Banked Bonus Slot Machines
Video Poker player's can also take advantage of banked bonus games. Silicon Gaming offers the Phantom Belle Playoff games in some of their Odyssey machines. During regular game play, the ghostly dealer tosses chips into the Bonus Pot. After every sixteen hands five coins are added to the jackpot until the Bonus Playoff Card appears. The next hand you get to play heads up against one of the three characters that appear on the screen. If you win you get the jackpot. If not the jackpot continues to grow until the next time the play off card appears. The playoff feature is offered in two games; Jacks or Better or Deuces Wild. These games have low pay tables and it is not advantageous to play until there is more than 200 coins in the jackpot. You should also be aware that the play off card appears about every 100 hands or so. I have seen the jackpot grow to over 400 coins and it could cost you more to play than the jackpot is worth. This is true on other bonus games as well.
You have to remember that the bonus in the bank comes from the coins played. If the previous players were only playing single coins the bonus in the bank may be very small. You might find that after winning the bonus you have won very little or actually lost money for your effort. Even with an advantage we don't always win. You also need to realize that more and more people are becoming aware of the bonus slots. You may have trouble finding machines that are left with the bonus almost complete. It will take a great deal of patience on your part to find them. You may also be up against players who spend all their time waiting to pounce on any machine left with an unfinished bonus. These aggressive players are called "Vultures" and they have been known to harass players to get them to leave when their machines are close to reaching the bonus. I will have more to say about these unscrupulous characters in the future.
Good Luck
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Until next time, remember:
"Luck comes and goes...Knowledge stays forever."