The 6-spot has always been a popular Vegas ticket as you can get a nice win for reasonable odds. Pays for a $1 6-of-6 generally range from $1,500 to $3,000.
Usually, if the top pay is better the lesser hits pay less and vice versa. The six is offered in progressives such as Station Casinos’ Jumbo Progressive or the Mega Keno 6-spot and some local progressives.
There are nice way possibilities for the 6-spot to make the ticket more exciting, and hopefully rewarding. Try 2-2-1-1 and play the 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s. This gives you one 6, two 5s, three 4s and four 3s. I really like this ticket and have played it many times as you can get all kinds of solid hits even if you do not catch all 6 numbers.
The odds are reasonable, too. A 6-of-6 is caught, on the average, once in every 7,753 games. A 5-of-6 is caught, on the average, once every 323 games. A 4-of-6 is caught, on the average, once every 35 games, and a 3-of-6 is caught, on the average, once every 8. Here’s the rub. Catch 4 out of 6 a certain way and you also have a SOLID 4 and 3s with the right catches.
Let’s use these numbers as an example. Mark 1, 53, 54, 57, 60, 80. Make the 1 and 80 kings (groups of one); 53, 54 a deuce (group of two) and 57, 60 another deuce. Let’s say 4 of 6 come up. You could hit 1, 53, 57, 80 and would have no solid hit but you would get small pays for the 4-of-6, the two 3-of-5s, the two 3-of-4s, a 2-of-4, and four 2-of-3s.
This is a small pay, more than the cost of the ticket, but barely more. The following is also a way to hit 4-of-6. Let’s say you hit 1, 53, 54, 80 or 1, 57, 60, 80. Now you still have a 4-of-6 as before and two 3-of-5s, but look at what you get for the fours and threes.
You have a SOLID 4 and two SOLID 3s, definitely a nice profit. Depending on how much you play and what the casino pays per way you will have a decent winner and only hit 4 of your 6 numbers. For what it’s worth, you also have a small pay on the two 2-of-4s.
A lot of fun without having to hit the 6 SOLID. Of course, if you hit 5-of-6 even more solid hits and 6-of-6 pays all ways SOLID. If this isn’t fun then perhaps keno may not be your game. But keno is “our” game and we all know way tickets are more fun.
Except on specials, almost all casinos pay from a 3-of-6 and up, thus this type of ticket should work almost anywhere. Check with the casino on allowed way ticket minimums. Usually you can play way tickets for less per way than on a straight ticket. Typical is 3 ways or more 50 cents a way, and 10 ways or more a quarter a way. Some downtown Vegas allow even smaller amounts per way.
Payoffs are adjusted proportionally up or down for your way bet size. Most keno writers and runners are quite familiar with simple way tickets such as described above. Most veteran keno players have hit several SOLID 6s in their playing career to date.
Please tell me how this works for you, and remember to pick the same numbers on the same game that they are drawn!
Pesach Kremen is a former UNLV Masters Gaming student, has won and placed in multiple local keno tournaments, and has written several academic papers on Keno. You can reach him at [email protected].