Top 5 Mistakes Made by Online Pokies Players

Last week, we reviewed Johnny Cash pokies and mentioned that we made a mistake by playing it. Many people play pokies at Australian online casinos and make common mistakes that end up costing them money. Today, we will go over some of the most common mistakes pokies players make.

Failing to Look at the Pokies Paytable

Before you start playing an online pokie, you should check out the game’s paytable. This will tell you how much each symbol pays along with any special features of the game. Why this is important is that you can often determine the general volatility of a game based on the base game payout. How likely will you turn a profit on a single line win?

If you are finding that the game will only turn a profit on five of a kind for lower symbols and four of a kind or higher for higher-paying symbols, this game is going to be high variance. If the bonus game requires that scatter come out in a pattern rather than at random, then the bonus game will be harder to reach over the average pokie.

Ignoring or Overlooking the RTP

The big mistake we made reviewing Johnny Cash was overlooking the RTP. For online pokies, you want to stick with games with at least a 95% RTP. Otherwise, you are going to find it much tougher to turn a profit.

The best games will have an RTP of at least 96% or higher. While rare, you can find pokies with an RTP of 99%. Generally, the higher the RTP, the lower the variance. There are exceptions, such as some jackpot pokies.

Playing Higher Stakes

Whenever you play online pokies, you need to pick stakes that are appropriate for your bankroll. If you have a bankroll of $50 to $100, you don’t want to play $1 per spin, or worse, $1 per credit. Often, someone will choose to play higher stakes in hopes of getting lucky, but they blow through their bankroll much faster than expected.

If you have a $50 bankroll, you’ll only get 50 spins at $1 per spin. If you play at .25 per spin, you’ll get 200 spins for the same money. When you want to play higher stakes, make sure you have a bankroll that can support it.

Feeding a Progressive Pokies Jackpot too Early

Progressive jackpots trigger at random, but most of the larger ones tend to follow a relatively predictable pattern. For example, Mega Moolah tends to hit every 8 weeks on average. While this isn’t always the case, online tracking shows that 8 weeks is generally the pattern.

Most major progressive jackpot pokies are tracked online. That’s because they are generally networked between multiple sites. You can find out how often the jackpot triggers, the last time it triggered, and the other times it triggered.

You can use this information to see when the jackpot was last awarded and whether it’s worth your time to play. For example, if Mega Moolah just triggered 12 days ago, we’d skip playing it for a while. Let someone else feed the progressive jackpot for you.

Playing Short Sessions

Many online pokies players like to play short sessions where they hope to hit a decent win and run. However, many times this strategy will not work. Often, you will need to trigger the bonus features of an online pokie in order to secure a sizable win. This generally requires that you play at least an average length session.

That’s another reason we recommend playing at stakes that are suitable for your bankroll. If you need to play 50 spins on average to trigger the bonus, you need to play at stakes where 50 spins aren’t going to decimate your bankroll.

There are exceptions of course. If you get lucky and hit the bonus in 10 spins and win 80x your buy-in, feel free to quit early with a winner. That’s perfectly fine. However, don’t jump on expecting to win with just playing 10 to 20 spins a session over the long-term.