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What are some strategies for winning at keno?

The game Keno is rapidly increasing in popularity and is now available at many online and brick-and-mortar casinos all over the world. Keno is a simple lottery-style game that offers ample opportunities for a fun flutter or higher stakes wagering. It’s a game of luck, but many new players wonder whether any Keno strategies can be deployed to increase their odds of hitting a big win. We take a look below and give you the information you need to help maximize your Keno profits and limit any losses, too.

Choose the Keno Games with the Best Payouts

Payouts can vary across different Keno games, so a basic element of your Keno strategy should be choosing games that offer the best payouts – so that if you do strike a lucky streak, you can more fully reap the rewards! It’s worth bearing in mind that online casinos usually offer better payout rates for Keno games than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, although this isn’t always the case, so check carefully before playing!

Understand the Odds

It’s really important to understand both the payouts that’ll be won for achieving single or multiple catches and the odds of these occurring. As well as helping you to get to grips with the odds, this will also mean you can make informed decisions about your gameplay and are at less risk of gambling beyond your means.

To give you an example of some typical Keno odds, you have roughly a 25% (one in four) chance of selecting and catching one number and a 14% of catching two numbers on a three-spot game. If you play a five-spot game, you’ve got around a 41% chance of catching one number and a 1% chance of catching four.

And your chances of catching eight on a ten-spot game? Sorry to say it’s only 0.01%!

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Know All the Keno Terms

As part of developing your Keno strategy, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the game’s terms. For example, All or Nothing refers to a Keno ticket that only offers a payout if a player’s selected numbers match all or none of the numbers drawn. 

A High-End Ticket pays out more to players who catch a higher number of spots compared to standard tickets, but players will win a lower amount of money for fewer or no catches. A Buy-In Tournament refers to a Keno tournament where players pay an up-front fee to participate. Once this fee is paid, the player can play in a specific number of games or a set number of tickets and can keep any money they win.

Play a Variety of Betting Combinations

While Keno is a game of luck, many players deploy a strategy of playing a variety of smaller combinations. For some, this is an effective way of slowly building up winnings and means that any single loss doesn’t deplete the pot too significantly.

The 2 / 3 1 / 6 strategy (also known as the Way Ticket) is an example: six numbers are marked on the card, and then an additional two groups of three numbers are circled. The $3 bet for this combo is split evenly, so it is $1 for each combination – this is a potential means of a player increasing their chances in a draw.

Use a King

Another strategy deployed by some Keno players is the consistent use of a King. A King refers to any number that’s encircled, alone, on a card. The King can subsequently be used on all combos and then played on the card – meaning that players can win with a variety of combinations as long as the King is drawn.

Remember: Keno is a Game of Luck

Whether or not you choose to use a strategy, it’s vital to remember that Keno is fundamentally a game of luck: one number or combination has just as much of a chance of being drawn as any other. However, it’s nevertheless a great idea to have a strategy in place that involves thoroughly familiarizing yourself with the nature of the game, its odds and payouts, and Keno terminology. This can help you make the best betting decisions, enjoy a fun experience, and, hopefully, pave the way to the odd win or two!

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