Welcome to Las Vegas! My name is Victor H. Royer, but everyone just calls me Vegas Vic. I was named after that famous neon sign in Downtown Las Vegas, that cowboy with the hat on top of the Pioneer Club, always waving his hand and beckoning to his long love, Sassy Sally, on the other side of the street. I will be writing a few articles for AccessVegas.com, so I hope you enjoy them.
Video Keno – Part Five
Top and Bottom Keno
This is quite a popular game, one that got its video version interest from the Lounge Keno version. In the Lounge Keno game, there are two versions of precisely this same game. The original version was the classic Top/Bottom ticket, where you bet on how many numbers would appear either at the "top" of the ticket -- the "top" numbers 1-through-40 as shown on the ticket layout -- versus the "bottom" portion of the ticket, showing the numbers 41-through-80, as printed on the keno tickets, and as being displayed on the keno board, and also on Video Keno screens. The second version was a derivative called Left/Right ticket, and it meant that you would be wagering whether the majority of the keno numbers drawn would be either on the left side of the keno board, or on the right side. Basically, this is the simplest use of "patterns" play, and I will discuss more of that as it applies to Video Keno a little later on.
On both versions of this ticket, it didn't matter whether the numbers hit either top or bottom, or left or right, because as long as you bet both sides, you would get paid either if a lot of the numbers so showed up, or not many at all. You see, these tickets paid for hitting a lot of numbers, but also for not hitting numbers. This made the tickets hugely popular, particularly with people who didn't know much about keno, but knew that non-hits happened a lot on their tickets. So, they played these tickets primarily because they felt that they will get paid even if they don't hit anything.
The Video Keno version of these tickets never quite caught on in the same manner as the Lounge Keno versions. There are only the Top/Bottom Video Keno versions of this game, and they work of a very simple principle. You bet either on the top 40 numbers, or on the bottom 40 numbers. That's it. Afterward, the game plays. If more than 12 numbers are selected by the machine among the 40 section you picked, then you will get paid the minimum pay, usually even money -- 1:1. The more numbers you hit in you selected half of the keno board, the more you get paid. Conversely, however, if you hit only 7 numbers, then you get paid 2:1 on that "non" hit. In this case -- without you having to move your selections -- the fewer numbers you hit, the more you will be paid. So, you have two chances to win: One, the more numbers you hit, the more you get paid. Two, the fewer numbers you hit, the more you get paid. Sounds good? Well, it is, but there is a catch -- you don't get paid anything for hits of 8, 9, 10 and 11 numbers, or non-hits of more than 7 and less than 12.
These four number groups combinations -- 8, 9, 10 and 12 numbers -- are the most common hits on this game. Therefore, you will not get many of those really juicy hits. In reality, this game looks better than it is. Overall, the best version of this game pays back about 94.323%, and that's not too bad. I have played this game myself many times, and the best pay I ever got was a non-hit, where I caught only 2 numbers out of the selected field of 40, and this paid me $500 on this particular machine and game. There are many versions of this game available, but the best one is the IGT Top/Bottom Video Keno game with the 94.323% payback.
For the actual charts showing all numbers and combination percentages, I refer you to my book: Powerful Profits from Keno. By using the charts in my book, you will be able to learn how to identify the better paying machines and game just by looking at the machine's payback tables.
Victor H. Royer is the Author of 22 books on casino gaming. His newest series of 13 books -- including the new release Powerful Profits from Tournament Poker -- are now available in all major book stores, or from The Gambler's Book Shop at 1-800-522-1777, or at Amazon.Com. Visit his Web site at: http://hometown.aol.com/vicnvegas/myhomepage/newsletter.html
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