If you have ever been in the fortunate position of playing a casino game when the gods of fortune have been on your side, it can be an almost intoxicating feeling.
Starting a game with just a handful of coins but seeing them quickly grow as the machine contrives to keep paying you out is a fantastic feeling and although it may not happen as often as we like, it is one that is shared by many casino enthusiasts.
Everyone has a tale of the day they got the better of the casino.
Unfortunately, many of these tales often have a bitter twist in the tail and that is the number of times a player has enjoyed a degree of success playing the game, but has then found it impossible to quit at the right time and has then fed back all the cash that they have won, back into the machine that gave it to them in the first place.
Indeed, it could be argued that one of the key skills of a successful and profitable casino operator, is knowing when to accept the gifts that the games have bequeathed them and saying 'enough is enough' and walking away with a profit in your pocket.
The question is, when you hit one of these lucky streaks, how do you know when you should walk away, and when should you continue?
To walk away, or not to walk away; that is the question!
It is very easy to say 'quit while you are ahead' but if you are playing a game in an online casino and it seems to be intent on paying you out, it is not easy to walk away.
It is akin to man walking down a street and dozens of beautiful women smiling at you like you are the hottest thing on the planet! I wouldn't know the equivalent for a woman, and if you are a woman reading this, then switch the roles around - simples yes?!
Back to the game... How much do you wait to come out of it before you walk away? Or do you camp outside the machine taking everything it has to offer, but realising that at some point someone at the bank will realise and come outside and take all that money back from you.
Ignoring the moral issue here, that is a similar dilemma that casino users face when they hit a golden streak playing a game. How much is enough?
The internal dilemma is complex. There is the thought that these runs of good fortune do not come along too often when playing casino games, so you really need to maximise them when they do happen. There is also the worry that if you stop playing the game, then someone else will simply step in and start to enjoy a little of the success and perhaps you may feel they will earn the money that would have other been yours had you continued playing.
Of course, this is a prime example of gambler's fallacy at work and it is important for the player to realise that what appears to be their choice of game is paying out with benevolence, is actually just a statistical anomaly.
Almost all casino games operate using a random number generator, which means that from one turn to the next, you are at the whims of the RNG as to whether you win or not.
Over the course of millions, sometimes even billions of spins though, statistical anomalies happen, where it appears that the machine is either playing more tightly and not paying customers out, or that it is paying out considerably more than usual.
While some people see this as evidence that machines are 'programmed' to pay out at certain points and not pay out at others, in actual fact it is simply a circumstance created by the randomness of the machine.
The very nature of randomness means that there will be periods when the machine seems to play tight, and others when it seems to play more loosely and it is these latter periods which are when casino players think they have hit a lucky streak.
So having identified that there is no way that a machine can be programmed to win or lose and that it is only our observations of a tiny number of spins compared to the number of spins it has had over its lifetime, that makes it appear the machine is paying out frequently, the key now is to learn when to walk away.
The first problem with this is, as we have already discussed, it is very difficult to be playing a machine and making a profit and to then walk away when the machine appears still to be primed ready to pay out.
However, in truth, you should probably do that anyway. There is no guarantee that the next ten spins you have of the slot machine will produce the same level of results as the previous 10 or 20 or more that you have had.
It is easy to say that, however it is far more difficult to do that in practice when you feel a machine is paying you out.
Of course, you can't know exactly when a machine will stop being so benevolent to its players, so you there are no external influences you can use to help you gauge when to walk away, so instead you need to use factors that you can measure. Namely:
1. Have you spent enough time playing the game today?
One good way to bring your successful session to a halt is by setting yourself a time limit when playing the game. If you generally play for an hour at the casino when you log in for a session, then when that hour is up, you should walk away.
Of course, it takes a good deal of self-discipline to walk away from a machine that you think is paying you out well, but remember, the next ten minutes may see the game pay out only very sporadically, you don't know that run of success is likely to continue.
2. Have you wagered what you ordinarily would in a session?
Let's say in a typical session at an online casino you would spend a 100 dollars, euros or pounds, or whatever the currency is that you playing with. Now let's say that in the current session, you have won 600 and you have now wagered 100.
While it is tempting to think that you can turn that 600 into even more of a profit on the session, the likelihood is that the more you spin the reels or play the game, the more likely it is that the casino will start to win back some, or perhaps even all, of the money you have won.
So when you have reached your budget for a session, walk away and take the money you have won with you as profit!
3. Have you won enough to walk away with a smile on your face?
Let's take another example now and let's say we are a player who tends to spend 100 in a typical session lasting an hour at the casino, but ten minutes into playing our choice of slot, we hit a fabulous jackpot and earn a prize of 5000.
How you can continue to play for the hour, or until your original 100 is spent up, or given that you have won a huge amount already, you can just curtail the session and enjoy the fruits of your winnings in another way.
Win big and you have more flexibility over how long you should play for and how much you should spend. But in truth, if you can walk away in profit with a smile on your face at any point in the session, it is always wise to consider doing so. Whether your profit is, 1, 100 or 10,000.
4. Has the rate of pay decreased over the last 10 spins or so?
As we have touched upon previously, there comes a time when even the most benevolent of games suddenly seems to start playing a little more tightly again. Rather than continue playing and risk losing not just your bankroll, but any winnings you may have, it may be wise to cash out and take your winnings.
Remember, games machines are based on random number generators and over time, they are programmed so that the casino will always win. So the longer you play, the more chance the casino has of recouping its money from you.
Walking away from a seemingly hot game can be tough when you are winning, but it is the right thing to do if you want to enjoy more profitable sessions when playing at your choice of online casino.
Next Post: The lure of slot machines remains strong among casino players
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
