High Variance, Medium Variance or Low Variance?

[ShayDrew]

My strategy is (To use an example of round figures) If my bankroll for the session is $100 I will tend to play high variance for the first $50 to try and start of well. Once I hit $50 I tend to drop back to lower variance to try and get a few hits - anything above $50 = Play HV, anything below $50 = Low or Med Variance.

[De Beuker]

High variance to build a bankroll, medium/low variance to grind out a WR once I've had a few decent hits.

But its all relative, high variance games can play like low variance (BDBA, Alaskan Fishing) and low variance can suck you dry in no time too if they are in a bad mood...

[zaaaaabaaaaam]

i understand the theory of high, med and low variance games but in reality how do you know which games actually are?

i could understand that a game with a massive jackpot game would be high variance, right? but does this mean that a game with a smaller jackpot would be med variance and a game without jackpot would be low variance?

[KasinoKing]

i could understand that a game with a massive jackpot game would be high variance, right? but does this mean that a game with a smaller jackpot would be med variance and a game without jackpot would be low variance?

Not at all!
The jackpot amount is largely irrelevant - a big jackpot machine could be low variance and vice-versa.
I don't want to be repeating myself, so please look at my post #17 above.

Very few softwares publish the variance of their slots - only 3Dice & RTG that I'm aware of - so for most others it is subjective based on each person's playing experience.

KK

[zaaaaabaaaaam]

Ok, that's cool. Now I know. Every day you learn new things!

[spin2win]

I like the High Variance Slot games more. There is nothing better in Online Gambling than a massive payout in LOTR etc.

[H1_Roller]

Not at all!
The jackpot amount is largely irrelevant - a big jackpot machine could be low variance and vice-versa.
I don't want to be repeating myself, so please look at my post #17 above.

Very few softwares publish the variance of their slots - only 3Dice & RTG that I'm aware of - so for most others it is subjective based on each person's playing experience.

KK

Wouldn't the payout table (excluding Jackpots) hold clues to a game's variance?

[gerilege]

In some sense yes, but that is not the decisive factor, especially nowadays with all the expanding, sticky and stacked wilds, etc.
With the newer slots variance is more and more made up of the base game variance and feature variance independently from a gameplay perspective. Combining those two can give you an estimate on the total mathematical variance of the game, however it also makes sense to get a feeling about the distribution of variance in feature and non-feature mode. (i.e. compared to the old Thunderstruck in which you simply get 15 spins @3x with the same paytable and reel layout, so the full game variance implicitely contains both feature and gameplay variance). It is also useful to have an idea on the feature contribution to the total payout on a specific game. Also the total number of lines influence variance for the same betsize.
Let me add a few examples:
Isis is a very high variance slot despite of being a 25-liner, Avalon is a mediumish-high. I do not know the exact numbers, but for both slots a major part of the total payout (~50%) is in the feature. In Thunderstruck it is around 35% only if I remember correctly. Besides that their (Isis, Avalon) variance mainly comes from the feature only, they do not really have notable line wins.
BDBA is a different example of a very high variance game, and basic game play also have high variance (compared to Avalon, but even to Isis), but feature play (even with the very few extremely monster wins like the best 5-of-a-kinds with wild @25x) is not that high variance like Isis, as you will have a lot of middle-sized wins with the 3-5 T,J,Q,K,As which you mostly hit in features.
Or take the Playtech Archer game, which is a 243-way slot, and the feature contribution to the payout is relatively low, I would say it is lower than Thunderstrike. This is because the main game is high variance, and although the feature is a different game, but not that much different to the main game.
So it's tricky and there are a lot of factors.
The best clue is the percentage of smallish wins, like empty spins, max 1x total bet, max 3x total bet. Once you play a slot for a while, already after a few thousand of spins you can get a feeling on the percentage of those wins. Once you know this, you can make a good guess on what percentage of the total payout is used for those smallish wins and how much room is left for other wins, and after some iterations you can effectively extrapolate the total variance with this method.

[H1_Roller]

Thanks for the very thorough explanation gerilege