In the U.S., bingo is basically a game of luck in which every player places numbers on a card with the numbers that the game’s game master randomly draws from a deck of cards. These numbers are called ‘bingo points’. If any player reaches a total of these bingo points, they win the game. The scoring system of bingo follows the general scoring methods used in other games of chance such as baseball and football. One exception to the use of a point system is when, instead of the cards being numbered, the name of a specific person is written on the card before the numbers are called out.
There are two basic playing strategies for the game of bingo. The most popular strategy is known as the ninety-Nine Point System or ninety-three point strategy. This system requires that a player will get one card for every ninety-three occurrences of the letter they’re trying to find in a particular row on their bingo card. To do this, the player needs to count from one to nine, counting from the left-most number in the first cell to the right-most number in the last cell. Then, the player must place their ‘bingo card’ in whatever position in the pack they choose. They can choose from any number of places in the pack, up to the number that is the maximum number of times that the letters of the game name are found in any single row on their bingo card.
It is now possible to play a purely virtual bingo game without using actual cards by using software programs designed for bingo gaming. These types of software are called ‘virtual cards’ or ‘virtual bingo cards’. They work exactly like regular bingo cards except that they are not marked with specific positions on the cards. Instead, the player has to use the information that they have gained throughout the course of the bingo game on their computer screen to try to decide on combinations that are most likely to come out as the winning numbers on these virtual cards. The winning combinations are then sent to the player via email.
Another type of virtual card used in online bingo play is the jigsaw puzzle. In this game, there are actually rows of squares where the squares have images printed on them in regular intervals. These images may be copied and pasted into regular squares on other pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. However, the player must still match up the exact same number of squares to the exact same number of images on each square – otherwise the jigsaw will not be solved!
In a new game called Scrabble, the winning strategy depends heavily on how many letter-number combinations the first player can make. If there are three or more letter-number combinations allowed, the player will be rewarded with points. The best strategy is to build up to about ten letter-number combinations before trying to solve the ‘last number’. The player needs to remember that the last number is the combination of all the last letters in the rack.
Finally, one of the more challenging types of games for bingo players is the ‘free space’ game. Free space is when there is no valid columns for the given numbers in the row. If there are any such columns, the caller players are required to write their letters in those columns. If the caller players do not have sufficient free spaces between their letters, the game ends and there is no winner. A popular variation of free space bingo is the ‘time limit bingo’. This game requires the caller players to answer the last number within a specific time frame – usually just a few seconds.
