5. Bingo Strategies
Everyone has their own strategy to win at bingo. The following is a list of these that will hopefully work for you.
Play more than one sheet/card.
Usually for $5.00 increments you can purchase an additional game sheet. If the first sheet cost $20, then doesn't it make sense to pay $25.00 for two sheets and double your odds?
Play ahead of the game.
Mark your cards as soon as possible. Don't wait for the caller to announce the number, look at video monitor displays to see the next bingo ball. Marking your cards early gives you more time to look over your card to spot potential bingos. So it also helps to sit in a good position relating to being able to see the video monitor display of the bingo balls.
Set up your cards ahead of time.
Arrive to bingo a little bit early to give yourself time to mark your cards. Mark each game card with the pattern you'll be playing to help you see which numbers you need to focus on.
For example: If you are playing the game Small Picture Frame, you could mark the areas of the card that you wouln’t need to look at with a different color dauber. This allows you to more quickly focus area that is in play. Many players do this to speed up their marking, and allow them more time to look and identify bingos on their cards. Press on the camera icon to see an example of this. Everyone has different ways of marking their cards to help guide their play. Marking cards will help you spot the numbers you need more easily.
Pace yourself and watch your diet!
Stay well hydrated and don't overeat. Often enough I've gotten caught up in the fun of bingo to see myself slowing down and having difficulty marking cards, and all because I ate too much!
Pull-Tabs pay the big bucks!
Most bingo games pay between $100.00 to $250.00, and even less if you have to split the pot with another person who calls bingo the same time. Pull-tab games are $1.00 sealed cards the size of a credit card. When you buy one you open it to see if you have a set of numbers to play the game or just colorful pictures. In between the standard bingo games these pull-tab games will be played. Usually once the bingo volunteers sell out of them. The object for each pull-tab game is usually to cover all the numbers on the card. Pull-tabs games pay from as little as $100.00 to $1,199.00.
Pull-tab games usually pay more than bingo games, and not everyone plays. So if you were to invest in maybe $25.00 in one pull-tab game, and say 5 of the 25 actually had numbers allowing you to play the game when it comes up, your odds are usually better to win the pull-tab game than win a bingo game. This is because everyone has to play the standard bingo games in order to be in the facility, but not everyone plays the pull-tab games. The only catch here is that you must be willing to buy a good amount of pull-tabs for each game to give yourself good odds.
Stay focused.
Try not to get distracted when you play. Often workers will be walking the bingo area throughout the day/night and will be offering pull-tab ticket games, while your busy playing a bingo game. Allowing yourself to be distracted with pull tab games and other things can cost you a bingo if you miss marking numbers.
Another bit of advise with pull tabs is to not play them until you've won money from a bingo game. Avoid spending any money out of pocket to play these pull tab games. By doing this it will prevent you from going home really broke. I've seen players easily lose upward of hundreds of dollars trying to win a large pull-tab pay out.
Don't use light colored daubers.
Especially avoid the color yellow. Playing with light colored, less obvious to see dauber colors, will result in eyestrain. Trust me.
Exercise good Karma!
Now that you know the strategies relating to Bingo, move on to the next class, or are you ready to take the test?!
