All Bingo Club

Online Bingo

Avowed bingo players like myself occasionally find that it is fun to indulge in some online bingo playing. Online bingo games can provide much of the regular brick and mortar bingo experience without requiring that you ever leave the comfort of your home. In addition, certain aspects of the online bingo games might actually be superior to the classic land based versions.

Auto Daubing

One of the most terrible experiences in bingo is realizing that you have missed an important number call. Such a miss could easily result in you losing a session you would otherwise have won. The online bingo games generally have an automatic daubing feature which immediately marks off every number called throughout the game. While some might argue that such a feature detracts greatly from the fun of the game, it does serve to prevent rather sad mishaps. Players who feel that their attention might not be at its peek would probably be wise to make use of this feature.

Finding an Online Bingo Game

When players are limited to the brick and mortar bingo halls they are actually limited to a very specific time frame when they can play. This is because the games have specific schedules and for the big games to be sufficiently big, the crowd attracted has to be big enough. Online bingo games are much easier to find at any hour of the day or night. Big games are being scheduled all the time and players share information regarding particularly interesting games with big jackpots. The massive amount of online bingo players also allows online bingo sites to sell bingo cards for as little as 10 cents (for the smaller games). This means that another advantage of the online bingo halls is that you can actually participate in many more bingo games for the same initial investment. This is also something to take into account.

A Brief Explanation

Bingo players use a terminology all their own. As with many gambling games, this terminology has succeeded in leaking out of the world of bingo and has affected the formulation of commonly used expressions. I thought it would be nice to collect a few bingo expressions and terms and define them so that if any novice players come along this little list will help them find their way in the game.

Winning (and Almost Winning) Terms:

Bingo: This is the name of the game (derived from beano). This is also what you call if you succeed in being the first player to obtain a winning pattern. Calling bingo as soon as you realize you win is important since in some halls the first to call will be the one who collects in the case of a tie.

Jumping the gun: This refers to calling bingo before an actual bingo has been achieved. Usually, this refers to an actual win that was called when the numbers appeared on the screen before they were called out by the caller.

Bongo: This refers to the instance when one calls out a win mistakenly because he thought he had a bingo. Other names for this situation are :"false alarm" and "social error".

Bonus Numbers:

Wild numbers: Some bingo halls allow players to begin the game with certain bonus numbers. These are termed "wild". The numbers are usually determined by the results of the first ball.

Standard: This refers to the standard wild number rule where the singles digit of the first ball is considered to be "wild" and all numbers which have that digit in their singles place are automatically marked off (a 42 would mean that 2 is wild and thus 12,22,32 etc. would all be marked off).

Forwards/Backwards: This method of selecting wild numbers means that all numbers with a tens digit that is identical to the wild number are marked off. In some casinos, this means that numbers which have a singles value which is greater than 6 might be disqualified since there are no numbers above 75.

 

Different Ball Amounts

As all of us bingo players know, there are different variants of sums of bingo balls that can be used in a bingo game. Some of us prefer the more tame standard amounts of 75 balls while others prefer playing at bingo games with far more balls. Of course, from a theoretical mathematical point of view, the number of balls being used is theoretically irrelevant (when you consider the basic bingo game). The winner of the bingo session is still going to be the player who is luckiest and scores his winning pattern first. Nonetheless, even from a pure mathematical point of view there is some meaning to the increase in balls.

A Mathematical Meaning

When more balls are used, it means that it will probably take longer for any single player to reach a winning combination. This means that if there is a bigger jackpot to be won if someone scores in less than a given number of turns, the odds of this occurring are decreased. Of course, many bingo halls realize this and this is taken into account so that either the jackpot is bigger, the given number of turns is increased or else techniques such as drawing two balls at once are used so that effectively more numbers are called in fewer rounds.

A Psychological Meaning

For us bingo players, perhaps the true significance lies in the realization that bingo is a game of suspense and excitement. As we all near the goal of winning, the suspense heightens and that is part of the fun. When more numbers are used, more players will get some numbers on their board before a win is announced. Thus, the playing atmosphere in games with more balls and numbers is more tense and the suspense concomitantly greater. Players who enjoy such suspense and excitement tend to enjoy the more exciting games and players who prefer a more tame game tend to prefer the more standard bingo events.

Same old Wins

Have you ever felt a bit bored with the standard classic win patterns? If so, then you should know that there are many more win patterns available than just the lines, crosses and the postage stamp. Different bingo halls offer a variety of special win patterns that include such exotic pattens as the candles, birthday cake, butterfly and bow tie. These special win patterns often reflect a specific game theme. This variety is very important for certain players.

The Same Race

While different game themes don't change the underlying concept of a bingo race, they do serve to create a pleasant change in how the games are played. This sort of change helps make the bingo games more fun. While some players don't like changing from the well known classic patterns, I think that the idea of a change is refreshing and adds a certain measure of much needed flavor to the game. The game challenge is further increased by the mild mental exercise involved in keeping track of the various win patterns available.

The Best Place for Variations

 Of course, the best place for a wide variety of different winning combinations that can be chosen from is to try one of the many online bingo halls. These are best suited for allowing a wide variety of winning patterns because the large collection of players always provides a good crowd for any game chosen. Some online bingo halls boast as many as 300 different winning combinations or more. Trying some of these different winning combinations is certainly worth a try as they can be lots of fun.