Cherries can come up on the left reel 14 percent more frequently than oranges, which in turn come up 3 percent more frequently than plums. In other words, 3 percent more of the random numbers being chosen by the computer chip told the left reel to come up oranges than plums, and 14 percent more of these random numbers told the left reel to come up cherries than oranges. So the computer chip, by taking physical reality out of the game, greatly enhances the variety of games and payouts that can be offered-but it does nothing for the predictability of those outcomes.
One of the major differences between a computerized slot machine and a mechanical one is that, with the mechanical reels, all of the symbols on a reel had an equal probability of coming up. After 1,000 spins, each of the symbols on each reel should have come up about the same number of times. If a slot builder wanted one symbol to come up more often than others, it was simply put on the reel twice.
But this was clumsy. The builder could only make the symbol come up twice as often. The new computerized machines can be programmed so that one symbol comes up more frequently than another, and at any percentage of difference.
Among video slots, this selection principle is more complicated. First, you must learn the details. Once you have done this, and now understand exactly what this machine is, and how it plays and pays, then you can decide how many coins you intend to play. Your first decision should involve the number of available paylines. If the machine has five lines, then the absolute minimum must be 5 coins. If it has nine lines, then this is 9 coins. And so on. This should be automatic for any such video reel slot machine. None of these should be played with any less than the minimum 1 coin per payline. At least. Without this absolutely minimum action, you will be a loser no matter what you have learned. If you even think about playing such video reel slots for any less than this absolute minimum, then you have not learned very much. Yet. But you will. You will learn this two ways. One is the easy way, and that is to follow this advice, from the information gained here. The other is to play this way and realize that you have won, but didn’t get paid because you didn’t play at least that minimum of 1 coin per payline. Once you do this, you won’t ever forget it, and it will haunt you the rest of your life.
Not so long ago a woman was playing a nickel slot machine, which happened to have a jackpot of $500,000. It was a 3-coin machine, but she insisted on playing only 1 coin. Well, you guessed it classic slot games. She hit the Big One. Oh, but she only bet 5cent. She won $50. For that extra 10cent, she would have had half a million dollars. Stories like this are many. Is it sad? Well, no. That player was just plain ignorant. There’s no excuse for this, or anything like this, particularly with these multi-line video reel slots, where playing anything less than the minimum bet which activates all the paylines is equally ill-advised as was that woman who only played the nickel and didn’t get the big pay when she hit it.
To be continued…
Consequently, it is essential that whenever you play any of these multi spin slots, you play at the very least the minimum 1 coin per payline to activate all the paylines. However, your decisions do not end there. In addition, you should determine whether you should play the maximum coins or not. This will depend on all the other information about the machine and the game. All of this information becomes necessary when you make a decision that will cost you money. Some of these machines should never be played for less than the maximum coins allowed. This is because on these machines, you “buy-a-pay,” and therefore if you play any less than the maximum bet, you will not get the best bonuses offering a Progressive Jackpot, the best pays, the jackpots, and will not get the best payback percentage of which such a machine is capable by its play program. On other machines, which may look similar, or actually look the same, the best way to play them may be by the mere 1 coin per payline, because these machines do not offer the “extras” for maximum coin play. You have to find this out for yourself, and then judge your wager selections accordingly.
As a simple rule to follow, always play maximum coins. If you can’t afford to play maximum coins, don’t play until you can afford to do so. Otherwise, you are throwing your money away, because you will never force the casino to pay you the amounts to which you are entitled by the machine’s pay program. In all honesty, this should be automatic, and your decision already made up. However, there are times when skilled decisions can make a difference - decisions that require extensive knowledge of the game. In the end, that will be your decision, based on the abilities and skills you acquire through the information in this book, and your own abilities and playing successes.
This item is a companion to game detail selection. Once you have identified the details of what this machine is, and how it plays and pays, your next step is to decide how much you will invest. This is part of your bankroll decisions, but in this case we assume you have already settled on your bankroll for this game and now are simply judging how much to invest and how many coins, or lines, you will play.For the reel slots, this should be easy. If it’s not a 2-coin machine, with simple double-up symbols that also substitute for the other symbols, you don’t play it. And if you want to find information about game of online blackjack you can always use internet. If it is a different kind of reel slot machine, and you have determined from the Top-10 list and the other information presented here that this machine is still a viable candidate for your invest ment, then you must judge the kind of play which you will give it. If it’s a straight “doubler” machine, maybe you only want to play 1 coin. If it’s a “buy-a-pay” machine, then you will always play maximum coins. And so on, for whatever the required decision may be, based on your skills of apply-ing the knowledge you have acquired.
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Often when you see this, you will notice that the other pays on the machine don’t pay exactly as much, or in the same manner, as the machine with the bigger jackpot. Usually these differences in the top jackpot amounts are a good indicator that the game is just a bit different. The most glaring of these differences is, of course, in the top award. However, many times you will also find that the winning combinations among the rest of the pays aren’t paying the same as the other game, even when everything looks the same. Often the difference may be as simple as the game paying only left to right, while the other, better game paid both ways. Or this game may only be a five-line game, while the other was a nine-line game. Or the bonus entry structure is less frequent because the requirements aren’t set to occur as often as in the other game. Or some of the pay symbols, or bonus awards or rounds, may be missing.
There are a host of such subtle differences among these games. It is consequently very important that your machine selection also include comparisons. This will require a little legwork on your part, and some skills in observation. Among reel slots, this will be easier and faster, because you will not have to look much beyond the belly glass of the game to find out what kind of symbols it has, and what they do. Among the video slots, you will have to do more investigating. You will need to read the help and pay screens, learn the payoff and bonus structure and amounts, and then compare these to other machines of their kind, and especially to other machines that look the same. You can usually save yourself some time by first looking at the top jackpot amounts, which should give you an indication of the differences in the machine’s pay and bonus structure. But there will be no substitute for diligence and ability to apply the skills and knowledge you have acquired. Your success as a slot player will, therefore, directly depend on your abilities to do these things.
Often machines and their games can be one and the same, but some machines may have more than one game, such as multi-game video slots. Even simple single-game reel slots may have different games inside the cabinets. These games may look the same as the ones you have decided to select, but may not be. The easiest example is among reel slots which offer standard pays with the use of “double” symbols. There are many such games. Often, these games also have similar-looking symbols, but if you look closely you will notice that these are only “wild” symbols, and not the “double-up” symbols I mentioned earlier. This is also found quite frequently among similar-looking traditional slot machines which may have the “double” symbols, but on one machine they also substitute for all the other symbols, as well as double the pay, while on the other machine they may only double that pay, but not act as substitutes for other symbols. Even though these machines look absolutely identical, this is a profound difference. On the one where these “double” symbols also substitute, the pays are far more frequent and in higher values. On the other machine, where these same symbols only double but do not substitute, the pays are far less frequent and their combined value is, therefore, less.
You will find reel slots like this everywhere. This is also true of video poker games, where two identical-looking machines can have extremely different pay and play programs. Such subtle differences can be more easily seen in video poker games, and also in some reel slot game, while being much more cleverly hidden in many video slot games. Some of the video reel slots have so many pays, and combinations of pays and bonuses, that it becomes very difficult to find out exactly how these games may be different from each other. The easiest clue I can give you is to look at the top jackpot amount. For example, many of these games will show the top jackpot as 25,000 coins. The exact and identi-cal-looking machine, either elsewhere in the same casino or in another casino, may show that very same jackpot as 12,500 coins. Big difference. What does this mean? It means that at the game which offers only the 12,500-coin jackpot, you are getting less for the same risk, all other items being equal.
To be continued…
