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What Makes the Pot Close on Games Like 88 Fortunes, Dancing Drums?

Dancing Drums by Shuffle Master and WMS progressive pick
Written by Joshua

A reader posted this question on a previous Dancing Drums article:

Simple question! What exactly makes the pot close? I have played and it closed when it looks full and also it closes sometimes when there are only a few coins?????

Cindy, on a previous Dancing Drums article

First off, when it comes to the amount of coins in the pot, I’ve spoken about this previously – that’s a visual that has nothing to do with when the pot will close at all. So we know how full a pot won’t close it – but what will?

The question was asked about Dancing Drums, but just about every one of these games uses the wild symbol as their indicator. You may notice that when a wild symbol appears, something flies up into the pot, fireworks, etc. The wild symbol is therefore involved.

What happens is that a wild symbol gives you a chance of a progressive feature triggering. How good of a chance depends completely on your bet level – higher bets give you higher chances.

Once you’re in the actual progressive picking round (which is nearly universally a predetermined pick), you have the same chances at any bet level of winning each progressive. So your chances increase to get a progressive based on bet, but what you actually get has the same odds no matter what the bet level.

In practice, those max betting will enter the pick screen a lot more often, but will still enjoy mostly minis and minors along with the rest of us.

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About the author

Joshua

My name is Joshua, and I’m a slot enthusiast who works in tech as a marketer by day, and dabbles in casinos periodically during off-times. Know Your Slots will reflect my interests in understanding the various ways you can play slots, travel, casino promotions and how you can get the most out of your casino visits.

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