Types of Bingo.

As a game, Bingo is one of the most exciting, it is almost impossible to get bored- there is no time to! It keeps your mind ticking over, improves your memory and reflexes, and best of all, you do not even notice the mental workout.

To make the most of your bingo playing, you really need to learn about the different styles and types of game that are available to you online. In this article, you will discover the different types of bingo you may encounter, with some additional tips on winning strategies. The article is largely about playing online, but there are some useful tips for those of you who like to play in a bingo hall.

Overall there are two different types of bingo, 75 ball bingo and 90 ball bingo, these just refer to the number of balls involved in the game, e.g. for 75 bingo your tickets will be a variation of any of the numbers 1-75. Within these two games are many variations, the speed the balls are drawn, the pattern you have to fill on the bingo tickets, how many lines you need to fill to win, the types of jackpot offered, the ticket prices...so here goes with some descriptions of games you are likely to find online:

Horizontal Bingo:
In the many variations involved in bingo, there are many different patterns that online bingo sites use for their members to bingo on. If you are playing bingo and the website instructs you that you are playing horizontal bingo, this means that you have to make a straight, but horizontal, line of numbers on your tickets. So as the numbers are being called, look for the cards where the numbers are being marked in a horizontal line, there are options that will make this process automatic, so that you can sit back and watch, or you can daub yourself- but you should only do this when playing only a few cards.

It can be really easy to win at horizontal bingo, especially if your numbers are coming in on the middle line, as most sites give you one number for free, located at the very middle of your bingo tickets. Usually, this means that bingoing on the middle line only requires you to get four numbers!

Research has shown that, occasionally, players are more likely to miss numbers when the lines are horizontal. Online this does not matter, but when playing in a bingo hall, make sure you bear this in mind.

Vertical bingo:
If the website you are playing at tells you that you need to find a vertical line, this means that you have to form a straight line in a vertical manner on your bingo tickets. When the numbers are being called, check whether your numbers are running from the top to bottom or from the bottom to top.

Again when playing vertical bingo you can be at a slight advantage if you are beginning to form a line down the centre as you receive one free space and thus do not need as many numbers to form a line.

Vertical bingo, like horizontal bingo, is one of the more popular patterns in the traditional 5 column games and you are likely to find it on many websites, as well as in real life bingo halls.

Diagonal Bingo:
If the website you are playing at tells you that you are playing diagonal bingo, this means that you need to form a line of numbers in a diagonal, from top left to bottom right or top right to bottom left. The diagonal lines always include the free middle square so this does not give you an advantage as all players will need the same amount of numbers to win, usually four.

Coverall Bingo:
Coverall bingo is a very popular form of the game; it is also referred to as Blackout bingo. A great deal of online sites use this form of bingo with their best jackpot games because it is the hardest pattern to get, it makes the games last longer and is more exciting because it keeps you in suspense right up until the point that somebody bingos.

In coverall bingo, you still get the free middle space so effectively you need to get one number less. Usually coverall bingo is used for the progressive jackpots, this is when you need to bingo within a certain number of calls in order to win both the normal jackpot and the progressive jackpot, and most sites require you to bingo within 40 calls to win the progressive jackpot. The progressive jackpots are added to each time a player purchases a ticket with such a jackpot attached, but they are only won very rarely so they can reach astronomical proportions.

Pattern bingo:
Pattern bingo is one of the more fun games that you can play online. Depending on whether you are playing 90 or 75 ball bingo, there are more or less patterns that are available to the websites to run. There are thousands of possible patterns, but they are most often associated with the 75 ball bingo games.

Pattern bingo is easy, it simply means that you have to duplicate a pattern on your bingo cards which is shown to you as an example. So you are told the pattern, how it must look, and where on the cards it needs to be, for example, a diamond pattern is used quite often. As the numbers are being called you need to mark of the corresponding numbers on your tickets, and try to re-create the pattern on your tickets. Sometimes there may be a slight advantage to some players if the pattern happens to touch the middle, free, square. I have seen a lot of interesting patterns from castles to hearts, and they do add a little something extra to the experience. They are especially fun when there are seasonal holidays going on, so you might get a Christmas tree or a witches hat!

Multiple winners:
In bingo it is fairly common for there to be more than one winner at a time. All the winning players win an equal share of the jackpot, it can be a bit disappointing when a few of you win a very small amount, but it often encourages a sense of camaraderie. There are differences between the 75 ball game and the 90 ball game when it comes to multiple winners, for 75 ball you may occassionaly get two winners but it is not too common, maybe 1 in 10 games? In 90 ball bingo you usually get multiple winners for each individual game because you get winners who get 1 line, 2 lines and then 3 lines (or full-house), very rarely the same winner will get all the lines, but usually there are multiple winners.

Bingo is a really good game to get into, not only because it is exciting, but also because it can be tactical if you want to learn about the odds and probabilities. But it is ever increasing in popularity and this means that the prizes available are getting bigger and bigger, a great time for online bingo!!