You will sometimes encounter the term “cycle” used with reference to online video poker. The term refers to the average number of hands it takes to hit a royal flush, with a common answer to the question being 40,000 hands. The idea is analogous to the number of spins it takes to hit a jackpot when playing live or online slots in NY, or elsewhere. Of course, since every video poker hand is an independent event in which the cards are dealt according to the program’s random number generator, there is no definite “cycle” or number of hands needed to hit a royal flush.
Rather, there is a probability of making a royal flush in video poker, and it differs depending on the game. For example, in Jacks or Better, the odds of making a royal flush are 1 in 40,391. That doesn’t mean you will make a royal flush if you play that many hands, though! We’re just talking probabilities.