June 30, 2020 by

How to Avoid a Few of Gamers’ Top Mistakes

We at Slots Play Casinos have spoken in the past about maximizing the fun you have gaming at a good online slots casino. Here is a recent article on this very subject: https://www.slotsplaycasinos.com/news/8-tips-for-enhanced-online-gaming-fun/

Now that everyone is committed to having a great time gaming online, we want to expand the conversation to include mistakes some gamers make that we didn’t cover in the article linked above. Finally, to add to the benefit some gamers might get from a list of mistakes to avoid, we will talk about how to avoid these mistakes!

Let’s see at quick glance at the answers and then we’ll go over the “how to”:

  1. Always emphasize the fun side of gaming rather than the gambling side.
  2. Play online far more often than you play at any land based casino.
  3. Read the blogs and news sections of the online casino you’ve chosen.
  4. Study the game or games.
  5. Keep everything in healthy perspective – time, money, fun.

Trying to Win without Studying the Games

This also includes the games of chance! We might have thought that players only needed to study the games of skill but that is a big mistake. We also have to study the games of chance. Well, what does that mean?

Let’s quickly look at slots. Some slots have high variance and some have low variance and most are in the middle somewhere. As a bankroll management tool, most gamers need to do some research in order to know before they put money down what the variance for the slot they want to play is.

This does not mean that you can’t play a high variance slot. It means that if you are going to manage your bankroll correctly, you should play slots that give many small wins more often and for longer stretches of time than slots that might give a few lucky gamers a big win but leave most gamers with sizable losses.

There are many games of chance in the casino. Bingo, for instance, has absolutely no strategy to it at all. But bingo takes longer to play than a single spin in slots. So, to stretch your gaming enjoyment you could play bingo in addition to slots or roulette.

In roulette, most gamers like to watch the wheel spin. So, place even money bets and play European roulette which has only one 0 and not 00.

In order to manage your bankroll, if you have only a very limited bankroll, you should also look for games that allow the lowest possible bet.

We all know quite well the importance of study in the games of skill but there is a lot we can learn by studying the games of chance and knowledge is a great weapon. We will enjoy ourselves a lot more if we know more about the games we want to play.

Playing Too Much

This might seem strange coming from a site that recommends online casinos and talks about the joy of online casino gaming. The point here is that the joy of online casino gaming is part of an overall program for spending your free time. We also recommend having a hobby, having a wide circle of friends, listening to music and even better learning to play a musical instrument.

Everything in moderation is a mantra that many doctors and others will tell you and we say the same thing. You’ll like online casino gaming if you keep it in an honored place along with all the other things you do.

Some gamers say that they have to play online casino games to unwind and relax after a long day. This might be true. Still, to avoid the mistake of playing too much, you could do some deep breathing, stretches, a walk around the block, even watching something interesting on television before you curl up on the sofa to play online casino games.

Then, when you do play you will already be somewhat relaxed and you will already have started the unwinding process. Online gaming is a great maraschino cherry on the top of other activities you might do to begin the relaxing and unwinding processes.

Playing Games of Skill at Too High a Level

We might study poker every day. We might be able to recite the list of starting hands in every position in Texas Holdem. Being able to parrot back what the teacher said in class was a great way to get good grades in school but it doesn’t work well in the casino and in the long run it leads to a lot of boredom playing games of skill.

A game of skill like blackjack has to be appreciated in order to really like it. There is a great scene in the movie California Split in which the character played by George Segal wins a huge amount of movie in a casino but bemoans the fact that he felt no elation. He had won big but “there was no special feeling”.

In order to truly enjoy gaming there has to be a special feeling. Playing a game of skill at a level that is beyond your skill level is doomed to annihilate enjoyment.

There is nothing wrong with playing poker for small stakes. There is nothing wrong with playing video poker in the single-hand rather than the multi-hand format. Anyone who chooses to play a game of skill has to realize that there are many levels of skill in every such game. Always play at your skill level and for the stakes that best coincide with your financial means.

Turning Gaming into Gambling

This is a saying that we repeat as often as we can. One of the key elements in enjoying online casino gaming is to make sure that it always stays as gaming and never segues into gambling. This means that even though almost all online casino gamers put some money on the line when they play, the money should be far less an issue than the sheer enjoyment of playing.

Putting money on the line is gambling. Enjoying the game for its own sake is gaming. Turning gambling into gaming is the key point here; this is a very good thing. Unfortunately, some players start to see the money side as being more important than the fun side. This attitude is what we call turning gaming into gambling and it is one of the biggest mistakes any online casino gamer can make.

Online Casinos Often Have Blogs

Online casinos often feature entire sections of good writing on many subjects relating to casino gaming. A lot depends on the specific online casino, of course, but the general idea is that they pay someone to write articles for the benefit of gamers. It is a mistake to ignore these articles. Even if they only entertain and don’t teach per se, they are good in their own way. But many gamers can and do learn from them!

At the very least, you should look through the articles, news, or blog section at your online casino. You may be amazed at what you find there!

Online Casinos Offer Promotions

The best promotions land-based casinos offer are free alcohol, free restaurant meals, sometimes free hotel rooms, and sometimes free show tickets. Land based casinos also have loyalty points programs but most players don’t earn enough points playing on land to take full advantage of these promotions.

The situation is entirely different at online casinos where a gamer can accumulate loyalty points over many weeks and months of gaming. After weeks and months of even moderate gaming, a gamer will have a very large supply of loyalty points which they can then turn into casino credits.

Online casinos offer week-long or month-long promotions because their gamers play at these casinos regularly. This is in contrast to gambling in a place like Las Vegas where a gambler might play at several casinos during a long weekend but for only a short period of time at each one.

In this situation, any promotion the casino might be running is of little or no use to the roaming gambler.

And in the End

So let’s distill the so-called mistakes we have gathered here and recap:

  1. Always emphasize the fun side of gaming rather than the gambling side.
  2. Play online far more often than you play at any land based casino. This applies even if you live in a city with a land based casino!
  3. We encourage every gamer to read the articles put up at many online casinos.
  4. Study the game or games you like to play.
  5. Keep everything in healthy perspective from the length of your gaming sessions, to your bankroll, to the size of the bets you make in any given game.

Online casino gaming is a great pastime for many people. It is meant to be one pastime among several that every gamer should have for a well-rounded life. We hope that you all have fun online gaming next time and every time after that!

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David is our amateur economist and political philosopher, weather enthusiast, killer Sudoku fan, and best darn game analyst we've found.

In the twenty or so years since graduating college David has completely changed his gaming practices. Where once he played mostly video games with the occasional swing at blackjack at land-based casinos, David switched course and became a regular Sudoku player. David says that he likes the intellectual challenge of solving difficult problems.

Since he began playing Sudoku in earnest, David has ... [Read David Connor full bio]