Bonus Gambles

[M!ke]

Information tab in More Turkey reads:

"In all cases, the optimal strategy is to always spin the feature gamble wheel."

Nice use of language - all, optimal, always. In all cases, right, so even if I have a dollar left and I trigger a bonus round at .20, I should always spin the wheel. Yeeaahh.

Am I wrong to think something is almost always better than nothing?

 

[lukey141]

Sure it's optimal if you have an unlimited balance but us normal folk don't and I'll be damned if I spend 20-30 minutes spinning a slot to get a bonus and then lose a shitty '50/50' gamble.

If the game wants to pay it's more than capable with 8 spins just like it's able to completely flop with more spins.

 

[TheAddict]

You're talking like 1% or 2% if pushing for the max spins, I guess. (wouldn't know the exact %, i don't touch this bent provider). But that will level out over many, many bonus rounds at which point, you'll have done your bollocks.

It's ceartinly optimal, for btg, to keep you playing as long as possible. Which is probably why they promote such a suicidal approach.

 

[M!ke]

Sure it's optimal if you have an unlimited balance but us normal folk don't and I'll be damned if I spend 20-30 minutes spinning a slot to get a bonus and then lose a shitty '50/50' gamble.

If the game wants to pay it's more than capable with 8 spins just like it's able to completely flop with more spins.

I've had some great 8 spin bonus rounds.

The only positive thing about the wheel on More Turkey, and this is an indirect thing, is that if a bonus is triggered with 4 or 5 scatters it's very likely to be a strong bonus round. I can't say that about Bonanza.

 

[M!ke]

You're talking like 1% or 2% if pushing for the max spins, I guess. (wouldn't know the exact %, i don't touch this bent provider). But that will level out over many, many bonus rounds at which point, you'll have done your bollocks.

It's ceartinly optimal, for btg, to keep you playing as long as possible. Which is probably why they promote such a suicidal approach.

BTG games do seem pretty bent.

Right, it's optimal for them, not the player. LOL.. I mean, Jesus, sometimes there's 700 spins between bonus triggers. They're talkin like bonus rounds are triggered every hundred spins.

 

[TheAddict]

It's optimal for you, too. But to realise such optimism, you'll need to gamble a lot of bonuses (aka, spend a lot) .

I might be wrong, but it's unusual for me to be so.

 

[M!ke]

If they didn't wanna seem like complete con artists, they could've rephrased that line to somethin like: The more successful spins completed on the wheel raises the likelihood of a higher return on the bonus round.

 

[lukey141]

My issue is it's not just 1 gamble. You can do it once and take 12 spins instead of 8 but they most likely mean the best line is to gamble to max spins which means multiple more gambles. I'd love to know how many bonuses it takes on average to actually gamble to max spins. The odds just seem so far stacked against you.

I think it's really reserved for people with large bankrolls who are doing bonus buys on low bet since it's only a 40x buy. If someone regularly spins like £10 then buying a 20p bonus for £8 is basically like a spin. At that point gambling won't hurt because the amounts are insignificant. Though I suppose even a 1000x is only 25x the buy so doesn't sound worth it.

I dunno, even if the providers said not gambling was costing you 0.5% RTP in the long run I'd probably still not gamble because I don't play enough to ever realise the numbers anyway.

 

[TheAddict]

Just like the bonus buyers pushing for max spins, If they (btg) persuade 1 gazillion others spinning the base game that chasing the bonus & then pushing it for the perceived max obtainable value is the way forward, they win big.
I'm looking for an argument tbf.

In short, as I think Lukey basically summerised at the end of his post, the slight difference in rtp will only have a noticeable impact if one plays endlessly, which is what these scumbags want.

 

[satchnz]

Sure it's optimal if you have an unlimited balance but us normal folk don't and I'll be damned if I spend 20-30 minutes spinning a slot to get a bonus and then lose a shitty '50/50' gamble.

If the game wants to pay it's more than capable with 8 spins just like it's able to completely flop with more spins.

This. Exactly this.

 

[Lemon]

I'm not a fan of these sort of gambles on slots. Back in the day you would have a 1/180 bonus hit rate on Book of Ra or something, get the bonus and win whatever, look at your balance and then decide whether you wanted to carry on playing or not.

Now we're being told that triggering the bonus isn't enough; we've now got to gamble that bonus in order to get to the best one. It's just another device to increase the average number of spins played each time the game is loaded.

 

[Mr Shine]

Yes, it the highest RTP can be gained by doing strategy A and it's clearly shown what it is, then I would always follow the highest RTP strat.

 

[johnnymcc1966]

Very,very rarely. After trying so long to get a bonus why would I risk a guaranteed amount of free spins versus throwing them all away? Occasionally on WWTBAM megaways but never other slots.

 

[paul7388]

Put it this way on extra chilli all my best wins have been from the 8 spins. Gambled at times when I played it and soon figured no point.

And best screenshots I've saw from same slot have all been from the 8 spins. Including the mega win some girl from Liverpool posted on here a few years back.

 

[Reelsoffun]

My issue is it's not just 1 gamble. You can do it once and take 12 spins instead of 8 but they most likely mean the best line is to gamble to max spins which means multiple more gambles. I'd love to know how many bonuses it takes on average to actually gamble to max spins.

It’s 10 on average to get to the max 24 spins, math wise, but you have variance in play as well but 10 is average. Well 9.2 if you want to get picky, I rounded up

 

[lukey141]

It’s 10 on average to get to the max 24 spins, math wise, but you have variance in play as well but 10 is average. Well 9.2 if you want to get picky, I rounded up

Right, and if you lose the gamble it's GG at any point so you're really risking it all. Ok yes your first bonus could get there but it could take 20+ attempts. I don't see anywhere in the game info that mentions if the wheel is actually weighted how it's shown or if you're more likely to land on a blank.

Either way let's be generous and say you get a bonus every 15 minutes, that means 2.5 hours of spinning on average to get a max spins bonus. During that time every bonus will be 0x so without some monster base games you're going to be down stupid amounts and praying the max feature hits hard to make up for it.

Seems like increasing volatility for additional pain. I know I've seen gambles from other providers where if you lose the gamble it will drop you down one level but not completely negate the bonus. This setup makes gambling more appealing though I'd still not bother.

 

[Reelsoffun]

We was told by various sources that the wheel segments are genuine representation so 50/50 followed by 60/40 tbh i have no evidence to prove other wise and is what my 9.2 chance calculation represents.

After you get to 16 or 20 spins you only lose to either 8 or 12 respectively, so you have to factor that in as well. So not all unsuccessful attempts of max bonus will result in 0x as you said.

As you say all this is really doing is giving players a higher volatility option within the bonus which tbh i dont have a major problem with as its your choice, you can just take the spins your awarded from the trigger every time if you dont like the gamble.

 

[lukey141]

Oh ok I didn't realise you didn't lose it all. I only tried to gamble on freeplay and after winning the first and then losing the 2nd I just assumed you fully lost for all stages. That does make it better but still not for me. As you say it's an option and individuals can make their own decision on if they want to ramp up the volatility or not

 

[M!ke]

After you get to 16 or 20 spins you only lose to either 8 or 12 respectively, so you have to factor that in as well. So not all unsuccessful attempts of max bonus will result in 0x as you said.

I didn't know that. I thought it was do or die the whole way up. It doesn't change my decision, but it's informative.

 

[Reelsoffun]

Tbh I never liked the 16 to 20 gamble as if you lose you end up back at 8 which hurts after two winning gambles.
But I actually hate the 12 to 16 gamble the most as that’s 16 or 0 and that proper sucks.

At 20 you get 24 or 12 which isn’t quite as bad and 24 spin features are definitely more fun most of the time but so are 20 without the final gamble risk.

But if you track bonus pays like I do it’s clear that the average pay increases with spins so it’s all relative.

 

[Slotsnack]

On some games I always gamble for more spins but that's when you don't risk the entire bonus (like on SixSixSix by Hacksaw). Sure it sucks to end up with 5 spins instead, but it can (and have for me) still pay.

On other games I do it sometimes even though I don't risk the bonus, like Hounds of hell (also by Hacksaw). The reason I don't always do it is cause I've only ONCE landed more spins out of the gamble so it never feels worth to gamble it.

On games where you risk the entire bonus I rarely gambles, mostly cause it would suck to lose the entire bonus for the chance to get an upgrade, though I have also heard that it's much better value if you do gamble (and land it).
The exception would be Book of Power (by Relax Gaming) where I always gamble if I get 4- or 5 blue books to try to get the super bonus (if I haven't hit big in the base while getting the bonus round).

 

[teckiwi]

I like to gamble them, I lowroll(0.10/0.20 bets etc) even when playing with a few hundred so a gamble is affordable if you get it cheaply while spinning.

It does get expensive(ie a $15 bonus buy gambled twice is worth ~$60 on cherry pop) but you do get higher xwins back on those bonuses so it equals out with enough volume.

 

[2Slots]

Information tab in More Turkey reads:

"In all cases, the optimal strategy is to always spin the feature gamble wheel."

Nice use of language - all, optimal, always. In all cases, right, so even if I have a dollar left and I trigger a bonus round at .20, I should always spin the wheel. Yeeaahh.

Am I wrong to think something is almost always better than nothing?

All slot information seems to be written with the assumption that your going to only ever play that slot. The developers know pretty much no one will but obviously leave out those parts because they can!

Sure it's optimal if you have an unlimited balance but us normal folk don't and I'll be damned if I spend 20-30 minutes spinning a slot to get a bonus and then lose a shitty '50/50' gamble.

If the game wants to pay it's more than capable with 8 spins just like it's able to completely flop with more spins.

I only ever tried the gambles on demos and they barely ever went over 12 on Extra Chilli, I think I got bored before getting over 16. They must have been thought up as a bonus buy extra. As a UK player it's not worth it as you say.

Also they are smartly designed starting at 8. Most games start at 10 or 12 spins so that must be to tempt people to do the first one at least.