Persnickety Play Could Make Your Day
August
21,
2009
Dear Mark: Could
you please explain how slot tournaments work?
I’m entering a $50 dollar tournament at our
casino and I was wondering if you had any
strategies on winning? Megan H.
Dear Mark: How does a Casino turn a bank of low
payout slots into VERY HIGH payout slots for a
tournament and then back again to low payout
mode without changing a computer chip inside the
machine? Harvey S.
I’ll get to your query in a second, Harvey, but
let me take a whack at Megan’s question first.
The tournament format that you are probably
playing in, Megan, is one that uses timed
sessions with machines in free-play mode,
meaning, you don't have to put any money in the
machine to play. Your up-front $50 entry fee is
your total cash outlay. A typical format
when playing free-play tournaments is to give
each player 1,000 credits and 20 minutes to play
them, per round. Each time you tap the spin
button, three credits are deducted from your
starting credits, and credits that you win are
shown on a separate meter. When time has
expired, the machine will automatically lock up
ending the play.
Any credits that you have not played will be
lost. A tournament director records each
player’s win meter at the conclusion of each
round, and the player with the most cumulated
points at the end of the tournament wins.
Your main objective, Megan, is to make use of
all your credits within the specified time
period. By not using up all your credits, you
lessen your chances of winning because players
who are Speedy-Gonzales- fast when hitting the
spin button will have more spins than you, which
makes them more likely to have more points.
Here’s the deal, Megan. The simple fact is that
no slot strategy will make you a long-term
winner at the slot machines. In spite of that
fact, in a slot tournament there just happens to
be one simple strategy: Get in as many spins as
you can. Just keep your fingers on the spin
button and get skilled at pushing it with split
second military precision. What I mean by that,
Megan, is that the machine will not spin until
the winning credits have been tallied and
displayed on the screen, so timing is
everything. You need to be prepared to push the
button instantly after your credits have been
tallied.
Another tip, Megan, is to concentrate on your
play, and your play only. Don’t be a Lookie Lou
gawking at the scores of your opponents. A few
precious seconds here or there can sometimes be
the decider on whether you advance to the next
round.
Okay, Harvey, let’s talk about that tournament
chip.
Prior to any slot tournament, a slot technician
with a tournament-mode computer chip, which
changes a machine from normal play to tournament
play, swaps each machine’s computer chip out.
Because the chips are uniform in nature, each
slot machine used in any given tournament has as
good a chance of winning as any other machine,
which insures that all participants are playing
on equal footing.
What’s important to note here, Harvey, is that
the long-term payback purposely programmed into
the tournament chip is a great deal higher than
that used in a normal slot machine chip.
Although the random number generator (RNG) stays
the same, the machines are loosened up by
changing the layout of the symbols on the
virtual reels, hence, Harvey, you’ll see those
VERY HIGH payouts at tournaments, but not with
conventional play.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Horse
sense is a good judgment which keeps horses from
betting on people.” --W.C. Fields
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