Many casual video poker players – perhaps even most of them play video poker until they are out of money to play the game, or after they hit a big win. That may not be totally true. After hitting a big win, most casual video poker players continue playing trying to hit another jackpot.

Is that the best way to play the game? More serious players mostly agree that it is not. This article explores the value of using “Stop-Wins” as a method of going home with more money. It also offers some suggestions about determining the best stop-win for the player’s particular style.

What Exactly Is A Stop-Win And Why It Is Important

Many video poker players – even those who have been playing for many years – are not aware of what a stop-win actually is.

Simply put, a stop-win is something that happens to cause a player to save some of the money they have won.

Some casual players simply play until they have no more money with which to play. When they are out of money, it is time for them to stop playing.

This is probably not the best strategy for successful long-term play. In addition to the normal bankroll protection strategies such as:

• Do not use ATMs at the casino – bring what you plan to gamble with you.
• Make sure your bankroll is money you can afford to lose.
• Pick a game denomination that matches your bankroll.

It is wise to take advantage of the times you win to extend your playing time and possibly grow your bankroll. A stop-win is a method to accomplish this worthy goal.

Some Typical Stop-Win Strategies

• The easiest stop-win to manage is when a hand-pay jackpot is won. Play has to stop, the win is paid out in cash, and it is very easy to lock up at least half of the winnings.

This locked-up portion of the winnings should be put away and brought home – not played at the casino this trip. If it is a royal flush or another very large win, at least three-fourths of the win should be locked up and brought home.

This is a very simple way to come home a winner. I believe many players use this stop-win method because of the jackpot amount and the rarity of this type of win.

• The next easiest stop-win to manage is whenever you win a jackpot of any decent size (for example a single win of $100 or more on a quarter machine), cash out and “lock up” one half of that win. Set it aside. It is no longer part of your session bankroll.

This is money that you might play at a later session, but not this one. With a significant win, more should be locked up, and the player should consider taking a portion of this win home with them.

Players like this strategy because it is easy to recognize and act at this point. There are no calculations that trigger this stop-win and locking it up is easily accomplished.

• Another very good stop-win method is to monitor the credits on the game being played. If, and when, this amount doubles from the buy-in amount, cash out and set a portion of it (perhaps one-fourth to one-half) aside to be saved for a future session – or to be taken home as winnings.

This stop-win is a little harder to pull off. Many times, the player is not aware of the amount on the credit meter.

There is also no specific event that triggers this stop-win point, so it is easily overlooked. It is, however, a very good way to lock up some additional wins.

There are many other similar stop-win situations. They all rely on the player stopping play at a certain point and locking up a portion of their wins These amounts are then held for a future time..

A Caution About Stop-Win Strategies

Practicing stop-win strategies is an excellent way to improve player’s odds of going home a winner. There are several ways to put a stop-win strategy in place.

One factor is critical to the successful implementation of stop-win strategies, however. That factor is discipline.

Each stop-win strategy depends on the player not only stopping to take a portion of their winnings out of play, but also not using those held winnings until the proper time – another later session, another day, or to be added to the total gambling bankroll at home.

It is very easy to say the money is being locked up, and it is easy to place it somewhere separately from the session bankroll. It can be very difficult, however, to keep that money held until the desired time of use.

As with anything related to gambling – whether in a casino or online – discipline is key. The player must play only with funds specifically earmarked for gambling, funds they can afford to lose, and funds that are brought with them to the casino (never taken from an ATM).

Even though many gamblers can accomplish the above, they have difficulty keeping the stop-win amounts locked up until the proper time.

Final Thoughts On Stop-Win Strategy

A stop-win is a technique that can be used by gamblers to help them go home as winners more often. The process is flexible. It calls for players to take portions of their wins and set them aside (lock them up) to be used at a later time – but never at the same session of play.

It does not matter what event triggers a stop-win. What does matter is the discipline to carry through with the intent of the stop-win amount being held until the proper time.

Successful use of stop-win strategies contributes to the ultimate success in casino play.

Video poker players can spend hundreds of hours playing video poker. This is especially true for serious players who play the proper strategy.

This post highlights many of the thoughts that go through player’s minds during these long sessions. Enjoy!

Focus Crucial To Video Poker Success

As stated in the introduction, video poker players can spend scores, hundreds, and even thousands of hours playing video poker in a year.

For casual players this time may be comprised of playing a couple of hundred hands or less per hour. Skilled players however are capable of playing over 1,000 hands per hour – and play them with uncanny adherence to the proper playing strategy.

There are other differences between the play of casual and more serious players.

Casual players tend to:

• Spend part of their playing time focusing on things other than the video poker game at hand. They may talk to others, watch other players, television, or simply stop to sip a drink.
• Enjoy the surroundings as much as the game. They want to enjoy the entire experience, not just playing the video poker game.
• Play video poker during times when the casino is busy in order to experience all the fun of gambling.
• Drink more alcoholic drinks and they are part of the overall experience.
• Not keep very close track of the status of things such as how much has been played through the game.
• Have shorter playing sessions. Again, they are focused on the overall experience, not just the video poker game. They are quicker to leave the game and get some food or try a different game.

Serious video poker players, on the other hand, tend to:

• Have intense focus on the video poker game itself. They are not very talkative with others. They do not enjoy being interrupted by others.
• The more noise and other activity there is around them, the less they enjoy it.
• Play video poker at times when the casino is less busy. They prefer very late night and early morning hours where they can concentrate on playing the game without interruption.
• Abstain from drinking alcohol while playing video poker. In fact, they may not drink alcohol at all – or at minimum wait until after they are done playing for the day. They want to remain sharp in order to make sure they make no mistakes in playing strategy.
• Be aware of all aspects of the game they are playing – the status of their bankroll, how long it has been since their last full house, four of a kind, and so on.
• Play longer sessions – both in time and number of hands. The length of a session is determined more by the players state of mind and ability to concentrate and remain in control, than by whether or not it is dinner time.

The serious player’s focus, speed and length of playing sessions causes a routine that can become boring at times.

This makes their minds wander a bit and can cause some of the following thoughts to pass through their minds.

Random Thoughts That Can Impact Video Poker Players

Random thoughts and musings occur because playing hundreds and sometimes even more than a thousand hands per hour becomes monotonous.

It is true the player is constantly scanning each hand as it is dealt to determine which cards to hold and which to discard. This does occupy the mind to a degree.

But the monotony of doing this over and over takes its toll. The mind needs to “spice it up” a bit. The following – in no particular order – are some thoughts that typically occur.

• Wow – it seems like it has been a long time since any hand better than two pairs has happened.
• How many credits do I have now? Should I consider stopping because it is reaching a sizeable amount? Should I consider leaving because the credits are dwindling?
• How many times in a row have I been dealt a hand with nothing – not even a pair or high card?
• How many hands in a row containing a low pair have led to nothing?
• Isn’t it strange how often it is when I hold four cards of a straight (or flush) that the discard is replaced with a card of the same rank.
• Uh-oh. I missed that low pair and held a single high card. (This comment tends to happen more often the longer play continues and is a signal that it might be time to take a break).
• There sure have been a lot of hands with low pairs dealt recently.
• Look at that, another hand of four cards of a royal flush.
• Another hand with four cards of a flush. This hand should be completed, on average, once every 47 hands since there are 47 cards left in the deck that will complete it. How many of these hands have I had since my last completed hand?
• I am getting a little tired. Maybe it is time for a break.
• Wow. Look at the time. I have been playing for almost two hours straight on the same 100-dollar bill.
• This run of high pairs is nice, but all I end up with is another enough to play another hand. 
• I am getting a little hungry. I will play until I reach 200 credits or until I get down to 150 credits.
• Oh no, a smoker just sat down next to me. Why does the smoke always head straight for me? 

Those are some of the most common thoughts. You get the idea.

Always Remember - Mentality Is Key

Playing hundreds of hands of video poker each hour can lead to a type of boredom. The mind likes to keep active.

Fortunately, that is good for serious players. They are constantly looking at the current situation. Are things going well? Not so well? Are mistakes being made?

These random thoughts are good. They help to determine if it is time to take a break. 

Video slots use a random number generator (RNG) to determine every spin. They pay out winners at less than true odds, and that's where the house edge lives. Paylines, bonus rounds, symbol distribution – there's a lot going on under the hood that most players never look at.

That’s the kind of stuff that actually changes how you pick a game.

How Video Slots Work: The Random Number Generator

At their cores, modern slot machines with mechanical reels and video slots work the same way. Numbers selected by a random number generator are translated into the symbols you see on the reels. What you see on video screens is a user-friendly representation of the game being played on the RNG.

Random number generators are close enough to truly random that players can't discern any repeating patterns, and the long-term percentages are those you would expect from randomly occurring outcomes.

Because the reels and symbols don't exist in a physical sense, there is no need to keep reel strips small enough to fit inside a machine casing. If the programmer needs the reel strip to be 100, 500 or 1,000 symbols long to yield the optimal number of combinations, that can be done. With five reels and large numbers, the number of potential combinations gets very large, very fast. For example, if each of five reel strips has 100 symbols, that's 10 billion possible combinations per payline. That gives designers plenty to work with while accounting for multiple wins per play, scatter pays, bonuses, expanding wilds, and everything else a modern video slot offers.

Paylines and Betting

Slot machine payoffs are built around paylines. In classic three-reel games, the most common configuration is a single line down the centre. When five-reel video slots rose to popularity, the breakthrough games had five paylines. Today, 20-, 25-, 30-, and 40-payline games are all common.

On five-reel video slots, you don't need the winning symbol on every reel. You'll get some return for lining up a symbol on reels 1, 2 and 3, with bigger payoffs if that symbol also appears on the same payline on reels 4 and 5. On some games, top-paying symbols even bring a small return with only two matching symbols starting from the left.

Multiple paylines also mean you can win on more than one line on a single spin. This opens up possibilities for game designers: very frequent small wins can yield a low-volatility game that keeps you playing longer, while putting more of the return into bigger pays can yield higher volatility with a better shot at larger wins – but also a faster drain on your bankroll.

In many modern games, particularly penny slots, you're required to cover all paylines. These "forced bet" machines mean you can't bet just one coin. You bet one coin per payline, so a 40-line game requires a minimum 40-coin wager.

One thing worth knowing is that on pretty much every video slot out there, payouts scale with the number of coins you bet per line. A winning combo is just as likely to appear on any payline as on any other. So betting more by covering all lines means spending more, but you're also hitting wins more often. It balances out.

Key Features: Wilds, Scatters and Bonuses

Wild symbols work as matches for any symbol, usually excluding scatter or bonus symbols. When a wild lands in a winning combo, it steps in as whatever symbol gets you the best pay. Some games take it further with expanding wilds, where one wild symbol grows to fill every position in its column. That can set off wins across several paylines from a single spin.

Scatters work differently. They don't need to sit on any specific payline. Land three or more of them anywhere on the reels and you either get a payout or kick off a bonus event. Doesn't matter where they show up.

Bonus events are a prime attraction on nearly all video slots. They can take the form of free spins, pick-a-prize events, wheel spins and more. Their impact on the game is significant – on many games, roughly a third of the total payback comes from bonuses. A game that returns 90 per cent overall might return only 60 per cent on the base game, adding 30 per cent through bonus rounds. That can differ from game to game and manufacturer to manufacturer, but it must be accounted for by game designers and programmers.

Beyond Traditional Paylines

Not every video slot sticks with traditional paylines. Aristocrat Technologies came up with something called Reel Power, where you're buying reels instead of paylines. As long as winning symbols show up on adjacent reels from left to right, it counts. Top, middle, bottom, doesn't matter. That opens up 243 ways to win, or 1,024 on versions with four symbols per reel. These tend to be more volatile games.

The idea kept evolving from there. Big Time Gaming built on it with Megaways, in which reel sizes shift with every spin and can create up to 117,649 ways to win. It took off massively and dozens of providers now license the format. Then you've got cluster pays, which throw out paylines altogether. You win when matching symbols land next to each other anywhere on the grid.

Cascading reels brought another twist. After a winning combo pays out, those symbols disappear and new ones drop in from above. One spin can chain into several wins that way. And hold-and-spin games like Lightning Link lock special symbols in place while the rest of the positions respin, giving you a shot at building up to a bigger prize.

Hit Frequency vs. Payback Percentage

When choosing the right game to play, it’s imperative that you know the difference between hit frequency and payback percentage.

Hit frequency is the proportion of spins that pay money to players. Payback percentage is the proportion of total wagers returned to players as winnings. Games with high hit frequencies can have payback percentages higher, lower, or about the same as those of games with low hit frequencies.

Casino industry professionals often distinguish between "entertainment" games and "gambling" games. Entertainment games have high hit frequencies but low jackpot probabilities since they're designed to encourage extended play. Gambling games offer enhanced chances at big payoffs but have low hit frequencies, meaning you can lose money faster when the big wins don't come.

There are useful signposts for telling them apart:

• Slots with large jackpots are often low hit frequency "gambling" games.
• Games with stacked symbols, where you can have big wins on many lines at once, are usually gambling games.
• Games with free spin bonuses as their main event often lean toward gambling games.
• Games with pick'em bonuses as their main event are usually entertainment games.

None of this is set in stone. If a game isn't doing it for you, just move on to another one. Nobody's keeping score.

Video slots look simple enough when you're sitting in front of one, but there's a lot more going on behind every spin than most players realise. The more you understand about how paylines, hit frequency and payback percentage actually work together, the easier it gets to find games that feel right for what you want out of a session.

Video Slots FAQs

Are video slot results truly random?

Yes. Video slots use a random number generator (RNG) to determine every outcome. The symbols you see on screen are a visual representation of numbers already selected by the RNG before the reels stop spinning.

What is the difference between hit frequency and payback percentage?

Hit frequency is the proportion of spins that return money to the player. Payback percentage is the proportion of total wagers returned as winnings over time. A game with frequent small wins can have the same payback percentage as one with rare large wins.

How much of a video slot's payback comes from bonus features?

On many video slots, roughly a third of the total payback comes from bonus events like free spins and pick-a-prize rounds. This means the base game may return significantly less than the advertised overall payback percentage.

What is the difference between entertainment slots and gambling slots?

Entertainment slots have high hit frequencies with frequent small payouts, designed for extended play. Gambling slots offer better chances at large wins but pay less often, meaning your bankroll can drain faster when the big hits don't come.