[Bulldog]

So – I have this question about online poker, and wondered if anyone here knew the answer.

When I play real poker, before the deal, the cards are shuffled, and in a certain order. Nothing that happens thereafter affects the order that the cards are in. The cards are revealed in the order that they occur in the pack.

Now, a random number generator determines the cards online (presumably). What I would like to know is, is the order of cards pre-determined before the deal and stored in that determined order, and revealed in the order that they are stored. OR – before each card is dealt, is a card randomly generated from those remaining?

In the second scenario, the RNG is going to produce a different number depending on how long it is given before it has to produce a card (depending on what the players do). This is profoundly different to a real game – where the order of cards is pre-determined.

While it may not make much difference mathematically, it does make a difference from a Poker existentialist point of view – and I feel I have to know the answer.