Basic Strategy: Slot Machines Strategy

When picking a slot machine to play, always look for one with a “progressive jackpot” – this jackpot will take one of two forms.

True Progressive – This machine will have an electronic display on top showing the value of the jackpot. It's usually really big, thousands, sometimes even over a million dollars. Every time someone plays that slot machine, the progressive prize value goes up by a few cents.

Big Prize – These machines are usually clustered around a display featuring an expensive car or other large and valuable prize.

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In either case, if you are playing one of these machines and hit the best possible combination; on the Double Diamond machine we played earlier, it would be 3 Double Diamonds on the pay line – not only do you get the standard payoff, but you win the progressive prize as well.

Not all slots offer a progressive prize, but you can see it is foolish to play one that doesn't. We know the odds of hitting a big combination are very small, but if it happens, we want to win hundreds of thousands of dollars, not just a few hundred.

Also, we're going to pick our machine based on location. Remember how we talked about “loose” slot machines? Casinos are more likely to put machines like this near well-traveled aisles through the game room, and especially on corners. Why? Because they want people to be seen winning because it encourages other gamblers to spend their money. More people will see a win if it happens up front rather than back in a corner somewhere.

If you're serious about winning at slots, consider giving one of the cocktail waitresses a big tip as you ask her what the best slots in her area are. These women spend all day working in an area and probably have a good feel for which machines pay out most often. Make her happy and she'll probably point you in the right direction.

Finally, don't forget your comp card . Comps, short for “compensation” are designed to enhance your gaming experience. Every casino will offer you one of these little plastic cards. Place it in the designated slot on any machine, and it will keep count of how much you play. The casino will reward you for playing a lot with points that can be used for free food, room discounts, etc. They may also offer you free vouchers if you've had a very bad run of luck, because they want you to feel good about your visit and come play again. This is another reason to select a casino/hotel that you are comfortable with and become a regular guest. Play where you stay is the best advice for accumulating a lot of free goodies with your comp card.

 

Summary

Let's review. We know the basics of operating any slot machine and are aware that all slots are games of negative expectation ; that is, if we play for long enough, the house will always win.

However, we've seen that by strategically picking our machine, using our comp card, chatting up the cocktail waitresses and playing only progressive slots, we can increase our chances of a big win in the short run.

And that's the big key; we're going to try to make our money quickly on a slot machine; once we've hit one payout, or several mid-sized ones, we probably want to walk away from the machine with bulging pockets.

Otherwise, statistics tell us that we'll end up losing it all back and paying the casino for those “free” drinks.

 

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