Slots Hero

Online slots and slot machines are a bit tricky when it comes to your slots betting to payout chances. Naturally, a slots player would have to be tricky in return in their slots strategy to help compensate for it.

Let’s say that you are a nickel player, meaning that you wager a nickel per payline. But you are a player who likes to play with multiple coins per payline. So in effect you are more of a quarter player because you are wagering closer to a quarter on a payline.

So you would think that the online slots game or slot machine that you are playing would recognize the increased wagering, and, recognizing the increased amount of wagering, payout accordingly like a quarter slots game would.

You would be wrong in thinking that. Remember that the house wants to hang on to every little bit of an edge that they can. It does not matter that online slots and slot machines are built to have an edge to take more money than they payout.

Even though the online slots game or slot machine is able to accept larger wagers because of multiple coins, it does not mean that it will payout on a larger scale.

So what should you do in terms of your slots strategy?

For starters look at your own slots betting. How are you betting? You say you are a nickel player, but you are wagering five nickels per payline, which is actually wagering a quarter per payline instead.

Look at your total bet per payline. If the number of coins you are betting has you betting a quarter per payline then you are not a nickel player. You are a quarter player.

And you want that quarter payout scale you will not find it betting multiple coins on a nickel slots game. But you will find that payout scale on a quarter machine while only wagering one quarter per payline.

The point is that you have to adjust your thinking about your own slots betting in order to proper work out your slots strategy. This means, in terms of slots strategy, looking at your slots betting and what you are betting in total per line rather than what coin you are betting.

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Progressive betting is big in online casino games and it is used by a great many players. For many, especially for those who are new to playing online casino games, a progressive betting system has the feeling of having a strategy, hence the draw they have.

For online slots players there really are not any strategies that can really be used for slots games. This is because online slots are games of chance, meaning that there is no way for the player to influence the outcome of a round.

Without a way to really influence the game players turn to betting strategies in an attempt to feel like they are influencing the game. Or they try decking the computers out with lucky things in hopes of winning a jackpot.

Unfortunately players mistake progressive betting systems as a slots strategy.

For one thing progressive betting systems are not limited to online slots—they are used across the board of casino games.

But the big things is that progressive betting systems are not strategy. And in a game like slots, players can lose a lot of money fast.

A typical progressive betting system will have players placing their original bet, and then doubling it every time they lose.

For online slots, in an example, we’ll say that you are playing a twenty five payline game at $0.01 per payline for $0.25 per spin. If you lose that fist spin, your next wager will be $0.50. Lose that second spin and you then wager $1. And then $2. And then $4.

You can see how this goes. Since players tend to lose more spins of the reels than they win, you can see how a player could lose money very quickly.

This is why you want to avoid using a progressive betting system when playing online slots. If you want to create a slots strategy for betting control stick with flat betting.

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I often come across some commonly asked questions in relation to slots and slots strategy. Probably two of the most common inquiries is whether there is a way to tell when an online slots game is going to give up its jackpot or which online slots game pays better than the rest.

In regards to the first question, imagine that you could log in to your player account at your favorite online casino. You then click over to the list of online slots games, and you start checking on this one and that one. Finally you find one, make a few wagers and you have enough to pay all your bills this month and some left over. Naturally the leftover bit goes back into the slots game.

Sound too good to be true? Well it is.

Unfortunately there is no indicator that lets players know when an online slots jackpot will drop. If there were people would be playing all the time, there would be no incentive to work, and online casinos would run out of money and then close. And then you would have to work.

The thing to remember is that while an indicator would be nice, these are games of chance, not ATMs. They are meant to be played. And maybe you will win and maybe you will not. That is the point of a game of chance. And slots are the king of games of chance.

As for the second question about knowing if one online slots game pays more than the rest, there is a bit of an answer for that one.

Online slots games have payout percentages. A game’s payout percentage tells the player how much of the total wagers made by all players is paid back to players in winnings and how much goes to the online casino.

For example, if an online slots game has a payout percentage of say 90%, it means that 90% of the total wagers is paid out in winnings and 10% is kept by the casino.

But here is the thing with payout percentages. They do NOT mean that 90% of your own wagers is paid back to you. It just means that 90% is paid out in total.

The percentage that is paid back to players could come in the form of lots of little payouts or several large payouts.

Generally the higher the payout percentage the more that online slots game pays back. As part of a slots strategy, players can do a bit of research and find an online slots game with a high payout percentage and play that game.

But keep in mind—and in your slots strategy—that it does not necessarily mean that you will be the recipient of the entire percentage. Above all online slots games are games of chance—all you can do is make your wager, set the reels to spinning and hope for the best.

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The more and more online slots games I see being released, the more I see with an increased number of paylines.

When I first started writing about slots many of the new online slots only had twenty paylines.

Then within the last year or so I have seen the number increase to twenty five. And really that is not too big of an increase. If you are wagering $0.01 per payline, it makes a spin cost $0.25 instead of $0.20. So you get four spins per dollar instead of five.

But with the release of some of the new online slots games in July I noticed that several had forty paylines and there have been a couple with one hundred paylines so far this year. Again, at $0.01 per payline, that makes a spin cost $0.40 and $1 respectively.

This is where you online slots strategy comes in to play.

The point of strategy in the case of online slots is to keep you from losing money too quickly. Key points in online strategy are to do a little research and find the online slots game with the highest payout percentage. Also, stop spinning the reels as fast as you—this is not a race! Unless you are racing to lose your money.

So, online slots strategy for paylines. Obviously the more paylines a game has the more it costs per spin. Oh sure, you could choose not to play all of the paylines but that defeats the purpose of having all those paylines.

The best that you can do in terms of slots strategy and paylines is stick to the online slots games with twenty or twenty five paylines.

Such games still offer the features players like to see in online slots games (bonus games, free spins, wilds and scatters), but the number of paylines will not eat into your bankroll too quickly. And that is the point of online slots strategy—to save your bankroll so that you can keep on enjoying the game and maybe hit it big.

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This myth is one that every single slots player encounters: the near miss. I say myth because what has started as a myth has actually worked its way into slots strategy.

And no slots player is untouched by this. Does not matter if you play online slots games or slot machines in a casino, you will have encountered this scenario:

You are sitting in front of your computer playing your favorite online slots game or are perched on the edge of your seat in front of a slot machine. This is a five reel game and you land four of the jackpot symbols on a payline. And that needed fifth symbol is only one space above the payline you need it to be on.

This is known as the near miss.

The near miss works its way into a slots slot strategy because it is believed that a slots game or a slot machine has a near miss when it is almost ready to make a jackpot payout. This, in terms of slot strategy, translates to ‘keep playing.’

But this near miss idea that a slots game or slot machine is almost ready to payout is a myth. Just because a near miss occurs does not mean that a jackpot is near. It is merely a near miss. Your odds of winning do not increase when a near miss occurs.

So what causes the excitement and the drive to keep playing?

The answer lies in the slot player’s brain. The near miss creates a stimulation in brain activity in the regions of the brain that is responsible to reactions to rewards. With more blood in that area of the brain, the player’s drive to keep playing in increased.

The player will unconsciously seek a reason for the heightened excitement, coming up with the idea that the slots game or slot machine must be almost ready to payout a jackpot. But that reasoning is a slots myth.

Still, the myth over time becomes a part of some players’ slot strategy so that when a near miss occurs they will keep spinning the reels.

What the smart slots player needs to understand is that a near miss is just a near miss and does not signify anything. Keeping that thought in mind when you experience a near miss will allow your strategy to shift a bit—to understanding that it does not mean anything.

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Part of the allure of online slots and slot machines is the huge jackpot offered by those casino games. These huge jackpots come from progressive online slots games and progressive slot machines. There is a bit of strategy, so to speak, to keep in mind when you gear yourself up to tackle playing for a progressive jackpot.

First off a summary of what a progressive slots game or slot machine is. Online slots games that feature a progressive jackpot are all linked together. Players who play that particular game are playing into that jackpot, which grows the more and more players play that game.

An online slots game that offers a progressive jackpot can run one of two ways. If the online casino that offers the game is not tied to any other online casino—meaning that its parent group does not own any other online casinos or have that online casino linked to others—then the only players who are paying into the progressive jackpot are those within that online casino. Anyone who plays pays in.

If the online casino offering the progressive slots game is tied to a sister site then anyone on any of the sites that offers that progressive slots game will be paying into it when they play.

So keep in mind whether the online casino you play at is linked to sister sites or not. The fewer players that are paying, in the better your chances of hitting the progressive jackpot on that online slots game—add that to your online slots strategy.

As for progressive slots machines, they are much easier to explain. When you see an offering for a progressive jackpot you will see it on a sign over a bank of slot machines. All of those slot machines are linked together so that anyone who is playing them is paying into the progressive jackpot.

Now for progressive slots strategy.

Typically when you play a progressive slots game you must bet the maximum in order for you to have a chance of hitting the progressive. If the maximum wager is not required then entry into the progressive pool is gained by a side bet.

If you are not going to be betting the maximum or making the side bet, do not play. Without making the required wager you are not in the running to hit the jackpot. And if you are not in the running there is no point in playing the slot machine or the online slots game.

For your progressive strategy understand and be prepared and then actually carry out making the maximum wager or the side bet. The whole point of playing is for the progressive jackpot. What is the point of playing if you are not going to make the entry wagers?

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Not everything is how it appears when it comes to slot machines. Initially they might seem like they are easy to read. All you really need to know is what the payouts are right?

Appearances can be on the deceiving side actually. And that is one of the downfalls in a player’s slots strategy. How can slot machines be one of those cases of ‘more than meets the eye?’

For one thing you do not want to base your decision to play a slot machine purely on its payout table. Work this into your slots strategy.

Let’s take a look at two example slot machines. And keep that above adage for your slots strategy in mind. Both machines have the same payout percentage of 95%.

For our first slot machine we are going to call it Little Winner. It is a $1 slot machine with payouts of $1, $10, $100 and $1,000.

The other slot machine we are going to call Big Winner. This is a $2 slot machine with these four payouts: $2, $20, $200 and $2,000.

The player with the almost non-existent slots strategy would think “Hey, I can wager $2 and win $2,000, which is a $1,000 more than if I were to play the $1 slot machine.”

In the above slots strategy the player makes his playing choice based on the payout table, believing that he should go with the slot machine that will give him the higher payout.

But here is what he does not know about slot machines: The probabilities on these two machines have been set differently. The probabilities of a slot machine are the chances of each winning combination being landed. The probabilities can be set differently and the payout percentage will not be affected.

Little Winner’s probabilities are set with 0.05% for $1,000, 0.24% for $100, 1.22% for $10 and 9.75% for $1 with losses at 88.74%. Big Winner looks like this: 0.02% for $2,000, 0.12% for $200, 0.61% for $20 and 4.62% for $2 with losses at 94.62%.

In summary, adding up the math, Little Winner has a hit rate of 11.26% while Big Winner has a hit rate of 5.38%. When comparing the corresponding payouts you will notice that the payouts on Big Winner are about twice as hard to land.

While a slots player is not able to know what the probability is on a slot machine, the whole point is to not immediately assume that the machine that has the highest payout is the machine to play. As we can see in the example, the player that assumed that would have lost more than the player who spins the reels on Little Winner.

Assuming is one of the things you do not want to base your slots strategy on.

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So earlier I discussed what the payout percentage of an online slots game actually means. In short, it is just the amount of the total wagers made by all of players of that particular online slots game that is paid back to the players.

Note that I said ‘players’ and not ‘player.’ Just because you put money in does not mean that you will get money out. An online slots game’s payout percentage applies to all the players who are playing; it is not how much you are going to receive back.

So what does this mean for you and how does payout percentage factor into slots strategy?

Wait! There is no slots strategy!

True, there is no actual strategy for an online slots game. Strategy is something used to affect the outcome of the game, and there is nothing that can do that for an online slots game. However, you can take an online slots game’s payout percentage and be a smarter player.

While payout percentage does not in any way dictate the amount of money you could win or lose to a slots game, it can help reduce your chances somewhat of losing money.

Here is the situation: you have the choice of playing one of two online slots games; one has a payout percentage of 92% and the other has a payout percentage of 96%. Which one do you play?

You would play the one with the 96% payout percentage. It does not mean that you are going to receive 96% of that game’s payouts. However, it does return 4% more of the total amount of wagers made on it.

Game One, for example, would only return $92,000 of $100,000 while Game Two would return $96,000 of $100,000. That means that Game Two is paying back $4,000 more than Game One. And that $4,000 has to be received by someone. It might go to one player in a jackpot or it might be paid out in little payouts here and there.

The point is that it is paying back more than the other game. So the smart online slots player would play the online slots game that is paying back the most on the grounds that he might be paid more money. The key word there is ‘might.’

A higher payout percentage does not guarantee that an online slots player will receive more, only that there is more money being paid back. And it just makes more sense to play the game that is paying back more.

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Slots tournaments can be a lot of fun regardless of whether you are playing in one in a brick and mortar casino or in an online slots tournament. There is a certain competitive feeling to slots tournaments that players enjoy.

Another benefit is that, because slots are games of chance, each player is evenly matched. Players who compete in a slots tournament have more confidence going into the tournament than those who compete in table game tournaments. This is because table games like blackjack and poker require skills to excel at, whereas with slots it is just a matter of hitting Spin.

But slots tournaments can seem deceptively easy to play in, which allows for slots players to get carried away with playing in them. This is true for slots tournaments in brick and mortar casinos and for online slots tournaments.

So you will want to go into a slots tournament with a bit of a strategy. Strategy will not change your odds of winning the tournament; it can help you to keep control of how much money you are spending on the tournament.

Tournaments have an entry fee that players must pay to play in the tournament. The entry fee gets players into the tournament and gives them a tournament playing balance. Players do not use their money for their playing balance—they only need to pay the entry fee.

But should a player lose all of their tournament balance rebuys are available. A rebuy is like a recharge. For a small fee, usually around but not more than half of the entry fee, players can have another tournament balance, usually the same amount as the starting amount.

Now here’s where the slots tournament strategy comes in. Remember that overall, slots games are designed to take a player’s money over time rather than pay out. So it is likely that you will probably need a rebuy.

What you have to decide is how much you want to invest in a slots tournament. Do you only want to invest the cost of the entry fee? Or are you willing to purchase rebuys?

Players are only out the cost of their entry fee and rebuys they purchase if they lose the tournament. You have to set a limit on how much you are willing to invest in a tournament. Look at the prize pool—is it low or high. A higher prize pool might be worth a bigger investment, meaning the entry fee and several rebuys.

Always think of your investment as how much money you are comfortable spending on a slots tournament. Say you only want to spend $25 on one tournament, and the entry fee is $10; that gives you entry into the tournament and enough for three rebuys.

Set a limit for yourself on how much you are going to spend and do not go over it. If you are not in a good place when you have run your tournament balance out, walk away from the tournament. Do not get in the ‘Just one more’ habit. It can lead to money troubles down the road for you. Set a limit and stick with it.

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When playing a slots game, be it a game on a slot machine or an online slots game, your game is wrapped up in the spinning of the reels. This is where your odds are. Some slots players feel that the rate at which they are spinning the reels on a slots game can have an effect on their slots odds. Other players feel that the number of spins affects their chances of hitting a bonus. But the truth is that both of these ‘slots strategies’ are false.

First let’s take a look at the pace of playing. The pace of play is the rate of spinning the reels on a slots game within a given time frame. In short, the number of spins per hour.

Your rate of play does in fact factor into your slots strategy, but perhaps not in the way you might think.

Some slots players believe that their rate of play can actually change the odds of winning a spin. Such as playing more spins when a slots game is hot will increase the odds of winning more spins. Conversely, playing at a slower rate will increase their chances of winning a spin when a slots game is cold.

In truth, neither of these is true. The rate at which you spin the reels does not affect the actual odds of winning a spin. It does have an impact on your bankroll though.

So rate of play does factor in to your slots strategy in that the faster you spin the reels, the quicker you stand to play through your bankroll, which has a negative impact on your slots odds since odds are about making money and keeping it.

As for the number of spins you make increasing your odds of hitting a bonus, that is also not true.

Let’s say that a bonus has an average of hitting every 150 spins. You have a 1 in 150 chance of hitting a bonus. On the next spin you have the same 1 in 150 chance.

A bonus will not be triggered every 150th spin. It is an average so it is not exact. Each spin you make does not count down to a bonus trigger, ergo increasing your chances each spin. Your odds of triggering, in this example, will always be 1 in 150.

Keep this in mind when you are playing a slots game. Your rate of play only affects your slots odds in terms of your bankroll, not your chances of winning a spin. And your odds of triggering a bonus are the same on every spin.

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