by Keno Lil |
Players still love the 3-way-8 spot
Almost everyone who has graduated from playing straight tickets has played a 3-way-8. This ticket, which is marked using three groups of four, is featured as a sample way ticket in many casino’s pay books. It is probably one of the single most popular way tickets of all time.
It is certainly a serviceable ticket; many people have hit solid eights on it, and many people have hit their first big keno winners on this ticket by catching a seven out of eight. The only problem with it is that you are playing 8-spots. An 8-spot, as most experienced keno players know well, can be a frustrating ticket to play. Although 8-spots pay very good on the top end, winners can be scarce for long periods of time!
Playing the same ticket game after game can get a little boring too. This leads some players to change tickets every few games, although this can be a dangerous practice. Once you are familiar enough with one of your tickets to know all the numbers on it, you are bound to see it come up sometime while you have switched on to another ticket out of boredom or frustration.
So here is a technique that you can apply to your way tickets to "jazz them up" a little bit, while still playing your original ways. Using this technique will allow you to have a little more fun, while still protecting your original numbers and ways. This technique will work on any way ticket, but for this column we’ll stick to the example of a 3-way-8.
Recall from above that a 3-way-8 is traditionally marked using three groups of four. If you take any way ticket of 15 numbers or less and split one of the groups on it, you will end up with a way ticket that has 1) double plus one the number of original total ways, and 2) covers all the original ways that you started with.
For instance, three groups of four gives you in addition to the 3-way-8, a 1-way-12 and a 3-way-4 for a total of seven ways. If you split one of the groups of four into two groups of two, (4-4-2-2), you will end up with a way ticket that has 15 total ways on it (7 x 2 + 1 ways). These will be a 1-way-12, a 2-way-10, a 3-way-8, a 4-way-6, a 3-way-4 and a 2-way-2.
Now you can play your original 3-way-8, and also add in a 4-way-6! The 4-way-6 will pay off a lot more often than the eights, and this will add interest to your play.
It doesn’t make any difference how the group is split. If you split one of the groups of four into a 3 and a King, (4-4-3-1), you will have another ticket with 15 total ways on it. This time you will have a 1-way-12, 1-way-11, 1-way-9, 3-way-8, 2-way-7, 2-way-5, 3-way-4, 1-way-3, and a 1-way-1! You might add the one nine and the two fives to your 3-way-8 for a little variety.
If you split a second group, you will once again double plus one the number of ways on the ticket, while still preserving your original 3-way-8. Take the 4-4-2-2 ticket and split another group of four, resulting in a ticket marked 4-2-2-2-2. This ticket has 31 total ways, (15 x 2 + 1), including a 1-way-12, a 4-way-10, a 7-way-8, an 8-way-6, a 7-way-4, and a 4-way-2! Note that although there are now a total of seven eights on the ticket, three of them consist of your original way eights. Now you can play a 7-way-8 and an 8-way-6 while still protecting your original 3-way-8.
If you split one group of four on the original ticket into two twos, and a second group of four into a 3-1, (4-3-2-2-1), you will have once again a ticket with 31 total ways on it. There will be a 1-way-12, a 1-way-11, a 2-way-10, a 3-way-9, a 3-way-8, a 4-way-7, a 4-way-6, a 4-way-5, a 3-way-4, a 3-way-3, a 2-way-2, and a 1-way-1! You could play the nines, eights, sixes, and fives for a 14 way ticket with a lot of variety! In the next couple of weeks we’ll explore this technique a little further.
If you have a keno question that you would like answered, please write to me care of this paper, or contact me on the web via email at kenolil@gmail.com. Well, that’s it for now. Good luck! I’ll see you in line!
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