Slots Hero

So many paylines to choose from! How can an online slots player choose which ones to wager on? Are there some that are better to wager on, that have better odds?

In all truth there is no payline that has better odds than any of the other paylines. A diagonal or a horizontal is no different in terms of odds from one that dips. The odds of an online slots game come from how many symbols are on a virtual reel—or how many possibilities there are of a symbol coming up on the display at the end of a spin from the RNG.

So if all of the paylines on an online slots game are not any different when it comes to their odds, how does an online slots player choose which ones to wager on?

The answer is surprisingly simple. Wager on all of them. Wagering on all of them will cover all possibilities where a winning combination could land. If a winning combination comes up on the reels and that payline does not have a wager on it (also known as being inactive) the online slots player will not receive that payout.

I do not know about you, but I have the kind of luck that if I were to leave a payline inactive, the jackpot combination would land on that inactive payline. It is because of instances such as that that makes it worth keeping all paylines active with a wager on them. It also stands to reason to keep the wager on each payline equal—think of it as maximizing paylines. I will talk more about that this afternoon.

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Slots are a very exciting game. The spinning, the noises, the flashing images, the payouts. It is easy to see how many players get caught up in the action and the excitement. And what happens when you get excited? You speed up.

An increase in speed is not a good thing when it comes to playing slots. This is not a race. There are no other players to beat to the finish line.

Also? Spinning the reels as fast as you can is not going to trigger a jackpot. Again, you are not racing other players to the prize. Speed is not going to make the jackpot come.

However, speed will run through your bankroll faster.

That is the only thing that increasing or maintaining a high spin rate will do. Considering that slots games are designed to take your money over time, it only makes sense that the faster you spin the faster your bankroll will be gone.

Think about it for a moment. If you speed up the time it takes to play through your bankroll, you will be done playing in a shorter amount of time. A high spin rate is bad slots wagering.

A high spin rate does nothing good to your odds. It drives the house edge up because they are acquiring your money faster. That is what house edge is based on, the house’s ability to take your money. And any slots player worth their bankroll will not take actions to drive the house edge up for themselves.

Rather than playing the reels as fast as you can, slow down. Enjoy the show that slots games put on with their animations, movie clips and music. Treat it as the entertainment experience that it is rather than a raving race to the end.

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Yesterday I talked about the hit frequency of slots games. Mostly I talked a little bit about what hit frequency was for a slots game as compared to payout percentage since a lot of slots players either confuse the two or think that hit frequency and payout percentage are the same thing.

But the question becomes how does knowing a slots game’s hit frequency impact a player’s slots strategy?

Like how payout percentage can help a player determine which slots game they would like to play based on how much of its total wagers. Similar to how slots players can use the payout percentage of a slots game to determine whether or not they want to play it, they can use the hit frequency to choose as well.

We will call this choosing a slots game strategy.

Hit frequency is how often a slots game hits. The greater the hit frequency the more often it make a payout. Conversely, the lower the hit frequency of a slots game the fewer times it will make a payout.

But here is the downside: all you as a player know is the frequency the slots game hits; you do not know exactly how often it will hit. It could hit several times in a row or there could be long periods of time between hits. There is also no indication of the kinds of payouts the slots game will issue or how much it returns. The payout percentage gives an impression of how much, but not the likelihood of a hitting.

The strategy here is to choose a slots game with the highest hit frequency possible. Using that strategy to choose a slots game means that you are more like to receive hits on a slots game, although such a strategy does not tell you what kind of hits you will get—only that you are more likely to hit more.

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There is some speculation about hit frequency and higher payout percentage in slots games.

Some players believe a slots game’s hit frequency to be the same thing as its payout percentage.

This is not correct, and if you stop and think about it, it is immediately apparent.

Say a slots game has a payout percentage of 95%. If we go with the idea that payout percentage and hit frequency are the same thing, then that would mean the slots game in question has a hit frequency of 95%, meaning that it hits 95% of the time.

If that were the case then that would be the busiest slots game in history. If it were an online slots game the server the game was stored on would be overloaded and no one could play. And if it were a slot machine then it would have a line out the door and down the street.

Hit frequency is the likelihood of a slots game issuing a payout. Generally speaking the higher a hit frequency is the more often the slots game hits, but the payout tend to be smaller; while a slots game with a lower hit frequency is likely to issue larger payouts but less often.

Just to compare, payout percentage is the total amount of wagers taken in by the slots game in a given time period, usually a month, which is then paid out in winnings. So a slots game with a 95% payout percentage will payout 95% of the wagers it takes in. That could be in large amounts or small amounts. But the size of a payout does not matter in payout percentage—only the total amount paid out.

When think about what hit frequency is versus what payout percentage is, it is easier to see how the two are totally different. Just because a slots game has a high payout percentage does not mean it hits often. Keep that in mind.

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It never fails to surprise me that online slots players are constantly trying to come up with slots strategies to beat the game, to try to work some bit of odds out of the machine. It is like slot machine wrangling.

The slots strategy I heard about most recently was about paylines and a trick on how to wager them to make the most money off of a slots game.

This slots strategy is proposed with the idea that it could be used on video slot machines and on online slots games—pretty much any slots game with multiple paylines.

Depending upon the number of total paylines, the slots player wagers only on every fifth or tenth payline. While it was not explained what totals will need every fifth or every tenth, I am going to assume that the more paylines a slots game has, the more inclined to wagering on every tenth line the player should be.

The theory on this slots strategy is that the slots game is going to payout no matter what, so wagering on fewer paylines will allow you to wagering more money per each line chosen, and that will make the most of the multipliers on winning combinations on an active payline.

The problem is that just because the player is ignoring the other paylines does not mean that the slot machine or online slots game is too.

By that I mean this so-called slots strategy is causing the slots player to miss out entirely on the winning combinations that would land on the other inactive paylines. This comes down to the realization that pay outs are being missed. They might be smaller, but it is to my thinking that some is better than none.

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Lots of shiny money. Dollar signs. A new life. That is the lure of progressive slots.

I am sure you are wondering how I am making a connection between a life changing amount of money and progressive slots. Well, there is a connection and it is one that I would warn you of.

In order to be eligible to trigger a progressive jackpot, you need to be wagering the maximum amount on a spin. And not every slots player knows that. Online casinos and casinos in general will make it known, but they are not going to put up a huge, red-letter sign. They want their money. And they can get through progressives by allowing players to not wager the maximum and not informing them. Yet they will not hide that you need to be wagering the maximum in order to trigger the jackpot.

In other words, they will let the ignorant be ignorant and let the informed max out their wagers. They will still take in more money than they will pay out in the progressive jackpot.

So you could have Joe Bob over there spinning away at a penny a payline on a progressive slots game, and he will not be eligible to trigger the jackpot. But his money will still be taken nonetheless.

And while online casinos and casinos will still gladly take the money of a player who is playing in a way that is not making him eligible yet knowing that the player is still hoping to win, it makes me mad. I think it should be very openly declared that the only way you stand a shot of triggering a progressive jackpot is to wager the maximum.

If it is openly declared then those that are wagering $25 or $50 a spin are doing so knowingly. And honestly, the casinos are still going to make their money off of high stakes play, so why string along someone like Joe Bob.

If you are going to play a progressive slots game for low stakes, play it because you like the slots game. But do not wager low stakes on a progressive in hopes of triggering it. Progressive jackpots are triggered by those wagering the maximum.

And I always say to play the slots games you like because you like them—number one point for a slots strategy I think.

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Slots games are known to have paylines. Over the years the number of paylines has increased so that a range is offered to players ranges from a single payline up to one hundred. That range is even available to players who play online slots.

But there is a new way to play online slots games that just might be surpassing paylines. It is a feature known as 243 ways to win.

The way this feature works in online slots games is that there are no paylines for players to have to choose from to play—although the majority of slots players play all of the paylines anyway. All 243 ways are active and all a player needs to do is set the amount of money they wish to wager on a spin.

With paylines a player wins only when symbols line up on an active payline.

But since there are no paylines to worry about, the way a slots player wins is for symbols to land on consecutive reels.

Say for example that there is a symbol in the game you are playing that is a Star. A player must land a Star somewhere on the first reel, somewhere on the second and somewhere on the third to receive that symbol’s minimum payout.

The symbols do not necessarily have to be next to each other like they would typically need to be in an online slots game. Simply on consecutive reels.

This generally opens up more opportunities to win. Think about it. If, on consecutive reels, the same symbol lands at the top of the first reel and at the bottom of the second reel and in the middle of the third reel, it will not usually payout as not all of those symbols are the same payline.

But if the same symbol were to land in those places in 243 ways to win online slots game the player would receive a payout.

Online slots players are understanding this, and software developers are beginning to pick up on this, especially Microgaming it seems. As a result players are seeing more and more online slots games launched with the 243 ways to win feature. And this is a good thing.

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I have heard some disparaging things about slots games and slots players. Specifically the players. Popular belief is that slots players are too stupid to understand that there is no such thing as slots strategy.

I have to disagree. We know very well that short of actually breaking or hacking into an online slots game or a slot machine, there is nothing that we can do to impact the outcome of a spin of the reels or land the jackpot. Okay, true, there are those some players that really do believe that a particular shirt or statue will influence the reels. But is that really so different than believing that walking under a ladder is give you bad luck? No, I did not think so.

But back to slots strategy and the lack thereof.

What a good many ignorant folk are seeing and mistaking for misguided slots players trying to find a slots strategy are actually shrewd players who are looking for ways to make the most of their bankrolls to make the fun of playing the slots last.

Yes, we know that the likelihood of winning a life-changing jackpot is slim. We play the slots because we enjoy them. They are easy to play and can be a nice way to unwind after a crummy day at the office.

And because we enjoy slots as a form of entertainment, we will examine ways to make our bankrolls last. Some slots players will look at betting strategies. Others will examine methods of betting—the number of paylines versus the number of coins per payline.

And for the slots players that find a betting strategy that works we can sit for hours spinning the reels of our favorite slots games while the hot to trot poker player who wagered high too fast lost his bankroll. For those nay-sayers who denounce slots players as simpletons, we will be waving goodnight to you as you stroll out of the casino empty handed as we continue to play. Think of that the next time someone says your favorite slots game is dumb.

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I am not going to say that payout percentages for slots games do not exist. They are not the Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy—although I am sure there are slots games with those themes out there somewhere. Payout percentages very much do exist.

However, players have a misconception of what they are for.

Well, a half misconception.

Players understand that a slots game with a payout percentage of 96% means that it pays out 96% of the money it brings in through wagers. That part is correct. The break down happens in the next part.

See a good many misinformed players believe that the payout percentage is how much they can expect back from the slots game. In other words that a player can expect to receive 96% of their wagers back.

That is the incorrect part.

Payout percentages are about the total amount that a slots game payouts from the total amount of wagers it takes in. So say a slots game takes in $100,000 in wagers from all of its players, if it has a payout percentage of 96%, it means that this particular slots game will make $96,000 in payouts in total.

That $96,000 will not go to one player. It will be dispersed in little and big payouts so that if you were to add up all of the payouts, big and small, that all the players received in that month it would total $96,000.

So now that we have learned that payout percentages are not for determining who much you can expect from a slots game—there is no way to tell how much a slots game is going to pay you—I will discuss what you can use payout percentages for this afternoon.

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and it is time to give thanks to the good things in our lives. So here is to being thankful to slots.

One of the things that I am thankful for slots for is the graphics and the themes that make each slots game its own little entity. It is the graphics and themes that make slots games as entertaining as they are. I cannot imagine playing a random number type of outcome game of chance without the lights and colors and sounds.

I am also thankful for how easy it is to play slots games. I do not have to worry about remembering any rules. All you need to do to play a slots game is set your wager and press Spin. That is all there is to it. This makes it easy to come home from work and spin the reels while watching a TV show or the like.

Another thing that I am thankful for is that slots do not have any strategy to worry about learning or practicing. They are played the same way every time. And with no way to impact the outcome of a spin, slots strategy is just unnecessary. So one less thing to have to worry about.

Then there is the ability to sit down and start playing a slots game for the first time without having to wonder if I was doing it right or wrong. Slots are a good game to wade into the world of casino games with.

And then there is the feeling of winning. It almost comes as a surprise and you cannot quite believe it when it happens. But there it is—the feeling of winning.

I am thankful for the entertainment and east that slots games offer. It is what makes them my favorite casino game.

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