News

20 Card Keno Vs 4 Card Keno

There are many different ways to play the classic casino game of keno, which is one of the reasons why it remains one of the most popular games today in both traditional and online casinos. Of course, one of the other reasons is the possibility of a huge payday in just a moment, but you can’t discount the value of the many variations of the game when looking at why people continue to play it so much.

20 Card Keno Vs 4 Card Keno

What are 20-card keno and 4-card keno games?

20 Card Keno Vs 4 Card Keno
Multi-card keno games

20-card keno and 4-card keno are multicard keno games. These games revolutionized video keno, much the way Triple Play and Five Play machines revolutionized video poker.

These multi-card games gave the players the option of playing more than one keno ticket, thus expanding their chances of winning. Playing these multi-card keno games the advantage is that you can cover more numbers than with one card. The disadvantage is that you’re betting on more than one keno card and the costs can mount, especially with 20-Card Keno.

With the introduction of 20 cards and 4-card keno these multi-card keno games opened up play to strategy; that is, players now undertook choices that they never had before.

Like now with these games, players now had the option of marking “smaller” tickets, such as 5- and 6-spot cards, within or underneath “larger” tickets, such as 9- and 10-spot tickets, thus opening up the possibility of multiple jackpots.

With both Four-Card and 20-Card Keno, you’ll see how a proper strategy can lead to some astounding jackpots.

Four Card Keno

Four card keno
Four card keno

Four Card Keno is liked by all types of keno players, who recognized the obvious advantages of being able to mark up to four different keno tickets in the same game.

You will see that Four Card Keno is an opportunity to effectively shrink the size of the keno board by marking groups of numbers into distinct regions, zones, patterns, or clusters. Here you will see that numbers don’t land evenly across the 80-number board; instead, they seem to land in groups or clusters or patterns, oftentimes just missing the numbers on your keno card.

As a very simple example, let’s say you like to play 10-spot cards on the top two rows. With Four Card Keno, instead of marking just one row of 10 numbers, you could mark both rows, as well as the “cross-over” patterns consisting of the five upper left-hand numbers coupled with the five lower right-hand numbers, and the five lower left-hand numbers coupled with the five upper right-hand numbers (or you could mark the two 5-by-2 boxes on the top two rows).

By marking these additional 10-spot cards, it’s no longer necessary to catch eight, nine, or 10 numbers in your row to hit a nice jackpot. You can cash in when only five hit on the top row when they’re coupled with three, four, or five numbers on the bottom row.

You can begin marking “tighter” clusters of numbers, that is, tickets in smaller groups. For instance, instead of marking a single 10-spot ticket on a row of 10 numbers, Like mark four 7-spot cards, or a combination of 7-spot, 8-spot, and 9-spot tickets on that same row of 10 numbers. Because on any given row, it was likely that seven numbers or more will eventually drop into the row, hopefully filling up one or more of your tickets. Also since you’re marking smaller tickets, such as a 7-spot, you don’t need eight or nine numbers to land in the row to hit a nice jackpot.

20 Card Keno

20 card keno
20 card keno

When 20-card keno arrived in casinos, the game was an instant hit with video keno fanatics. Many players used the additional cards to cover the entire keno board with tickets, oftentimes ensuring that every number drawn would land in at least one of their cards, somewhere on the board.

Like other Keno games in the 20 Card Keno, you will need to match different numbers with those on your board to generate prizes. You can use the Max Bet button by holding down this button for two seconds and referring to information that is kept on-screen at all times, such as the amount of credit you have left, and the bet you are playing with. Playing 20 Card Keno is quite easy just bet from one to ten on each of the twenty cards, and pick from two to ten on the twenty cards. If playing for the first time you can refer to the instructions page at any time, which includes information on how to play 20 Card Keno anytime you want to.

In Keno, you can select up to 10 numbers during a round, with numbers ranging from 1 to 80. Just match the numbers that are selected during the game with those on your ticket. Each round of Keno is called a ‘race’ and you will be able to place your numbers in positions that best suit you like in a certain pattern or sequence. There is an instruction page in the app where you can go for the rules when playing.

You will love this app as it includes the opportunity to save your picks between a game, and even save your credits for in-between games. You have the chance to change your credits at any time, and take advantage of high-definition graphics with background sounds that are similar to that of a real casino. Other features include ‘hot and cold’, which displays the numbers that are cold during the game.

Risk vs Reward Playing Multi-card Keno

Multicard keno game at casino
Diana B. on her huge $47,100 Multi-Card Keno jackpot win.

Keno is all about maximizing your odds and playing along the thin line between risk and possible reward. While you are far less likely to land all twenty numbers correctly, if you do, you will be a millionaire. On the other hand, if you guess just one number, you have about a 1-in-4 chance of getting it right, but your prize will be substantially lower.

Aside from the number of numbers that you play, though, some other important choices relate more to the actual type of keno game that you play. For instance, two very popular forms of keno are 20-card keno and 4-card keno. Which is best? Is either one more suited for you individually?

Now, as you will find with many topics related to gaming, a lot of the difference here will be more related to personal preference. Technically, you are playing the same game whether you play 20-card keno or 4-card keno. However, there are a couple of differences that may make you prefer one or the other.

  • In 4-card keno, you are playing just four cards at a time. You can make individual bets on each of your four cards of sometimes up to twenty numbers (and on other games, up to ten). The reason that you may prefer 4-card keno is that you may be playing smaller amounts of numbers. If you are doing so, you often are looking to make smaller profits on each bet, but hoping to have enough wins across your cards that you end up ahead in the end.
  • In 20-card keno, the stakes are a bit higher as you are playing twenty cards at once. Why would you want to do that? Well, one reason is if you are trying to win a huge jackpot. If you are playing over ten numbers at once (or even the maximum of twenty numbers), you don’t want to play one card at a time, as that would be monotonous.

Instead, you play twenty cards at once and hope that one of them hits for a large prize. Also, 20-card keno allows you to vary your number choices in the hopes that you will cover most of your bases and give yourself a better overall chance to win. Losing 20 dollars is small in the scheme of things when you’re looking to win thousands or even millions, after all.

That kind of strategy makes less sense if you’re just playing four or five numbers. Doing that is all about making short-term winnings and leaving ahead. Over twenty bets, the odds will not be in your favor, so you’re better off sticking with 4 card keno if that’s the way you are going to play the game at your favorite casino.

20-Card Keno opened the floodgates for multiple jackpots As noted, multi-card games expand the scope of your keno patterns, and they let you capitalize on smaller jackpots when you insert smaller tickets “underneath” cards such as 7-, 8-, or 9-spot cards.

For instance, instead of marking all 7-spot tickets (as in the above example) under a given set of numbers, you could mark a combination of 5-, 6-, and 7-spot tickets. This way, you have a chance of winning something when only five and six numbers land in your pattern.

The Keno Payouts

You need to note that multi-card keno machines most casinos but not all use slightly reduced pay tables for multi-card keno games. Make sure you’re playing a machine that pays very close to the payoffs found on “straight” keno machines.

For instance, most multi-card machines still pay 7000-for-1 for catching 7-of-7 but the payoff for catching 6-of-7 might be reduced to 335-for-1 from 400-for-1. That’s an acceptable cut.

Similarly, a 9-spot game might return 300-for-1 for catching 7-of-9 instead of the standard 335-for-1, but you should still get 4,700-for-1 for catching 8-of-9.

But if you find a machine in which the 7-of-7 jackpot is cut to as low as 3000-for-1, or the 8-of-9 award is chopped to anything less than 4000-for-1, then the machine is not worth playing; find another machine or go to another casino.

Remember, you can try either version and each one provides the same amount of fun and excitement. Also, it’s better to play these games at online casinos.