The 1 Line Theory

[joffyy]

1 lines for bonuses

Hi all, I thought this would be a relevant thread to post this question.

Say I am playing with a £200 bonus from a £200 deposit, With a £10,000 wagering requirement. If the slot is 9 lines, should playing with 1 line at £5 line bet (total bet £5) produce the same kind of EV as if 9 lines at £5 per line were used (total bet £45)? I realise that playing 9 lines the lines aren't independent, ie if you get a good wild symbol that will make several lines have good wins. Does this affect things?

Thanks

 

[trancemonkey]

Hi all, I thought this would be a relevant thread to post this question.

Say I am playing with a £200 bonus from a £200 deposit, With a £10,000 wagering requirement. If the slot is 9 lines, should playing with 1 line at £5 line bet (total bet £5) produce the same kind of EV as if 9 lines at £5 per line were used (total bet £45)? I realise that playing 9 lines the lines aren't independent, ie if you get a good wild symbol that will make several lines have good wins. Does this affect things?

Thanks

You just make it a more volatile game

 

[pyst777]

Don't think it was this thread but someone mentioned playing one line in PlaynGo games. Anyway I thought I would give it a go on Book of The Dead for a bit of fun. Deposited $20 and started playing 2cents on one line and some time later ended up with a $200 payout. A little while later I won another $100. All was good for a while with my balance going up and down and then it started to turn to custard and they QUICKLY BUT SURELY started taking it back again. Stopped myself before I gave it all back and withdrew $200. Probably would have given it all back if they weren't in such a hurry to take it. I play for fun really and it's not that when nothing is 'won' for 100's of spins in a row. Will do it again sometime - 2 cents a spin is all the excitement I need. Something I did notice - the bonus spins were all rubbish. It was getting full rows during normal play which gave me better returns. Just sharing.

 

[pyst777]

Had $28 left in my account after withdrawing $200 so decided to give PlaynGo Rise of Merlin a go playing 1 line at 2cents. That was at least 1400 spins plus the spins from the little money which I won back very infrequently. I got the bonus spins once and even that gave me one of the smallest returns I've ever had when playing one line. Time for me to take a break or to play for fun for a while. I didn't realise MG had multiline games which let you play just one line - I didn't look hard enough.

 

[Nicola]

The one line theory can be very costly if you are doing sizeable bets. I lost several hundred on Pimped and Royal Masquerade one night trying it!

 

[pyst777]

The one line theory can be very costly if you are doing sizeable bets. I lost several hundred on Pimped and Royal Masquerade one night trying it!

That will be why I'm happy to play as cheaply as possible. Not sure why it's a good idea to spend more than that when the expectation is that we lose in the end. Made another small deposit last night so I could play one line on a few Quickfire-Microgaming slots and another go at PlaynGo slots. Have decided to play short sessions on a number of games instead of just persisting with a single game until my money is all gone. Ended up a little bit ahead with a small return on Book of Dead.

 

[pyst777]

After enjoying a bit of success with playing one line in a few PlayNGo slots everything has turned to shit. lol Am now playing 300+ spins a lot of the time before I see the bonus spins and then the return is pretty pitiful. I even had 40 bonus spins all together once and received less than 100 coins. Most times the 10 free spins return around 20 coins. But it's the lack of small wins on the single line which has become really noticeable - get 5 coin returns every 30-50 spins with the occasional 20-30 coin return every 100+ spins. So much different than before I had a couple of good returns. Now I'm even put off playing all 10 lines.

 

[shoust]

I usually try this with slots that don't normally guarantee win spins, the free spin feature on Dragon Ship(or Riches of Ra) for example where you get reel 1 and 5 covered for 15 spins, half the time you'll likely get zero or barely more than 20x, the other half of the time you might get 100x and the rare chance you might get 2500x.

 

[shadow123]

Pimped and Masquerade are different from other games in that the feature spins are garranteed wins ,whether
you make a profit is down to the value of these wins .Does not seem to be any more difficult to get the feature on 1line play.
Strange thing about the game is that I am positive that 1 line play returns the highest rtp.
Try playing 2 or 3 lines ,unless you get stacked wilds its very rare to get wins on more than one of the lines
and the average value of those wins is no greater than those on single line play so unless its compensated
for elsewhere the rtp is lower when playing more than one line.Hope that makes sense.
Never done any serious real money play on 1 line but got placed in VS battles far more when doing it.

 

[Lemon]

I would imagine that there are 20 different bonus average tables, one for each of the number of lines in play. The average for a 20-line bonus would be 20 times that of the 1-line bonus average. The values returned in the bonus with 1 line active would not deviate too far from the average and the list of values would not exactly be expansive. At the other end of the scale, on 20 lines the range of values that the bonus can go for would be a lot wider and a lot more varied, and you might get a low value that would be impossible to deliver on a 1-line bonus if you divided it by 20, because it would be too small. Hence the belief that playing Pimped etc on 1 line is advantageous. But the average return of a 20-line bonus would still be 20 times greater than that of a 1-line bonus.

Therefore I don't think there is anything to be gained long-term from playing Pimped on 1 line. You might get lucky in the short-term because the game is more volatile on 1 line, but this will most certainly even itself out.

 

[shadow123]

You are probably right I cant imagine that Play and Go would not check the payouts on all the number
of lines but I did play around quite a bit on demo and 2 and 3 line play just seemed a dead loss compared
to single line play.

 

[pyst777]

I could start a new thread but they don't seem to like new threads here or at least I'm never sure if/when a new thread is warranted. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone thinks there are good days and bad days to play slots. I mean are they regularly bad to play on Mondays etc. I've been playing three PlayNGo slots a lot lately - Book of Dead, Rise of Merlin and Legacy of Dead. For a brief period I was having some luck on all three IF I played a strategy alternating between playing just one line or all ten lines. The luck depending on me making the change at the right time. Suddenly ALL three games have turned to shit - yep ALL of them. It doesn't or wouldn't matter how I play at the moment - the top playing lines aren't coming up and the bonus spins are giving pathetic returns. Just seems strange that all three games are behaving the same at the same time - that's how it's been for the last three days on all of them.

 

[Playford7]

I could start a new thread but they don't seem to like new threads here or at least I'm never sure if/when a new thread is warranted. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone thinks there are good days and bad days to play slots. I mean are they regularly bad to play on Mondays etc. I've been playing three PlayNGo slots a lot lately - Book of Dead, Rise of Merlin and Legacy of Dead. For a brief period I was having some luck on all three IF I played a strategy alternating between playing just one line or all ten lines. The luck depending on me making the change at the right time. Suddenly ALL three games have turned to shit - yep ALL of them. It doesn't or wouldn't matter how I play at the moment - the top playing lines aren't coming up and the bonus spins are giving pathetic returns. Just seems strange that all three games are behaving the same at the same time - that's how it's been for the last three days on all of them.

There is no best time, no worse time or any strategy at all.
if you want to win money playing slots then don’t play, that’s a way to guarantee to win.
granted playing at sites with lower RTP’s will over time have a massive difference and you will lose more and a lot more quickly than the sites with a better RTP.
to be saying Monday is good for bonanza and the Friday kicks ass on gonzo is lunacy.
the casino the provider and the local dog have zero influence on what you win or lose.
just make a deposit, any day of the week and any time... if you win then hell yeah! If you lose then tough shit.
i do believe certain slots may have a nudge of compensation about them, but as to a theory or a best time to play them... that’s just plain and utter madness.

 

[pyst777]

but as to a theory or a best time to play them... that’s just plain and utter madness.

Thank you for your opinion. lol

 

[Playford7]

Thank you for your opinion. lol

Your most welcome. And your pretty honoured, it’s rare I speak my mind on here.

 

[pyst777]

Still no change playing one line in the three PlayNGo games - Book of Dead, Rise of Merlin, Legacy of Dead. Lost count of the 100's of spins I've played in the last 4 or 5 days. Not expecting to make a fortune or to actually win at all but it's amazing how much taking is happening with very little giving. So different to how they were for me last weekend. Oh well, I'll keep on amusing myself for a while longer - I'm still in credit , 10 times more than my deposit. Not all from PlayNGo games.

 

[bamberfishcake]

Still no change playing one line in the three PlayNGo games - Book of Dead, Rise of Merlin, Legacy of Dead. Lost count of the 100's of spins I've played in the last 4 or 5 days. Not expecting to make a fortune or to actually win at all but it's amazing how much taking is happening with very little giving. So different to how they were for me last weekend. Oh well, I'll keep on amusing myself for a while longer - I'm still in credit , 10 times more than my deposit. Not all from PlayNGo games.

Thanks for the update.

Think its the kind of thing you would need to gauge over some time.

So many tactics and so little money.....for me anyway

 

[pyst777]

I've figured out the best strategy - play in DEMO mode. I'm having a terrific run of 'luck'. It's a different game to the one I've been paying to play for the last 5 days. lol

 

[trancemonkey]

Just an FYI - there is NO advantage play to playing on one line vs any other.
It might feel like there is, but trust me - unless they have seriously messed up (which i doubt) - all you are doing is changing the volatility of the game to make it more volatile.

 

[bamberfishcake]

Just an FYI - there is NO advantage play to playing on one line vs any other.
It might feel like there is, but trust me - unless they have seriously messed up (which i doubt) - all you are doing is changing the volatility of the game to make it more volatile.

I would have thought there might be a possibility of a swing slightly, in RTP, either way.

Otherwise they have to make the same amount of wins on the same amount of lines, exactly the same, for it to be the same dont they? i..e. a grading scale of wins for the amount of lines present. Can they really get it that accurate?

I hope my question makes sense.

Edit: an example would be games that have a bet type booster. Slight change in RTP for different bonus frequency such as that new Mega Masks game.

2nd Edit: Ive realised my question could/might take paragraphs to answer. Ill retreat and hastily return to the Ask me anything (about slots)! Im sure its covered in there somewhere.

And just take your word for it for now

 

[trancemonkey]

I would have thought there might be a possibility of a swing slightly, in RTP, either way.

Otherwise they have to make the same amount of wins on the same amount of lines, exactly the same, for it to be the same dont they? i..e. a grading scale of wins for the amount of lines present. Can they really get it that accurate?

I hope my question makes sense.

Edit: an example would be games that have a bet type booster. Slight change in RTP for different bonus frequency such as that new Mega Masks game.

2nd Edit: Ive realised my question could/might take paragraphs to answer. Ill retreat and hastily return to the Ask me anything (about slots)! Im sure its covered in there somewhere.

And just take your word for it for now

It depends how you do the maths....
You can easily make maths where every line pays exactly the same RTP - so the number of lines makes no difference. So no, it's not hard to do at all.

In fact, most maths (for simpler games at least) is calculated on one line, because the number of lines makes no difference.

Yes, a lot of games are a LOT more complex now, so the maths is more complex and therefore not every line pays the same - and in these cases you would likely have to do different maths for each line configuration. But the simple answer is - yes we can be that accurate

 

[pyst777]

Just an FYI - there is NO advantage play to playing on one line vs any other.
It might feel like there is, but trust me - unless they have seriously messed up (which i doubt) - all you are doing is changing the volatility of the game to make it more volatile.

I just like playing a bit longer for little cost. It's also a bit of an eye-opener to see how long it takes to get bonus spins and to see how little they pay most of the time. Always pleasing to see how much I've saved myself by playing cheaply. lol