I was wondering if you could provide assistance or redistribute to someone who is more familiar with the SS type games.

The Joker Poker this weekend had it first issue and I can assume should be easy to diagnosis.
I have played this game at least 1000 times and never had a single issue. This weekend the machine started to have a problem. I am assuming that this is a fuse as the issues are 100% related to the playfield as the Displays are perfect.
The machine boots up and does the normal recheck and allows you to place credits and start the game.
One the ball is plunged the following happens.
(1)     No power on the flippers.
(2)     The playfield is 100% dark no lights on at all.
(3)     When you start it up it has a hum for about 20 seconds and then goes silent

As a newbie on SS games I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts , Thanks in advance

I am going to point you to the obligatory read for repair:  http://www.pinrepair.com/sys1/index.htm

Thanks will attempt as I have the Joker Poker schematic, just in case ....... does anyone know a local ( Toronto ) person that does on site repair work

OK need a bit of guidance, located the main issue  on the Joker Poker and it is the fact that the 4 targets that are basically e KINGS drop targets  will not drop down.  They will drop down when the game in not on, but once started become locked into place. .The game hum’s s for 20 seconds and then it all goes dark and the humming is coming from I think is a worn out Transducer.  
Based on the below link this the part Q17     King Drop Target Reset (drives pf 2N5875)
http://stevekulpa.net/pinball/jp_sl.htm

Does anybody have suggestions … thanks in advance !

It looks like either bad pins, corrosion, and/or bad transistor(s)
on the driver board causing improper operation of the tilt relay
(under the playfield) as well as 'permanently' operating the
drop target reset coil.

The first thing to check (with the power off) are the connector pins
in the main harness between the MPU and the driver board.
Any corrosion on the MPU near the battery ? If so you probably
also have a bad cable/pins.

Then, you will need to perform the ground mod.

All of the above is documented in the http://www.pinrepair.com site
as indicated by Monkeybug above.

Cheers,
- Sylvain.