You have $100 to bet at a casino… your challenge is to double your money. How would you tackle this challenge?”
Is there a strategy for doubling a $100 bankroll playing slot machines? If you assume that slots are purely a game of luck, I’ve got news for you. Instead of playing haphazardly and hoping for the best, you can use methods that give you about as good a chance as if you were to plunk down $100 for even-money betting at your favorite table game slot games.
First I would pick the right machine. Some slots give you a good shot at meeting this challenge while others are more likely to steal all your money. The most important feature when choosing a machine is the pay table. Too many players are attracted to a slot machine dangling the carrot of a huge jackpot. Others pick one simply because it’s big and shiny and looks enticing.
Large jackpots mean fewer smaller payouts. Big winners’ fortunes are financed not by the casino but by many losers. It is better to select machines with small to moderate jackpots. For the same bet, you have a much better chance of winning 800 coins than you would have chasing 20,000 coins.
Also avoid slots where half of all possible payouts are in the 2, 5, 10 and 20 coin range. Although you might get frequent wins, the amounts aren’t big enough to prevent your bankroll from slowly but surely grinding down to zero.
The best strategy for meeting this double-your-money challenge is to look for a single pay line, two-coin machine with a modest jackpot and a pay table featuring a good range of medium sized prizes.
The ideal pay table looks something like this:
One Coin Two Coins
800 1,600
80 160
60 120
40 80
30 60
20 40
10 20
5 10
2 4
On slot machines with this kind of pay board, wins of small to medium proportions occur more frequently, because most of the money does not have to go towards a giant jackpot. You have an excellent chance of catching enough mid-range payouts to stretch your time at the machine by simply recycling your winnings. The longer you can make your money last, the better your chances of eventually lining up the jackpot combination. To succeed at slots you need staying power.
So, my strategy for doubling a $100 slots playing stake goes like this:
I would choose a two-coin 25-cent machine with a single-pay line and a jackpot of 800 and 1,600 coins for one-coin and two-coin play respectively. And the slot will have to provide decent mid-range payouts. Double Diamond or Wild Cherry machines are good candidates in brick-and-mortar casinos.
