How to Play Pokies Online

Last Updated: February 26, 2017

Want to learn how to play pokies online? Learning how to play pokies has become extremely popular among Australian gamblers because of the ever increasing number of games. First, find an online casino available to Australians. Second, build an account and take advantage of the initial sign-up and deposit bonuses. Third, review their selection of slot games and start playing the themes that appear most interesting to you. While each game differs in their graphics and sounds, often times there are only slight changes in their rules. This makes learning how to play pokies a relatively easy process. Coming to understand the basic rules of slot machines will help you to quickly orient to any new game you choose to play.

Probably the most important aspect of learning how to play pokies is understanding how to place your bets. When you first play online slots you place your bet prior to the spin. Often times there is a minimum bet and a list of easy bet options for selection.

The size of your possible winnings is generally dependent on the size of your bet. Each game should have a payout chart to help you understand your potential winnings in relation to your bet. This is important if you want to play for a progressive jackpot because jackpots are usually only paid out on “Max Bet” spins.

Not everyone has the same budget when playing slots. The most common poker machines have bet options that range between a nickel and a dollar. Some games allow for a bet as low as $0.01. These are referred to as penny pokies. There are also slots which allow for high stake bets. The high stakes slot games will regularly allow for bets ranging between $100, $1000, or more. If the online casino is powered by Microgaming you’ll find they allow for a maximum bet of $500 per spin.

The paylines can vary a bit from one game to the next. This will have to be investigated for each specific game you play. The old poker machines were very straightforward having only a single payline that went horizontally across along the center of three reels. The new video slots and 3D poker machine games have multiple paylines and more reels.

With video slots and 3D poker machine games you generally have additional bet options. Since there are multiple paylines you can place a bet on each line. Common numbers of lines on which you can bet are 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, and 100. While choosing to bet on multiple lines will increase your odds of winning per spin, the cost of each spin can quickly add up.

Understanding how betting works with multiple paylines is often important if you want a chance at winning the largest jackpots. In many of the games you need to bet on the max number of paylines in order to win the top jackpot. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the payout schedule of each game you regularly play so you will be aware what you need to bet in order to qualify for the jackpot.

Once you’ve placed your bet you’ll hit the spin button. This is the most exciting part about the game. The reels start to spin accompanied by a series of lights and animations. When the reels stop the game will look to see if a winning combination has landed on the paylines. If you win a prize on the payline there is an immediate payout to your account along with a reward animation.

Wilds: The wild symbol provides you the opportunity to substitute the spot with the most advantageous symbol possible to build a winning combination in the line. Having wild symbols in the game can drastically improve your chances of making a winning combination.

Expanding Wilds: Expanding wilds will cause the every spot on the entire reel to become a wild. As a result your chances of making a winning combination on multiple paylines increases.

Stacked Wilds: Stacked wilds are when you are given wild symbols in a complete horizontal line.

Trailing Wilds: Trailing wilds will provide you with several wild spots on several random locations in your paylines.

Multipliers: A multiplier takes the winnings from a single spin and multiplies it by a given factor. Different games offer a variety of multipliers ranging from 2 times to 25 times your standard winnings. Some game’s highest jackpots can only be achieved with the luck of landing specific multipliers.

Scatter: Scatter symbols will take effect regardless of where they land. They commonly provide additional cash winnings, free spins, act as multipliers, or are tied to an interactive bonus. In some games if you have more than one of these appear on the screen during a single spin they can have a synergistic effect.

You’ll find that online slots made on the same gaming software, such as Microgaming, have very similar rules even if the graphics and sounds are completely different. This is because the same math and statistics are generally applied. To experience the widest variety of games with different rules, wilds, scatters, and multipliers you’ll need to play different games hosted on different gaming software.

Now that you’ve learned the basic rules you can read our tips page that will help you be a more savvy player. You’ll want to pay close attention on promotions specifically related to the online casinos we recommend. These casinos often provide incentives such as free spins and other bonuses on specific days of the week.

Find additional information visit these pages:

• Online Pokies
• Free Slots and Free Spins