Slots Adventures

it’s late afternoon on friday, and i haven’t been to the casinos for what seems like a couple of days now.  things have been pretty busy, but it’s been fun, and i’m not missing the slots or anything.  i just remembered that the $5,000 freeroll is going on at english harbour, on the what’s your sign machine, and i know i won’t be getting any spins in over the weekend so i thought i’d try to take my spins this afternoon.

 because i’m in a bit of a rush, i have the chance to honestly go big or go home, without any worries.  so, my plan in this slot tournament is to crank up the coin sizes, and hope for the absolute best!  i will be trying to get through the warm-up (or “qualifying”) spins first though, just to see where i stand on the leaderboard.

right now, there are, get this . . . 16,961 players in the tournament.  that, is a ton.

we all start out with $500 in credits on the “What’s Your Sign?” video slot.  there are over 100 players that will receive prize money, so that’s a lot.  and surpringly, the top players do not have $100,000+ in credits.  in fact, the top three players all have between $10k and $16,400, which is not a lot at all compared to the other big tournaments i’ve seen.

the What’s Your Sign? game is a 12 payline machine, so i’m starting off at $1 coins, spending $12 per spin for these first 20 spins.

at the end of 20 spins, i have $476, and i’m in 238th place.  not bad considering the size of the field, but this is my day to win, or lose trying, so i’m cranking the coin size up a notch and going for broke!

hehe, at $60 a spin, it doesn’t take too long to find yourself out of credits.  but, i tried to win this one!

well, i might not make it back to the games until next week, but they’ll have a new freeroll waiting for me when i return so i gotta say thumbs up to English Harbour.

well, today is a good day, and i had time to look up the free slot tournaments schedule for the month of January for English Harbour and Superslots casinos. 

they’ll be running the regular daily slot tournaments with the nominal buy-ins (like the $5 one i played the other day, where i won my $5 prize, hehe).  but, they also have a set of big money events like they ran in December.  those events include:

Jan 1 -Jan 8  What’s Your Sign FREE   $5,000 + %
Jan 9 - Jan 15  5 reel Wheel Of Chance FREE   $5,000 + %
Jan 16 - Jan 22  Cleopatra’s Pyramid FREE   $5,000 + %
Jan 23 - Jan 31 The Reel Deal FREE $10,000 + %

each of them has no entry fee, so the freerolls are definitely on.

it’s great to see the big money continuing to flow, every week!

it’s well into the final football game of the evening on New Year’s Day, and i’m just getting into the swing of things for the day.  man, is my sleep schedule going to be off by a ton!  but, it’s not all the partying that’s turned me upside down, it was all of the travel over the holiday coming in quick bursts.  put me down for a nap this afternoon, so here i am bright-eyed in the late evening

anyway, i opened my email box, and it turns out there is a continuing player’s offer from All Jackpots Casino.  they’re offering 25 free spins on my choice of the following slot machines:

Avalon
Harveys
Isis
Loaded

hey, free spins are free spins, even if none of the machines are on my current list of favorites.  

looking at the “conditions” of the bonus, it becomes obvious that i’m not going to qualify:

“This offer is valid for players who have made a minimum of 2 wagered deposits between Sunday, December 31st 2006 and Wednesday, January 3rd 2007″

some offers are generous enough to make me consider being active to take advantage of them, like making an extra deposit or something of that nature.  this offer, requiring 2 separate deposits, isn’t really attractive enough.  although i do have to admit that even if i don’t take advantage of all of the offers, i like getting them. 

and, if the machines were different, that might have made a difference.  maybe not.

before moving on to some chores i can do at night, i thought i’d take a look in at English Harbour.  the last two slots tournaments i was in ended, and so there’s some fresh money in my bonus account.  that’s a good deal.

and, it looks like a new $5,000 freeroll has opened up.  i’ll have to look into the new schedule for january.

hope everyone is having a great new year’s holiday!

checking in at EH today, i noticed i’m on solid ground in the final festive freeroll event.  and, i decided not to try to make any great moves.  i’ll just take a regular old “in the money” showing in the tournament and be happy with that.

instead, i thought i’d sign up for the Five Golden Rings Tournament that they’re holding on the PayDay game.  it’s a $5 entry fee for the tourney, but they pay down to 83rd place.  so i think i have a perfectly fair chance to break-even at least, if not actually win a little something.

looking at the big leaders in the tourney, the top gun is sitting with about $9,000 in chips.  that’s a lot easier to take than the $90k or so that the top dog has in the $10,000 freeroll!!  maybe that’s why i decided to enter.  it reminds me a bit of the first tournaments, before 10,000 people started getting involved

well, after spinning through my qualifer period, i find out that i’m in 28th place!  woo-hoo (i hit one or two modest winners to start).  the payout difference between 28th and 78th is $0.  i’ll get my money back either way, so it looks like i’m on a bit of a freeroll!

had about $530 in credits - so i decided to up the wager per spin to $15, which is one heck of a bump over the $3 a spin i was using.  and, it payed off!  i hit triple 7’s, moving my total credit count up to $665.  lol, now i’m only $8,300 or so off the lead!

i had played this machine several times before during some other slot tournaments - in fact, here is a review of the pay day slot machine you can check out.

well, i gave it a good go, and i’m down to 51st place.  at this point i’m jacking it up for the night. 

even though this tournament had an entry fee, it really turned out to be a freeroll instead.  i have less credits than i started with, so i’m not much of a winner, but i’m still in the money.  can’t complain.  maybe i’ll have better luck next time.

in a rare night time slots spinning session, i found myself heading out to All Jackpots to take a couple of spins on the Tunzamunni machine.  it was either that, or sit down at a poker table, and tonight the patience for that game was beyond my reach.  so, To The Slots I went!!

i decided to take advantage of the expert mode on the machine, and just set it to spin 100 times and see how it all came out in the end.  at a quarter a spin, that’s a whopping $25 worth of wagering, but, considering that that’s all i have in my AJC account, that’s enough.  besides, it would give me a pretty good idea of how well i got paid off at the reels.

if i found myself at $3 at the end of the night, i knew it was running cold for me.  if i was up, i’d know that the machine was running warm.

one thing i did think of while the reels were spinning is that the Tunzamunni is a progressive jackpot game.  not that i ever thought about winning the thing, i did think that maybe she’s a little cold so that way the jackpot could build up.  and the first 50 or so spins helped feed that thought.

after the first half of my spins were in i thought “if this were a bonus machine, i’d be due to hit” because it was not much more than lose, lose, lose coming out.  but after that, things turned around.

in the end, i hit a set of single bars, which is 75 credits, or good for covering the cost of 15 spins.  but, on top of that, i landed a triple 7’s (mixed, so it was worth 400 coins).  and that put me up over even for the night. 

in fact, i ended up at 32 bucks, which is a growth of 25%! lol, i know, i know, i’ve read about that stuff in some different slots articles, and who ever thinks of playing a slot machine as being the same as an investment???  but at the end of the night, it’s still fun to see that i caught a warm machine to play!

or, maybe had a warm session.  that’s probably more like it.  but it doesn’t matter.  i’m working with that bonus All Jackpots gave me for the holiday season (props to those guys).  and, i can either use it to try to win, or i can use it to try to win.  so, since i’m into this machine lately, i thought i might . . . well, you know.

this morning brought the advance notice of the New Year’s promotion at Slotland.  unfortunately, that growing jackpot of theirs was hit before Christmas, so it’s not like there’s over $110,000 to go after.  i think their jackpot is sitting at about $33,000.

that aside, i was talking with a friend of mine last week, maybe the week before, about Slotland.  he thinks they’re reputable people, you know, always pay as quick as possible, offers some good bonuses for the holidays, and so on.  but, he simply can’t stand that the machines have no sound as was wondering why they never upgraded their slot machines to at least try to keep up with the big guys, like microgaming and all.

i didn’t have an answer.  doesn’t really matter, it’s not like i run the place, so i wouldn’t be making any changes for them anyway.  but, since i still keep an eye on them and play there from time to time, it did get me wondering.

i know that i go back because i hit sometimes in those bonus newsletters.  if you’re not signed up there, every month or so they send out a newsletter with a little slot machine in it.  you can pull the lever, and when the reels stop you’ll win something.  usually a % deposit bonus, but sometimes it’s just straight cash that goes into your player account.

i’ve hit cash on those.  besides the newsletter thing, the slots are LOOSE.  and winning is always fun, with or without the whistles.

i guess that’s it, winning is fun. 

oh, the bonus announcement.  same thing as Christmas, unlimited bonuses of 20% on each deposit. that’s a pretty good deal. 

it works for both New Year’s Eve (the 31st) and all of New Year’s Day.  so, if you’re sitting down getting ready for some play on the holiday, keep that in mind.

i’ll be gone for the holiday, so i won’t be playing anywhere.  i’ll be travelling.  well, if i do play it’ll be because we stop in a casino while we’re travelling.   if i get the chance to do that, i’ll be sure to post about it!

today is the day i’m going to be taking some spins in this slots tournament being held on the Reel Deal machine at English Harbour.  santa was super-nice to me, and i see the week being filled with a mix of chores and distractions, so i thought no better time than the present to get in a little gaming before i miss my chance at this main event slot tournament.

i checked out the leaderboard, and the player in first place took their $500 in starting credits, and spun it into $135,000.  second place is miles away, but still miles ahead of say, me, with just under $80,000 in credits.  so, those guys are the top two out of the 14,567 players involved. 

i’m going to start out playing $.50 per coin, and activating all 20 of the paylines, so if i do hit something, it’ll make a difference.  i’m kindof playing this, well, not to win, but losing won’t hurt my feelings today.  it’s not like i just came off of a poker tournament and the idea of busting out again bothers me. 

i’m thinking of it as i’m going to have to take some chances, and get lucky while i’m doing it, to get anywhere near the top in this event.  still, i’m not going whole hog for twenty seconds.  i’d like to get some spins in, at least the 20 warm-up spins, before busting out.

so, here goes . . .

well, sitting with $467 in credits, i’m also sitting at 278th in the tournament.  that, is in the money!   

but, being in the “go for the gold” mode, i didn’t let that stop me.  and, i kept taking spins at $10 each and kept losing.  and ran from being sure of getting $10 in bonus money just for signing up and spinning a little to being dangerously close to busting out. but i said i wasn’t going to be afraid to bust out this time!

and, before that happened, i caught 3 scatter symbols, which unlocks a free spin session (and is a winner in its own right.  i think they gave me $125 for hitting it).  and, now that the free spins have finished, i’m up to $622.  it’s still the same $10 in bonus money if i hold on to this position in the tournament - but, it’s more than i started with credits-wise. 

so, even if another, say, three thousand players rebuy or sign up fresh, they’ll have to do some winning to pass me out!

i’m shutting her down at this point.  we’ll see, maybe i’ll be back to take a stab at hitting the big one, maybe not.  but for now, ITM is a nice place to sit

i’ve been in the holiday spirit as of late, so the blogging has been a bit spotty.  i did notice, however, that the Slotland Jackpot went off somewhere over the $115,000 mark.  i had planned on taking a couple of spins on it tonight if it didn’t already get hit.

but, it did. so i took a couple of spins on the Tunzamunni insteaddidn’t hit anything of note.  didn’t run out of money, just no jackpots to speak of for the session.

then i thought i’d better check up on the big mega-bucks freeroll tourneys at english harbour.  they’ve started the headliner of the month, the $10,000 freeroll on the Reel Deal Slot Machine.

this tournament is free to enter, and runs from now until the end of the month.  this is definitely the biggie in terms of prize monies going out.  english harbour had been running a series of these freerolls all month, and each of those lasted a week and had $5,000 prize pools. 

the tourney takes place on the Reel Deal video slot game, which (as you’ve probably guessed) is a slot built around the idea of the “Deal or No Deal” game.  that’s what the bonus feature is, a “choose a suitcase” or “pick’em” game.

the payouts for this event stretch pretty far down the line.  the top 587 or so finishers get some sort of reward for their efforts.   that’s a lot of winners.  of course all the really big money goes to the very top players, but i can live with that.

players are all given $500 in tournament credits to start with, and then you can spin away until time runs out, you think you have enough credits, or you run out.  if you run out, you can rebuy (like in a poker tournament).  a rebuy costs $5, and gives you another $500 in credits to work with.

the money from the rebuys is throw right into the prize pool, so the actual payouts are constantly growing.

i haven’t registered yet, but i will.  this is one i don’t plan on missing.  i have all week next week to sit down and do some playing, so i’ll get to it then. 

’tis the season, that’s for sure.  if you’re like me you’ve been getting tons of mail lately, and in there are some special cards for the holiday season from family, friends, and business associates.  well, my wife and have been blessed this year, so we were sorting candy from gift baskets and cards the other night, and i came across one that was from “Jackpot Factory”.

while the name rang a bell, as though i’ve heard it before, i wasn’t particularly sure who these guys were.  but it sure sounded like a casino group, and so i opened it. there was a nice glossy card inside, and thankfully no cd of all the casinos.  i’m not sure why that would turn me off, maybe because of all the casino cd’s i’ve received when i already have that casino on my ‘puter. 

anyway, i open up the card, and inside there’s a pocket with a picture of a christmas stocking and a piece of paper sticking out of it. the paper has “stocking stuffer bonus” written across the top so i can see it.  as i pull it out of the stocking, the rest of the paper looks just like a check, for $10.

now, it’s not a real check.  but it’s not one of those “$x off” or “x% depsoit bonus” things.  it’s worth $10 in bonus money at the casino.

so, i went over to the Jackpot Factory website, and saw the whole group of jackpot factory casinos.  i’ve been playing at All Jackpots for, well, if you’ve been reading my posts you now it’s been quite a while.  i had to enter the internet address to get past the index page of the site and onto the page where they hand out the stocking stuffer bonuses.

they asked for my account number, which was conveniently written on my “check”, which is nice because those things are pretty cryptic.  i click a button and poof, i’m done. 

so i wonder over to the casino, and sure enough, about ten minutes later there’s another $10 in my bonus account.  can’t beat that.  that’s the second $10 or $15 no deposit required bonus i’ve gotten from these guys this month.  sweet.  and, i appreciate it!

so, i’m off.  i think i’m going to take a couple of spins on the Tunzzamunni machine.  if i hit big i’ll be back, if not, i’ll post some more tomorrow.   

which is pretty good news.  even better news is that the folks at Slotland know that the holidays are here, that’s a lot of cash, and maybe they ought to give a player a reason to play.  you know, some sort of bonus incentive to make everyone who’s been say, sitting on the fence decide to make a deposit and have at it a little for a piece of this ripe jackpot!

so, they decided to offer a three day special for the holidays!

it starts on the 23rd of December and runs through the 25th.  every deposit made at the casino will be accompanied by a 20% deposit bonus.  i’m looking and looking and looking, and i don’t see anything about “up to $x amount”.  which i think makes sense. 

after all, if they give you 20% every single time you deposit, what’s the difference between lots of smaller deposits and one bigger one?

here’s part of the email i got about the promo:

“All registered Slotland players receive their personalized newsletter prior to the start of each promotion. Each newsletter offers the registered SLOTLAND player a match deposit bonus from 30% to 100% for each regular monthly newsletter, PLUS the chance to win up to $10 on each special newsletter edition (there is generally 1 special newsletter per month)! If you are not yet registered at Slotland, NOW is the time to start! Increase your beginner’s luck at Slotland by cashing in on the fun and many bonuses! ”

truth is, each newsletter has a mini-slot machine inside of it.  you spins the reels and see what you win.  you don’t always win either, but that’s how i got my playing cash at that casino.  i won $10 or something like that, and hit on the machines when i went to go play it.  i’m down to like $40-$50 now, but had had it up over $300.

hmmm, so that’s all i have to say about the casino, the promo and the growing jackpot, except now what do you do?  do you wait until the 23rd to deposit so you can get the 20%, and hope the jackpot holds out that long?  or do you start playing now, and hope that the bonus doesn’t matter because you’ll rack up a couple of wins before the 23rd comes around?

decisions, decisions.

oh, and since all of the machines in the casino are tied to one big progressive jackpot, you can’t play for free there.  i think they’re the only casino online that doesn’t have free versions of their slots, so i thought i’d shoot a heads up about that before you go visiting.