- How To Play Slot Machines
- How To Pick Winning Slot Machines In A Casino
- How To Pick Slot Machines In Vegas
Introduction to Choosing Slot Machines. Once a specific casino has been determined to currently be the best of any available, choosing slot machines becomes the next step towards making a profit at slots. Remember, statistics supplied to state gaming commissions show that the odds of winning are, on average, somewhere around 90%. Typical loss limits can be 5%, 10%, 15%, or 20% — though 20% means you could lose the entire bankroll in 5 slots session. 10% to 15% is a good middle ground. Once you’ve lost that amount, walk away from the slot machine under all circumstances. The slots game is not “due” to pay out, so step away from the machine and clear your mind. In video slots with pick’em bonuses, you touch the screen to pick gift boxes, restaurant dishes, alien creatures or other game icons to reveal your bonuses. Video slots that feature pick’em bonuses usually have high hit frequencies with many small wins that give you.
New slot machine players are going to find a lot of advice for beating the slots. Have a healthy skepticism when a slots expert tells you they know how to beat the slot machines. Among the games in a casino, video slots (in general) have a high house edge. Besides finding gaming machines with high jackpots and a low house edge, no skill or strategy is required to play slots. That means you can’t expect to increase your odds of winning in most situations.
Read through the advice below to optimize your chances of winning at slots. None of the advice assures winning sessions. Instead, it helps you stretch your bankroll, so you enjoy playing the slots longer. Also, the longer your bankroll lasts, the more chances you’ll have of hitting the big jackpot every slots player wants.
Use a Slots Card
Upon entering a live casino, sign up for a slots card. This provides comps and cashback, which automatically lowers the house edge by a bit. Never play a spin without using your slots card. In an online casino, accept the highest slots bonus and play according to the terms and conditions until you meet the wagering requirement. Once again, this lowers the house edge on online slots.
Make Max Bets
Look at the payout chart on a slot machine to determine how jackpots are paid. On many slot machines, the 5-coin bet pays out a higher percentage on the top fixed jackpot. For instance, a 1-coin bet might pay $200, a 2-coin bet might pay $400, a 3-coin bet might pay $600, and a 4-coin bet might pay $800. You might expect the 5-coin bet to pay $1000, but many slot machines pay out $1200 or $1500 in that case, trying to convince bettors to make the max bet.
If the jackpot increases a bigger percentage with a maximum coin wager, then it makes sense to make the max bet on a slot machine. If the bet size is too high for your tastes, then lower the coin denomination and make a max bet at that level. Of course, if there is no additional jump between the 4-coin and 5-coin bet, then you can wager a single coin and max out the coin denomination to the bet size you like.
Read the RTP Information
If an online casino or land-based casino publishes its return-to-player information, read through the RTP percentages to find the video slots with the best RTPs. Return-to-player or expected return is the percentage of a theoretical $100 you expect to see returned to you. It is a theoretical percentage based on probability, so an RTP of 95% does not assure you’ll be paid $95 for every $100 you put in the machine. You might lose $50 or you might win $150, or you might win a progressive jackpot and go home rich.
The point of the RTP percentage is to give a player an idea of their expected return. If two slot machines sit next to one another and one has an RTP of 93% and the other an RTP of 95% (and both have similar jackpots), then it pays to play the game with the higher percentage. Over time, this leads to you maintaining a higher percentage of your bankroll.
Money Management Techniques
Read about bankroll management techniques. “Money management” or “bankroll management” is a series of steps you take to lock on winnings when good luck happens and limit your losses when a bad streak occurs. These do not assure that you’ll win, but it optimizes your bankroll.
Players should know three core bankroll management methods: percentage betting, win goals, and loss limits. Learn to calculate your bankroll and divide this into percentages. Then bet between 1% and 5% of your bankroll on any given hand, depending on your capacity for risk. This limits the amount of your stake you lose on any given session, keeping you playing for longer throughout your vacation. It is a given that people go to the ATM machine or credit card when they lose their whole bankroll — which means you spend more than you intended. The point of percentage betting is to assure your bankroll last through your whole trip, so you never have to replenish.
What Is a Bankroll?
“Bankroll” is not defined as your entire bank account. It isn’t defined as your discretionary spending budget or the money you have earmarked for entertainment expenses. Instead, it is a part of your discretionary spending cash and entertainment budget which is set aside specifically for gambling. In this case, a bankroll is less than your entertainment budget.
How To Play Slot Machines
Once you have your bankroll figured, divide this into easy to understand percentage. If you have a bankroll of $1000, then divide this into percentages. These are simple calculations, but you should have an understanding of 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, and 20% of your bankroll. In the earlier example, 1% would be $10, while 2% would be $20. 5% would be $50, 10% would be $100, and 20% would be $200.
Now that you have these, decide whether to bet 1% to 5% of your bankroll. Most experts suggest betting no more than 1% to 2% in order to maintain your bankroll throughout your casino trip or online slots session.
Setting a Win Goal
Next, set your win goal. This is the amount of winnings you set as your goal for any given slots session. If you have a win goal of 10%, then your win goal would be $100 for any given slot machine sessions. As soon as you hit that goal, you walk away from the slot machine — no matter what. A win goal is a hard-and-fast rule, because it locks in winnings. One of the biggest mistakes players make is losing back their winnings, because they think they’re on a hot streak.
Setting a Loss Limit
Even more dangerous is trying to win back cash you just loss. To protect against this tendency, set a loss limit. Once again, make this your hard-and-fast rule. Typical loss limits can be 5%, 10%, 15%, or 20% — though 20% means you could lose the entire bankroll in 5 slots session. 10% to 15% is a good middle ground. Once you’ve lost that amount, walk away from the slot machine under all circumstances. The slots game is not “due” to pay out, so step away from the machine and clear your mind.
Win goals and loss limits guard against gambler’s fallacy. Gambler’s fallacy is the idea that the law of averages assures or weight the odds in your favor. Slots use random number generators and every spin is entirely separate from the previous spin. Losing the last spin does not make it more likely you’ll win the next spin. The odds stay the same, no matter how many wins or losses in a row you’ve had.
Avoid Progressive Betting
For that reason, avoid progressive betting systems like the Martingale system, D’Alembert system, Fibonacci system, and so on. Betting experts have used computer simulations to track the progressive betting methods against flat betting (same bet each spin). Flat betting beats all of the progressive betting schemes over 1 billion spins.
Progressive betting seems like it’s working, because it leads to a lot of small winning sessions. The problem is that it also has a handful of huge losing sessions which wipe out all the wins — and then some. You can’t beat the house edge with the Martingale system, however it might look to the naked eye. The Fibonacci numbers are incredible, but they are not a magical way to beat the casino.
The reason progressive bets are bad is they increase the size of your bets (in some systems exponentially). If you start with $5 or $10 bets, a streak of bad luck has you betting hundreds of dollars on one spin. That’s busts your bankroll and leads to a “risk of ruin” — meaning you’ll lose your whole bankroll if you hit a bad luck streak. No matter what you read online, flat bets are better.
Take Breaks for Rest and Refreshments
Play when you are at your best physically and mentally. Don’t play when you’re tired or sleepy. Don’t play when you’re hungry or thirsty. Take frequent rest and restroom breaks. If you get bored, take a break and walk the casino. Play another game to change up the betting pattern.
When you are rested and engaged, you won’t have distractions that might lead to bad decisions. The idea is to have fun, so if anything is causing you to lose focus on the entertainment aspect of the game, walk away and save your bankroll.
Don’t Go on Tilt
Tilt is a concept in poker where a player makes decisions based on emotional responses instead of solid strategy. It can cost a player a lot of money if they make bets based on anything but rational decisions. While going on tilt is not a concept in slot machine gambling, every game of chance has a personal component.
In short, don’t play when you’re agitated. Take stock of your inner thoughts. If your ego or anger is causing you to make irrational decisions, take a deep breath and calm down. If that doesn’t work, walk away and clear your head. It stinks to lose a series of bets, but what stinks more is to lose a series of bigger bets when you’re trying to make up for lost bankroll.
- How to Win:Français
There are theories abound when it comes to picking the best slot machine at the casino. The most common theories relate to brick-and-mortar casinos, but we’ll also talk about choosing slots at gambling sites. Let’s start with finding a slot at a traditional establishment.
Brick-and-Mortar Casinos
Slot enthusiasts have come up with all kinds of strategies for finding the loosest or highest paying slot machines. The goal is to find machines that either pay out frequently or that are due to award a big jackpot soon.
Some of these theories include:
- Playing slot machines near busier parts of the casino
- Playing slot machines located in out-of-the-way places
- Playing slot machines after someone else left without hitting a significant payout
- Playing slot machines at certain times of day
I have some bad news. None of these theories has ever proven to be effective. One of the big problems is that casinos are not obligated to post the payout rates of their machines. There’s no way for you to walk into the casino and find a machine that is “looser” than all the others. It’s all a guessing game.
One of the most endearing myths is that slot machines become due to hit after a while. This is why some people will stalk the slots bank and wait until someone gives up without hitting a significant jackpot. Their reasoning is that the longer a machine goes without awarding a jackpot, the more likely it is to give up a big jackpot in the future.
This theory is based on an old myth called “gambler’s fallacy.” Gambler’s fallacy is the belief that certain outcomes become more likely after a string of misses. For example, it’s a common myth that if the roulette ball lands on black 5 times in a row, it’s just bound to land on red any time now.
The problem is that every spin of the slot reel (or spin of the roulette wheel) is an independent, random event. It doesn’t matter what happened in the past. Slot machines, roulette balls and decks of cards do not have memories. They don’t keep track of what happened in the past. Every new game is completely, 100% random.
Something to keep in mind is that modern slot machines aren’t powered by mechanical pulleys, levers and weights. Today’s slot machines are powered by random number generators (RNGs). Basically, these are computer algorithms that generate random numbers which are in turn used to produce a random outcome every time the reels are spun.
How To Pick Winning Slot Machines In A Casino
This kills the other theories such as putting in your coins in a certain manner, pulling the lever just right or hitting the “stop” button at just the right moment. It also means that when you see a near miss, you weren’t actually close to hitting the jackpot. The RNG determines the outcome instantly. Those near misses and reels that come to a gentle stop are just added effects for the sake of drama.
The only real form of selection you can use when playing slots is to choose between high paying jackpot machines and lower-paying games. Big jackpot games give you fewer small wins but offer the potential of a life-changing jackpot. The variance in these games is high and you’ll go home broke more often than not.
Slots with smaller jackpots tend to hit more frequently. You don’t have the allure of massive jackpots, but your odds of walking away a winner at the end of the night are better. There’s not nearly as much variance when you play these games.
Online Slots
Most of what I explained above can also be applied to online slot machines. Just like their brick-and-mortar counterparts, online slots are powered by RNGs. There are no special tricks you can use to alter the odds of hitting a winning jackpot. Online slots are 100% luck.
Online slots also give you the option between high jackpot games that hit less frequently and smaller jackpot games that hit more often. Progressive jackpot slot machines are notoriously hard to hit but when you do get lucky, it’s worth a ton of money.
Lower payout games give you a better experience in the short run as you watch your bankroll jump up and down over the course of an evening. In the end, both types of slots are about equal in terms of long term expected value. It’s just a matter of personal preference.
The best you can do is just pick a slot that’s fun to play. Even though all slots work in the same basic manner, they come in all different types and styles. You have traditional reel slots, video slots complete with storylines and even 3D slots like those found at Bovada.
It’s best to forget about getting an advantage when playing slots. Out of all the games in the casino, none of them is as much about pure chance as slot machines. Have fun, cross your fingers and remember to keep an eye on your bankroll.