I was reading
with interest Linda Jo’s treatise on how she marks her video keno screen with
certain clusters that include more than one pattern.
Oddly enough this
sounds a lot like a strategy I’ve employed on the live keno board.
Specifically,
this strategy of playing keno is the strategy of sector play.
Here’s how it
works. The keno board is divided into sectors, and numbers are picked to play
within each sector. The most common use of this strategy involves the four
corners, or quadrants, of the board.
Take a keno
ticket and line off the four quadrants. Do this by drawing a line horizontally
across the ticket between the “30” row and the “40” row.
Then draw a line vertically down the center of the ticket between the
“5” column and the “6” column.
The result will
give you four 20-spot “mini-tickets” to play, upper left, upper right,
lower right and lower left.
Once you have
selected which quadrants you wish to play, in this case the four corners, you
must decide on which of two ways to apply the strategy.
Some players play
the quadrants in a balanced fashion. In other words, if they want to play $12
per game on 6-spots, they will play three one dollar 6-spots in each quadrant.
Some players play
the quadrants in an unbalanced manner. These players might ignore one or more of
the quadrants, for example, playing all twelve 6-spots in the upper left
quadrant.
Both of these
strategies assume that, sooner or later, the keno draw of 20 numbers will come
up in an unbalanced manner, thus increasing your chances of winning. It is true
that the average draw will put five numbers in each quadrant, but a 5-5-5-5 draw
is by no means the most common draw. Indeed, a draw such as 6-5-5-4 that is
slightly unbalanced is far more common. Unbalanced draws that put seven, eight
or nine numbers into one quadrant are not that unusual.
Let’s assume
that you are playing a 5-spot ticket in one of the 20-spot quadrants. The
following chart will show you the change in the odds against hitting the 5-spot
associated with the number of hits in that quadrant. Remember that the odds
against hitting a 5-spot on a regular keno ticket are approximately 1550 to one.
Number of hits
Chance of hitting
in quadrant a
solid 5-spot
5 1 in 15,504.00
6 1 in 2,584.00
7 1 in 738.29
8 1 in 276.86
9 1 in 123.04
10 1 in 61.52
11 in 33.56
12 1 in 19.58
13 1 in 12.05
14 1 in 7.74
15 1 in 5.16
16 1 in 3.55
17 1 in 2.51
18 1 in 1.81
19 1 in 1.33
20 1 in 1.00
Although some of
these occurrences are rare, or even very rare, it would not be unusual to see a
nine or even a ten in one corner of the board during an evening’s keno play.
You can see that the effect on your 5-spot odds can be quite dramatic if this
happens.
On a scale of one
to five spikes, with five being the highest, I give sector play as a strategy a
rating of 3½ spikes:
This is because
although the sector strategy increases your chances of winning, it also
proportionately increases your cost of playing.
The odds against
the catch above, 8-5-4-3, IF the order of the quadrants are unimportant, are
13.655 for one against, which puts it in a very common category. This is the
figure that would be used by a balanced quadrant player. IF the order is
important, the 8-5-4-3 has to fall in exactly the same quadrants as illustrated,
then the odds for one against are 327.732 for one.
The player who
plays the quadrants in a balanced fashion has the advantage of not having to
pick which quadrant will receive the most hits. The player who plays in an
unbalanced fashion will have much more chance of winning, IF he picks the right
quadrant. Well, you pays your money and you takes your chances!
That’s it for
this week. Good luck! I’ll see you in line!