
As video poker game design becomes increasingly automated and reliant on AI tools, we have seen the industry embrace a continued push toward technological advancement. With some of the world’s biggest social media sites now used as a full service to meet the full palette of poker gaming needs.
Social media remains the key battleground, and as you can see in the link above, we’re not only talking about effective algorithms. It is the basis for marketing ideas and a source of information for those looking to broaden their knowledge beyond video poker into other niches within the umbrella of the game.
However, underpinning this whole ethos is the validity and fairness of how video poker hands are dealt, and given that the Fisher-Yates algorithm has been around for over half a century, don’t expect to see it replaced anytime soon.
