How to Win at Slots – 15 Actionable Slot Machine Tips & Tricks. For online slots nuts and enthusiasts, the flash of slots games are known for coming in a variety of themes, payouts, paylines and betting platforms, each featuring staggering arrays of winning potential ready to reward with the next big jackpot. Suppose you have a slot machine with three reels with ten symbols on each, and it only pays out when three cherries hit. The odds of winning that jackpot, as we determined earlier, is 1/1000. If we set the jackpot as $900, and charge $1 per bet, the payout percentage for that game will be 90%, or $900/$1000.
Video poker is an alternative to slot machines that offers better odds and a strategic element that slots lack. It’s superior to slots in almost every way.
The big difference between slots and video poker is the payback percentage. This is the statistic that measures how favorable a casino game’s odds are to the casino.
The higher the payback percentage is, the better the game is for the player.
For example, a game with a 99.5% payback percentage pays back – statistically, in the long run, and on average — $99.50 for every $100 you bet.
The odds for video poker are based on the odds you’d see with a standard 52-card deck of cards, so you have some knowledge of a payback percentage for the game.
You have no way of estimating the payback percentage for a slot machine game other than clocking how often the symbols appear.
But video poker games – especially bartop video poker games often offer a higher payback percentage.
What’s a bartop video poker game?
It’s just a version of video poker that’s embedded into the top of a bar instead of being in a free-standing machine that looks like a slot machine cabinet.
And sometimes bartop video poker games offer better odds than you’ll find in the rest of the casino.
Las Vegas Bartop Video Poker
Most of the bars in Las Vegas offer bartop video poker, but you’re almost certain to find bartop video poker in a bar that’s located in a Strip casino.
The pay tables vary wildly from casino to casino, though.
For example, I’ve seen reports that the bar top video poker games at the Mirage have some of the worst pay tables in the business. They’re also notoriously stingy with their free drinks for players – most casinos allow you to order almost anything you want, but the comped drinks at the Mirage come from a limited number of choices available to comped drinkers.
The Bellagio, on the other hand, has a great reputation for good pay tables on their bar top video poker games. The only drawback to these games is that they’re not as good for the low roller. The minimum bet on these games is usually $1, which means you’re probably going to need to bet $5 per hand.
You can also find good bar top video poker games at the Cosmopolitan and Harrahs.
The bars in the sports books in most of the Las Vegas casinos also often offer great video poker games with excellent comps rates.
How Does a Pay Table Work on a Bar Top Video Poker Game?
The pay tables are the most important things about bar top video poker games, and they work the same way for bartop games as they do the standalone video poker games in the casino.
The pay table is just a list of the possible final hands you can have along with how much each hand pays off. These are roughly in the same order as a standard poker hand would work.
The top prize for almost all video poker games, bartop or not, is reserved for the royal flush.
Depending on the game, the lowest paying hand might be a pair of jacks or higher. Since it pays off at even money, it’s more of a break-even outcome.
Also, it’s important to keep in mind that payouts for table games bets express their odds as x to y, but gambling machines pay off at x FOR y odds.
That’s a huge difference.
When you play a table game and make a bet, you get your original bet back if you win.
When you play a gambling machine – like a bartop video poker game – you lose the original bet even if you win – it’s deducted from your winnings.
Here’s an example:
You bet $5 on a hand of blackjack and win. You get to keep your $5 and you win $5. This means you’ve made a profit of $5. The payout odds on this hand are 1 to 1.
But you’re playing Jacks or Better video poker on a bartop game somewhere in Vegas, and you bet $5 on a hand. You get a pair of jacks, but your original $5 was forfeit when you pressed the “deal” button. Since this hand pays off at 1 for 1, you get your $5 back, but that doesn’t represent a profit.
The Pay Table on a Bar Top Video Poker Determines the Payback Percentage
The payback percentage isn’t something just randomly arrived at. It’s a statistical prediction based on the probability of getting each hand and what the payoff is for that hand.
Odds At Slot Machines
If some hands pay off more on one pay table than another, they affect the payback percentage.
This game has a payback percentage of 99.54%.
The 9 and the 6 refer to the payouts for the full house and the flush, respectively. A full house pays off at 9 for 1, and a flush pays off at 6 for 1.
A casino or saloon that wants a bigger edge over the player only adjusts the payout for those 2 hands. For example, a more common pay table on a Jacks or Better game is 8 for 1 for a full house and 5 for 1 for a flush.
This is called an 8/5 Jacks or Better game, and the payback percentage for this game is only 97.30%.
This doesn’t sound like a big difference, but let’s look at what it does to your hourly expected return rate.
The average video poker player might get in 500 hands per hour. If you’re playing a dollar machine, you’re probably betting $5 per hand, or $2500 per hour.
On a full pay, 9/6 Jacks or Better game, you’ll get an average of 99.54% of that $2500 back per hour, or $2488.50.
That’s an average loss of just $11.50.
Take the same action and apply it to the 97.3% payback percentage for the 8/5 game, and you’re looking at getting back $2432.50, which equates to a loss of $67.50 per hour.
Whenever possible, find the best pay tables for the bar top video poker games you’re trying to play.
And avoid the really bad pay tables.
Bar Top Video Poker Strategy
The payback percentages I’ve mentioned so far in this post assume that you’re making the mathematically optimal decisions for each hand. And each hand has 32 different ways you can play it, so video poker strategy might be more complicated than you expect.
Regardless of which video poker variation you’re trying, the correct strategy for it has almost certainly been created by someone. These strategies are usually presented in the form of a list of potential hands in order of desirability.
To use one of these strategy tables at a bar top video poker, compare the hand you’ve been dealt with the hands on the strategy table, starting at the top.
When you come to a listing on the strategy table that matches what’s in your hand, stop and discard the other cards.
Using the appropriate video poker strategy won’t give you an edge over the casino – not even at bartop video poker games – but it will ensure that you’re seeing the best possible payback percentage for the game.
If you ignore the appropriate strategy, you’ll probably be giving an additional 2% to 4% back to the casino.
And, as we saw when we looked at the difference between 9/6 Jacks or Better and 8/5 Jacks or Better, a couple of percentage points can have a massive effect on your loss rate per hour over time.
Can You Play Bartop Video Poker Games Online?
Since bartop video poker games are the same games as the standalone video poker games in a casino, the video poker games played online are roughly equivalent to what you’d expect.
In other words, there are no bartop-specific versions of video poker that aren’t available online.
The games are all just video poker games.
The only difference is the presentation.
Conclusion
You can have a lot of fun playing bartop video poker, and it’s cheap entertainment. The trick is to find a casino and/or bar that has bar top video poker games with respectable pay tables.
Then it’s just a matter of using the appropriate strategy for that game with that paytable.
Remember the movie National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation, when gambling fever consumes Chevy Chase’s character, Clark W. Griswold? He goes on a losing streak to beat all losing streaks while his son, Rusty, wins four cars by playing the slot machines. Maybe Clark would have done better if he had read Probability For Dummies! In this article, you discover the basic ideas behind slot machines and how they work, so that you can get past the myths and develop a strategy based on sound probability.
Understanding average payout
When casinos advertise that their slot machines pay out an average of 90 percent, the fine print they don’t want you to read says that you lose 10 cents from each dollar you put into the machines in the long term. (In probability terms, this advertisement means that your expected winnings are minus 10 cents on every dollar you spend every time the money goes through the machines.)
Suppose you start with $100 and bet a dollar at a time, for example. After inserting all $100 into the slot, 100 pulls later you’ll end up on average with $90, because you lose 10 percent of your money. If you run the $90 back through the machine, you’ll end up with 90 percent of it back, which is 0.90 x 90 = $81. If you run that amount through in 81 pulls, you’ll have $72.90 afterward (0.90 x 81 = 72.90). If you keep going for 44 rounds, on average, the money will be gone, unless you have the luck of Rusty Griswold!
How many pulls on the machine does your $100 give you at this rate? Each time you have less money to run through the machine, so you have fewer pulls left. If you insert $1 at a time, you can expect 972 total pulls in the long term with these average payouts (that’s the total pulls in 44 rounds). But keep in mind that casinos are designing slot machines to go faster and faster between spins. Some are even doing away with the handles and tokens by using digital readouts on gaming cards that you put into the machines. The faster machines can play up to 25 spins per hour, and 972 spins divided by 25 spins per minute is 38.88 minutes. You don’t have a very long time to enjoy your $100 before it’s gone!
The worst part? Casinos often advertise that their “average payouts” are even as high as 95 percent. But beware: That number applies only to certain machines, and the casinos don’t rush to tell you which ones. You really need to read or ask about the fine print before playing. You can also try to check the information on the machine to see if it lists its payouts. (Don’t expect this information to be front and center.)
Implementing a simple strategy for slots
Advice varies regarding whether you should play nickel, quarter, or dollar slot machines and whether you should max out the number of coins you bet or not (you usually get to choose between one and five coins to bet on a standard slot machine). In this section, you’ll find a few tips for getting the most bang for your buck (or nickel) when playing slot machines.
Basically, when it comes to slot machines, strategy boils down to this: Know the rules, your probability of winning, and the expected payouts; dispel any myths; and quit while you’re ahead. If you win $100, cash out $50 and play with the rest, for example. After you lose a certain amount (determined by you in advance), don’t hesitate to quit. Go to the all-you-can-eat buffet and try your luck with the casino food; odds are it’s pretty good!
Choosing among nickel, quarter, and dollar machines
The machines that have the higher denominations usually give the best payouts. So, between the nickel and quarter slots, for example, the quarter slots generally give better payouts. However, you run the risk of getting in way over your head in a hurry, so don’t bet more than you can afford to lose. The bottom line: Always choose a level that you have fun playing at and that allows you to play for your full set time limit.
Deciding how many coins to play at a time
When deciding on the number of coins you should play per spin, keep in mind that more is sometimes better. If the slot machine gives you more than two times the payout when you put in two times the number of coins, for example, you should max it out instead of playing single coins because you increase your chances of winning a bigger pot, and the expected value is higher. If the machine just gives you k times the payout for k coins, it doesn’t matter if you use the maximum number of coins. You may as well play one at a time until you can make some money and leave so your money lasts a little longer.
For example, say a quarter machine pays 10 credits for the outcome 777 when you play only a single quarter, but if you play two quarters, it gives you 25 credits for the same outcome. And if you play the maximum number of quarters (say, four), a 777 results in 1,000 credits. You can see that playing four quarters at a time gives you a better chance of winning a bigger pot in the long run (if you win, that is) compared to playing a single quarter at a time for four consecutive tries.
Bar Slot Machines
The latest slot machine sweeping the nation is the so-called “penny slot machine.” Although it professes to require only a penny for a spin, you get this rate only if you want to bet one penny at a time. The machines entice you to bet way more than one penny at a time; in fact, on some machines, you can bet more than 1,000 coins (called lines) on each spin — $10 a shot here, folks. Because these machines take any denomination of paper bill, as well as credit cards, your money can go faster on penny machines than on dollar machines because you can quickly lose track of your spendings. Pinching pennies may not be worth it after all!