Slot Strategy: Slot Tests and Setting Loss Limits

Slot machines offer a faster way for you to lose money than most other gambling games. With just a click, you can wager more and more of your dollars each time. This is why it important to use slot strategies that can somehow regulate the outflow of your cash. Two key concepts are slot tests and loss limits. We will deal with them in turn in this page.

Slot Tests

A slot test is meant to determine the tightness or looseness of a slot machine. A loose slot machine pays out to the player often; a tight slot machine rarely pays out and most of its payouts come from the more valuable combinations. If you want, you can also test a slot machine for coldness or hotness. A lot of people believe that slots have "mood swings" - times when they are feeling generous and times when they are not. We are of the opinion that this isn't the case and any seeming "trends" are coincidental. Anything can happen in the short term so that loose machines can appear "cold" at times and likewise, tight machines can appear "hot." But the bottom line for the player is you don't want to play in a slot machine that doesn't pay out when you play it.

A slot test is simple:

- Assuming you have 800 coins, take 40 coins or 5% of your total session coins.

- Divide the 40 coins by 8.

- Take each set of 8 coins and test it on a slot machine.

- If you play 8 coins straight and win nothing, do not play that slot.

- You do not have to use up all 40 coins to test a slot machine with. If you find one you are happy with in one test without doing the others, keep playing that slot.

- If you test several slots, play the one with the highest return in the test.

This is a disciplined, cautious approach to slots. It lets you test first which machines pay off before you actually invest your bankroll in it.

Loss Limits

Loss limits are more difficult to apply, if only because it is hard to tell yourself to quit when you are losing. The premise behind this slot strategy is that losses will come to everyone, so what counts is how you can minimize or delay those losses. You can do that by setting limits on how much you can lose each session.

A good loss limit is 50%. You can make it bigger or smaller than that, but for the purpose of playing it safe with slots, you should make it no more than 60%.

Another way to shield yourself from heavy losses is to divide your monthly bankroll to sub-bankrolls for each day you will be playing slots. Now set another loss limit on the number of days you can lose. If you have 10 slot sessions each month and you set a 50% loss limit, you shall quit playing for the month if you lose 50% of your sub-bankroll in 5 sessions.

With loss limits and slot tests, your bankroll will last longer. Just remember that you shouldn't wait for both limits to be reached before you quit. If you are losing money on a slot machine even when it passes your slot tests, you should still stop playing.