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Play slots smarter. Leave with your winnings!

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Top 10 ways to know a slot machine is hot or cold

February 10, 2023 By Jon Friedl - Professor Slots

Introduction to Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold

The better you know your casino, the more you’ll win at slots. In this post, I’ll briefly describe ten ways to tell whether a slot machine is hot or cold. Plus, a bonus at the end!

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If you want more details on any of these approaches, go ahead and meander through my free content or purchase my convenient, direct-and-to-the-point online course, 30 Days to Play Slots Smarter and Win, for these winning slots strategies, and far more.

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#1 The 5-Spin Method to Take Advantage of Your Casino

The first way to know if a slot machine is hot or cold is my 5-spin method. More accurately, it’s an advanced use of my 5-spin method, which works at every casino instead of just those casinos which give out tastes.

Once you’ve learned the 5-spin method, described by its name, something interesting happens. You get better at using it. The 5-spin method becomes a slot machine assessment tool.

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To start, make five minimum bets on twenty slot machines. You’ll know immediately if there’s a hot slot machine among them. I say to start because you’ll soon learn to move away from picking any slot machine and instead make better choices which I’ll explain with my other top methods for learning hot and cold machines.

The 5-Spin Method to Take Advantage of Your Casino [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
The 5-Spin Method to Take Advantage of Your Casino [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

#2 Progressive Jackpots: Small, Large, Life-Changing

The second way is must-hit-by progressive jackpots. Even when not labeled as such on the screen of a slot machine with progressive jackpots, many casinos have set up their progressives to have unlabeled must-hit-by amounts.

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Learning what those amounts are takes time, but not bankroll. If progressive jackpots show a must-hit-by amount, it takes little time or bankroll. But labeled or unlabeled, this approach requires the virtue of patience.

Progressive Jackpots: Small, Large, Life-Changing [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
Progressive Jackpots: Small, Large, Life-Changing [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

#3 Earning Comps from Your Casino’s Loyalty Club

The third way is free play, a casino complimentary gift. What’s your plan when you use free play from the casino? Do you waste it?

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Or do you make the most of it by evaluating slot machines you’ve already identified as candidate winners? But can you use free play this way?

If you pull your entire free play down from your players’ club to your slot machine, then spend it all, that’s a waste. Do you know how little of it you can pull to your machine?

Is it a minimum of $5? Or is it less? The less you can pull down, the better. See if you can pull down enough only to make five or ten minimum bets.

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First, figure out which machines are candidate winners, then use free play to your advantage to test those candidates to find the winners. Free play lets you do that at no cost to you.

If you have a plan, that is. Do you?

Earning Comps from Your Casino's Loyalty Club [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
Earning Comps from Your Casino’s Loyalty Club [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

#4 Special Event Promotions & Winning at Your Casino

The fourth way is massive casino promotions. Casinos want promotions attended by many players, that’s why they have them, but casinos don’t always get what they want. Sometimes, promotions are duds.

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There are two great ways to take advantage of promotions, one for successful promotions and another for any promotion. A well-attended promotion will delight the casino. But come back early the following day to see if they “balance their accounting” the next morning by giving away a big jackpot or two.

The only cost for you should be getting up early to be at the casino before 6:30 AM the morning after a big promotion. You don’t need play.

You would be best if you watched for it. Is anyone playing in the high-limit room? And did they get a big win? If so, either play yourself or come back the morning after the casino’s next promotion to be that person winning.

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You can also win during promotions, but that’s the eighth way is further down this post.

Special Event Promotions & Winning at Your Casino [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
Special Event Promotions & Winning at Your Casino [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

#5 Win on the Morning After Holiday Celebrations

The fifth way is the same as the morning after massive promotions, but instead of promotions, it’s celebrations or holidays. Does anybody know the next big holiday?

And does anybody remember what Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, was like last year? I think you do remember. That was huge!

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Need I say more than remind you to review your notes about last year’s Thanksgiving events at your casino? Those that remember, you’ve had a year to plan.

Don’t miss out on what worked at your casino last year. The rest of you, get ready to learn something this coming Black Friday. And remember to write it down so you can do it again, perhaps better, next year.

Win on the Morning After Holiday Celebrations [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
Win on the Morning After Holiday Celebrations [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

#6 3 High-Limit Slots Tips & Tricks for Small Bankrolls

The sixth way is high-limit tips. All these ways to win at slots may seem separate if you’re new to my content. But advanced users know a lot of them are related to each other.

And the difference between newbies and advanced users isn’t much. If my 5-spin method works at your casino, if your casino gives out tastes, then optimizing my 5-spin methods means visiting your high-limit room to make $10 or $20 bets.

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Not on any slot machines, but candidate winning slot machines. It’s the cheapest way to play high-limit slots for hand-pay jackpots.

3 High-Limit Slots Tips & Tricks for Small Bankrolls [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
3 High-Limit Slots Tips & Tricks for Small Bankrolls [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

#7 Déjà vu Method: Syncing Your Gameplay to Casinos

The seventh way is my déjà vu method. It’s another approach to take advantage of your casino’s business marketing strategies.

And not every casino uses every marketing approach. Coming back a week later after you’ve gotten a big win, or seen someone else get a big win, is how this method works.

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One week later, on the same slot machine, five minutes earlier, and play through the same time as that jackpot a week ago to see if your odds are better because that’s the casino’s marketing plan.

This way is a straightforward, thoughtless method at work. The following way requires thought.

Déjà vu Method: Syncing Your Gameplay to Casinos [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
Déjà vu Method: Syncing Your Gameplay to Casinos [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

#8 Casino Environment Observations for Winning

The eighth way is the same as the déjà vu method, but better because it’s not thoughtless. This casino observation method doesn’t work at new-to-you casinos because you need to know your casino.

What does it sound like when everyone is winning? When does it sound like when few are winning? And neither was caused by more people showing up.

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Calibrate your ears to hear when everyone is winning. That’s when you play slots. When nobody is winning, that’s when you find something else to do.

But remain vigilant. I’d hate for you to abandon your expensive buffet just when you sit down to eat because, suddenly, everyone out on the casino floor is screaming with excitement.

Casino Environment Observations for Winning [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
Casino Environment Observations for Winning [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

#9 Highly Visible Locations: The Other Advantage Play

The ninth way is highly visible machines. Your casino might have up to three slot machines set up to win in highly visible areas. Most casinos do this.

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Stand in front of a slot machine. Now, turn around. Are other players looking back at you from a bar, café, or other machines? Or are you facing a wall?

You want the first, not the second. But to use this approach well, you must find the MOST visible machines.

You need to scout your casino, think about what you’re seeing, and select candidate winning slot machines. And perhaps play them with my 5-spin method to find the one winner.

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Yes, some casinos have a bigger budget and have set up winners at the end of every row of machines. But that’s not every casino. Every casino has up to three.

And, so that you know, somebody’s probably sitting at it already. That’s what’s known as a clue. And you’re on your way. Enjoy.

Highly Visible Locations: The Other Advantage Play [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
Highly Visible Locations: The Other Advantage Play [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

#10 Bank the Bonus: An Online Slots Winning Strategy

The tenth way is banking the bonus. We all love bonuses, even when it doesn’t lead to much money.

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With this winning approach, it is not so much about finding winning machines. My other methods can help with that, but more about knowing when to walk away and being able to leave with your winnings.

Most people can’t, you know. If you win a bonus, walk away with your winnings.

Or pocket some of your winnings, half or more, and only play with the rest if you think the machine has more wins to give.

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What’s your plan if you win a bonus? Decide now. Then, remember it later during all the excitement of a big bonus.

Bank the Bonus: An Online Slots Winning Strategy [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
Bank the Bonus: An Online Slots Winning Strategy [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

#11 Bonus: Use Tough Love to Cheaply Evaluate Slot Machines

And as a bonus, here’s my eleventh way. It’s how to sit down at a slot machine and decide if it is hot or cold.

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Hopefully, you’ve used one or more primary ways to identify it as a candidate-winning machine. Or not. I call this my tough love approach.

Make ten bets, and if you don’t win anything at all, walk away. It’s the tough love approach.

If you win anything in the first ten bets, make another ten bets for twenty total bets. Now, this is where the tough love approach comes into play.

You won something in those first twenty bets. You decide if it was enough. Not, “If I keep playing, I might win enough.”

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No. Have you already won enough in those first twenty bets? It’s the tough love approach.

If so, continue another thirty bets for fifty total bets and make the same judgment call. If you’re winning enough for yourself, then make another fifty bets for one hundred total bets. And, again, decide if you’re winning enough or not. Tough love!

Use Tough Love to Cheaply Evaluate Slot Machines [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]
Use Tough Love to Cheaply Evaluate Slot Machines [Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold]

Summary of Top 10 Ways to Know a Slot Machine is Hot or Cold

The better you know your casino, the more you’ll win at slots. I briefly discussed ten ways to tell if a slot machine is hot or cold. Plus, I offered the eleventh way at the end as a bonus!

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Winning Slots Strategies from Professor Slots

  1. The 5-Spin Method to Take Advantage of Your Casino
  2. Progressive Jackpots: Small, Large, Life-Changing
  3. Earning Comps from Your Casino’s Loyalty Club
  4. Special Event Promotions & Winning at Your Casino
  5. Win on the Morning After Holiday Celebrations
  6. 3 High-Limit Slots Tips & Tricks for Small Bankrolls
  7. Déjà vu Method: Syncing Your Gameplay to Casinos
  8. Casino Environment Observations for Winning
  9. Highly Visible Locations: The Other Advantage Play
  10. Bank the Bonus: An Online Slots Winning Strategy
  11. Use Tough Love to Cheaply Evaluate Slot Machines

Other Articles from Professor Slots

  • Previous: Getting a hand pay jackpot with a small $100 bankroll
  • Next: Forthcoming!

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