Advantage Slots

Let’s start with the obvious. Having any blue pope-hat-looking symbol, ruby/emerald, crown, or diamond on almost any bet is a slam-dunk (below is a crown):

Now, there could be a rare time when it wouldn’t necessarily be a “slam dunk.” I’d still play this below, but on a $36 bet, the emerald of $2,567.37 is not as can’t-miss as it might initially seem:

On that bet, its value is actually significantly less than a crown ($6,000) and even a pope hat ($3,000). That’s because the diamonds and rubies/emeralds will stay at the same value regardless of the bet size, so for those three only, it’s much better to find them on smaller bets.

Don’t overthink this a whole lot; you’re unlikely to see this with any frequency. And in this wacky example, it’s worth playing anyway because of the two +2 push coins and two pearls. It’s just not an all-world find. Just make sure you have $10,000-plus on you (more on that soon).

How about something much more realistic like this?

You’re looking at whatever is in the coin-pusher section, so in this case we have a red-swirl symbol, a free games ring, and a pearl, along with not many coins.

Something like this is the worst I’d consider playing — although one could make a strong case for turning this down, because the red swirl isn’t near the edge — and notice it happens to be an $18 bet. So doing some quick math ($18 times 300), you want a whopping $5,400 in your wallet to safely take something like that on.

Make sure you know that!

How about this one?

That’s almost nine full stacks of coins, but you can see no other symbols are included. It’s right on the edge of being a play, but I’d pass. Without any symbols included, just a bunch of stacks of coins isn’t appealing enough. Technically, this game is a must-hit, as it supposedly auto-triggers at 13 full stacks. I’ve never seen it get that many stacks, though.

Here is a much better play:

That’s over seven full stacks with two blue swirls. Here’s one more example that’s perhaps not as obvious:

You have a blue swirl, a tennis ball (the symbol right under a blue swirl in value), a +2 pushes coin, and two free games rings. But they aren’t exactly teetering over the edge, and we don’t have stacks of coins or many coins in general. Still, I’m playing this one.

Trust me, I don’t play everything and probably pass on more than some pros. Here’s a close one I’d probably turn down:

I say “probably,” because it’s such an inexact science with this game. You need to play it for yourself to see what you feel comfortable with, but know going in that there’s volatility to it, which is why I recommend bringing 300x the bet if you play.

As alluded to above, the bonus we’re playing for is the coin-pusher feature. It’s awarded at random, so it doesn’t matter how full or empty the coin-pusher section is as far as the likelihood of triggering. Sometimes the bets on the bottom of the board have “fire” on them:

The fire on the $3 bet doesn’t always mean it’s worth playing. Sometimes it’s a play, but often not. As a shortcut, however, I often won’t check each bet for plays unless I happen to see fire on one of them. If there’s fire on any of the bets within each denom, I’ll then inspect the board to see if it’s good enough.

Back to spinning: Sometimes the bonus comes seemingly every 10th spin, and sometimes you’re like that little kid in an arcade, waiting for a prize that never arrives. Oh, but our bonus does eventually arrive. They just make us earn it at times.

You’re given four spins and that number can increase with +2 push coins if you have any of those. Each spin, the tree in the background gives a little shake and drops coins and sometimes symbols onto the top of the pusher, and those coins push whatever is already on the board.

There’s also a second bonus, which can be triggered in the coin-pusher bonus as well: eight free spins. That’s also what those free games rings will give us should we win any. What’s great about this one is you’ll sometimes get multiple retriggers, leading to big line hits and the possibility of triggering the coin-pusher bonus.

In a dream world, you’re retriggering 20, 30, or even 40 extra spins and landing multiple bonuses, which happens if you play it enough.

Here are my videos for Power Push: