Why play online pokies?
If you’ve come this far, you’re probably already on board with online pokies as the best way to game, but just in case you need a little convincing, read on. There are a lot of similarities between real world poker machines and online ones, but there are also a lot of differences, and it’s these reasons that many players indicate that online poker machine gaming is their preferred choice. Here are a few of these reasons and then see if you’re not convinced.
Convenience
This one’s pretty obvious. You don’t have to leave your house. An online casino is literally just a few clicks away. You can play in the comfort of your own living room, in your pyjamas if you want. You can play anytime that suits you, and for as long as you want. You can play in between household chores, or over a few beers in the evening. In fact, you don’t even have to be at home! You can play anywhere you can connect a computer to the internet. You don’t have to line up at cashiers desks, or deal with the pressure and annoyance of other people in your space while you’re trying to gamble sensibly. In this age of work and family and stress and busyness, many people often have to miss out on their preferred means of relaxing. With the convenience of online pokies, you can make sure you don’t have to be one of those people.
Price
Being able to stay at home and avoid travel to get to the casino saves you money. You save on driving into town, parking, and paying for food and drinks at inflated prices. Saving all this money means when you win, you win even bigger!
Privacy
Playing poker machines online means you can play in absolute anonimity. You can play whatever game you like on, in whatever way you want, with noone else knowing. Obviously poker machines in pubs and bars and casinos can’t offer this.
Practise
If you are playing poker machines at an online casino, you have the chance to play the games (and in fact not just the poker games – you can play al of the games) for FREE. This is an incredibly opportunity you just don’t get in real world casinos. Want to try out some strategies, or just fine tune your game before laying out the cash? No problem with online casinos!
Your game is never taken
Ever gone to your local casino or pub for a few quick games on your favourite poker machine only to find someone else has taken it? This has happened to all gamers at least once, and it’s pretty frustrating. Well, avoid this with online games. You have your own account, and you can play whatever game you want, whenever you want with no problems being caused by the other punters!
Track your bets
When you’re playing a real world poker machine, you can easily lose track of how much money you’re spending. As soon as you know it, you reach for your wallet again and woah – back to the ATM. This is pretty dangerous and can lead to a gambling problem. One of the most important ways to gamble responsibly is to be aware of how much money you are spending – and how much you’ve got to spend. Online poker machines and casinos make this much easier. You can look at all your financial information with one click – allowing you to stay on top of your spending and control your better. Wiser financial decisions when gambling translates to higher winnings, and less trouble.
And so, when you look at all the information, online slots are the far better choice. Sure, sometimes you still want to pop down to the pub and have a few beers and a chat with your mates and play a few games like that – there’s no need to replace this experience with online slots. But sometimes you don’t want to deal with the various hassles and just want to play the pokies for a while. For situations like that, online pokies are the clear winner. Just give them a try for yourself and see what you think – we’re pretty confident you’ll see them like we do – the way of the future for lucrative, fun and safe gambling.
More tips for playing online pokies
- Always make sure you know all the information about the game you’re playing. Most important to be aware of is the payout information. Be sure you know the best payout percentage of the game you choose to play as well as other games you could be playing instead. Knowledge is power!
- Make sure you have a well thought out budget, and that you stick to it. There are too many stories of people who have gambled their way to ruin – you don’t want to be one of them and the best way to avoid it is a good money management system and the will power to abide by the rules you set for yourself.
- If your bankroll doesn’t allow you to play the maximum number of coins on the machine you’re playing on, it’s a good idea to choose a different game – one that has less paylines so that you can bet the maximum amount and have a chance at winning the jackpot.
- Look for online casinos that offer bonuses, comps, giveaways or other freebies and prizes. But be careful – don’t play more just to increase your comps or your chances of getting these prizes.
- Keep an eye out for high progressive jackpot poker games. Jump online and do a bit of research before heading straight to the pokies to give yourself a better idea of which casinos are offering the best deals. Progressive jackpots are one area in which it pays to look at the last time they paid out, as the amount you could win will be larger.
- Always, always, ALWAYS set a loss limit. When you’ve reached it, give up. Immediately.
Myths of poker machines
There are a lot of “old wives tales” about poker machines out there. These are myths that have been built up and spread around over time. It pays to take advice and tips about poker machines with a grain of salt as there’s a heap of misinformation around out there. Often these myths lead people to believe that real poker machines are better or safer than online machines, which is just not true. If anything, the opposite is true. Here are a few examples just to give you the idea:
MYTH: Real Machines have Off/On or Hot/Cold Cycles.
Many people think that if a real poker machine has been played for a long time without paying out, then it’s “due” to enter a hot cycle – a period of time during which it will payout a lot. We’ve dispelled this myth a number of times, but it persists (and so so do we!) – THIS IS NOT TRUE. There is not such thing as a machine due to payout, or a hot or cold cycle. Each and every spin is generated randomly and has no bearing on the spins to come. In fact, it’s even more complicated than this – check out our “How do slot machines work” to find out why, if you’re playing a machine and then get up and leave and the next player sits down and hits the jackpot immediately, you would not have won that jackpot if you had kept playing.
MYTH: Real poker machines operate mechanically.
Some people are wary of playing online poker machines. They think that online games are less trustworthy because they’re not mechanical like real poker machines and therefore can be “fixed” or “rigged” more easily. The reality is that although real poker machines look mechanical, with the spinning reels and sometimes with the lever or at least wth a button that you can push, they’re not mechancially operated. Real poker machines are controlled by thesame computer software that generates numbers randomly that online poker machines are controlled by. The real poker machines just keep this mechanical appearance for aesthetics, and to give the sense of the old school machines, like the liberty bell machine, which were operated mechanically. Online poker machines are just as safe – in fact likely more so – and cannot be fixed or rigged by anyone, including the house.
MYTH: Pulling the lever is better than pressing play.
The same kind of thinking as above generated this myth. That is, that mechanical slots are better than computerised ones, and that playing with the lever means you’re playing with a mechanical machine and have a greater chance of winning, or at least avoiding fixed machines. This is not true. Pressing the play or spin button, or pulling the lever has no effect whatsoever on the outcome of the spin. All poker machines these days are computerised, and if the lever is just for show. There is no difference between real machines with levers, real machines with buttons, or online machines (except that the odds tend to be better on online machines).
What time do pokies have a higher payout rate?
There are a lot of theories out there about how to win at playing poker machines. Some people recommend playing particular games, or in a particular style. Others suggest playing on machines that are “due for a payout” and still others think it will help if they play at a certain time of day or night. While there are legitimate tips out there for increasing your chances of winning at poker machine gaming, for the most part, these strategies are nonsense.
The people that claim that poker machines payout better during the day are probably basing this approach on the fact that if a particular machine has been played all night the previous night without paying out, then it’s “due for a payout”. However, there’s no such thing as a machine that’s due to payout. Every single time a player plays a machine, the odds of him winning are the exact same odds that the last person to play was playing with, and the exact same odds that the next person will be playing with, even if there’s a payout in between. The symbols are generated randomly for each and every spin – the machine does not recollect or factor in previous spins or wins when generating the next spin. There is no such thing as a machine that is due to payout, and machines do not payout better during the day than during the night.
As for those who claim that machines payout better during the night, well there’s a little bit of truth in this, though they’re misinterpreting it. Poker machines don’t payout better during the night time, but they do payout more often. That is, the amount of the payout is not affected by the time of day or night – day time payouts are just as high as night time payouts. However, there are more jackpots hit at night than there are during the day. Why is this? It’s very simple: more people are playing poker machines during the night than during the day. It’s obvious that the more people that are playing, the chances of one of those people hitting the jackpot are greater. Imagine one person playing compared to one thousand people playing. You’d be pretty surprised if not one of those thousand people took some money home, whereas if the single player didn’t take anything home, it wouldn’t be surprising at all. So, yes, it’s true that more poker machines payout during the night time than during the day. But this doesn’t change your odds at all. Your odds remain the same every time you hit ‘play’ – no matter the time of day or night, just the same as it doesn’t matter whether the machine has payed out recently or whether it hasn’t paid out for a long time. Every single spin, the results are randomly generated. So keep this in mind when people give you “old wives tales” for poker machines, and check out of Tips for Winning at Pokies for genuine ways to increase your chances.
Advanced strategies for playing pokies
While there are no surefire ways to win at slots, and it’s true that the game is based on luck, there are some advanced strategies that some serious pokie players employ. Here are a couple of these strategies outlined below. Keep in mind that there is no consensus among pokie players; for everyone who says one strategy is good, another person will say it doesn’t work. Try out the strategies and determine what works for you.
Averages
This strategy is particularly advanced, perhaps the most advanced of all methods for playing pokies. It requires the use of a mathematical equation to determine on which spins the machine is most likely to yield winning slots. While some people prefer to use actual mathematical calculations using formulas in this strategy, it’s not completely necessary and if you practice a little then it can be done in your head relatively quickly. Follow these steps and practice:
- You must choose a pokie machine or game that uses “equal ratio” play. The averages strategy will only work on these machines. Equal ratio means that the machine will give the same payout percentage for every level of play. For example, if you bet five dollars, the jackpot payout will be exactly five times that it would be had you bet one dollar.
- This strategy allows you to calculate the average of the number of spins between wins. In order to do this, you must bet with the minimum amount in order to establish, on average, how many spins you make before you win. Make sure you have a pen and paper handy, and play for a while, recording the number of spins you make before you get a win. Repeat this about ten times. For example, if, the first time, you spin 11 times and then win on the twelfth, write down 12. Then repeat and if you spin, say, 7 times and on the eighth time you win, write down 8.
- Once you have around ten wins recorded in this style, find the average of all the numbers. You then have the average number of spins between wins. Let’s say it’s 15. Then, in order to maximise your chances of winning for this particular game, you would bet the minimum amount for 14 spins and then on the 15th spin you would bet the maximum.
NOTE: Many players swear by this system for winning big on pokies. All evidence of how poker machines work suggests that this method will not work, as the results of the spins are generated randomly. We’ve outlined the strategy here because of the people who swear it works. Try it out and see how it works for you.
One Play Strategy
As with the averages strategy, you will need to choose Equal Ratio games in order to make this one play strategy work. It also helps to choose games that offer big jackpots, and to only make the maximum bet.
Spin once, betting the maximum. If your play wins a payout of between one and three times the amount you bet, make one more play.
If your play wins four or more times the amount you bet, then you make three more plays.
If neither of these things happen, stop playing immediately.
NOTE: Many people do not believe in One Play poker machine strategies. They tend to say that it is impossible to win by just using one type of bet. Try out the method for yourself and make up your own mind.
