Something I noticed tonight ...

In another forum zg got me thinking about the word "random" and exactly how it applies to blackjack. I imagine blackjack in the real world is random, but to achieve synthetic randomness don't we need a pattern? That is to say, something to compare and say "this thing here is random and this thing here is not random". This would be most especially crucial in online play since I question if anything that is based on a computer and the world of binary numbers can be truly random. Is it possible to try so hard to fake randomness that a pattern is created? I don't see why not.
I was playing on Starluck tonight since I wasn't up to driving to the brick and mortar casino and I swear there was a pattern to the hands. I wasn't bonus hunting, just playing some basic strategy for recreation, yet I came out $250.00 up after about 6 hours. Not huge bets, just ranging from $1.00 to $8.00 or so.
Mostly I was able to capitalize on the cards coming out in an obvious pattern of:
I win
dealer wins
I win
dealer wins
etc
When the wins are just see-sawing back and forth like that I could actually gain by manipulating my wager after every hand. I bet 5 and win, then I drop to 1 and lose, then back to 5 and win, etc. It's as though the software is trying so hard to be random that it is creating a pattern that I can exploit. Or maybe I just got lucky. I really just don't know. It was something I noticed and figured I would toss it out there.

Cipher calls these "Switchbacks". http://www.cipherblackjack.com (Archive copy)

well i think that the patterns in BJ in online games are not possible, i mean, is easy to take note of all you hands and analize it to get any pattern... (hope im wrong)

btw, im downloading the Cipher Videos to see his soft working.

Perhaps as an experiment I will try just flat betting a dollar a hand for a hundred hands and see what my total is. I will compare that to another set of a hundred hands where I flat bet a dollar a hand until I see back and forth wins begin, at which time I'll begin raising my bet to two dollars a hand after every loss.
To be honest, I suspect that the results will be almost identical.