Anyone who has played bingo a time or two knows the standard patterns used: single line, two line, full house, four corners and coverall are pretty universal.  However, with the online games and software evolving every day, more intricate patterns are being invented and played every day.  Pattern games are normally only played in 75 ball games as the configuration of the cards and the way 90 ball is usually won does not lend itself to a lot of variation.

Postage stamp is a pretty common pattern that can be played anytime.  That pattern is completed just by getting the four squares within any corner or a certain corner if the game calls for it.  Double stamp would mean getting two of those corners in order to win.  Another common pattern is the picnic table.  That is an X with the top line covered, too.

Because of the even square design with the 5×5 grid within it, 75 ball bingo cards are perfectly suited for multiple pattern designs.  These come themed to coincide with promotions such as a heart pattern for Valentine’s Day or sometimes even letters to spell out a word.  Those work with multiple cards, of course, one letter per card to spell out the chosen word.

Bingo players enjoy the game for the ease of play and the social aspects of bingo.  Luckily, both of these features can be enjoyed both offline and online.  However, there are some small differences that you should be aware of if you’ve only played one version before.  Each one has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages.

One of the most enjoyable aspects offline is the ability to chat with your neighbor at the table.  However, most avid bingo players will shush you when the games begin.  That’s because you can easily miss a number if you’re talking and it can be difficult to catch up.  Online, however, you can turn on the autodaub feature at many sites and the computer will do that all for you.

The prizes tend to be a higher value online, especially if you play a progressive jackpot game.  If you’re hoping to hit a life changing amount of money playing bingo, you are far more likely to do so online.

The variety tends to be greater online, as well.  There are some games, like speed bingo and 80 ball bingo, that are generally not offered offline.  For a wider variety of games, online has the bingo halls beat hands down.  Plus most online bingo sites offer a bunch of cool side games that you won’t find in a bingo hall.

I hear so many people say that they don’t play online bingo because they are afraid to download the software.  First of all, if you are dealing with a well known, reputable online bingo provider, you are not going to have to worry about viruses, trojans or other nasties from their software.  They would never deliberately alienate their potential customers that way.  Secondly, you don’t have to download anything at many online bingo sites now.  Most offer a flash based version of the software that enables you to play all or at least most of the games right in your browser.

Flash is simple to create yet can be used to create very complex games these days.  You can see flash based games everywhere, from scratch tickets to full arcade style games.  The gaming industry has adopted flash with a vengeance and you can find bingo and almost every type of gambling game created with flash today.

Some bingo sites won’t offer every single game in a flash version but generally they will make at least the most popular games available.  On the other hand, we are seeing more and more sites that only offer flash games and do not make a downloadable option at all.  It’s much safer for the players as there is no concern of malware at all but it’s also easier for the site to make changes.  With downloadable software, every time the site adds a new game or makes changes to an old one, they would have to have all their players update their software.  Flash eliminates the need to hassle customers this way.

In the offline world of bingo, superstition seems to be prevalent.  If you have ever been at a local bingo game, you will have seen what I’m talking about.  I’ve seen people who have to use a certain dauber for all the high stakes game.  Others always sit in the same exact spot every single week.  Still others pull out various good luck charms from their bingo bags and set them on the table by their cards.

One thing that is very common is trying to pick bingo cards based on lucky numbers.  Players choose these for traditional reasons such as birthdays and such but some choose a number in a more bizarre manner.  I once saw a lady insist that she must have cards with 22 on them as she has seen that number in a dream the night before.

Perhaps gambling and superstition go together?  Or perhaps it’s any type of game.  You often see it in professional sports where a pitcher won’t cut their hair because they’re afraid it will end their winning streak or a quarterback wears the same socks to every game so they can run faster.

I’m not in the least superstitious.  My horoscope and my fortune cookie both said the same thing this week so it must be true.  Now I have to get going as it’s almost 13 after and you know it’s bad luck to finish anything 13 after the hour.

Online bingo is more popular than it ever has been and it seems a new site is launching every day.  With the proliferation of new places to play and the huge jackpots that are becoming more commonplace, it’s no wonder that so many new players are trying online bingo than ever before.  If you are new to online bingo, here are a few simple tips to help you better your chances of winning a prize.

The biggest tip to starting out is to just be polite and be social.  Much of the fun lies in the chat rooms where you can get help if needed and meet other bingo players.  To make your online bingo experience the best it can be, you need to be in there and being friendly with the others in the room.

Remember when starting out to not overdo it.  Playing the maximum amount of cards may give you a greater chance at winning but only if you can keep up with them.  You start missing numbers and the game is just too fast paced to be able to catch up.  Start out slowly with just a few cards and then work your way up as you become more familiar and comfortable with the game.

When choosing a room to play in, see how many players are already there.  The fewer the players, the greater your chances of winning.  Of course, that also gives you less opportunity to meet new friends so it’s not a good idea to only play low player rooms.  A good mix will give you the best chance at both winning a prize and making new friends.

Amazingly enough, it would seem that a regular online bingo game that takes five to six minutes is simply not fast paced enough for some bingo players.  For those players, some genius has developed the speed bingo game variation.  Rather than the 2-3 seconds between numbers called in regular bingo, with speed bingo the numbers fly out one every single second.  A game of speed bingo is generally completed in less than a minute!  Are you suited for speed bingo?

Do you have a fast response time?  You need to be pretty much instant at finding the number in speed bingo name or you’ll be searching three numbers later.  Once you get behind, you can bet you won’t catch up!

Perhaps you can only spare a minute or so and simply can’t wait to play a game of bingo?  If you are hard pressed for time, then perhaps speed bingo could help you get your bingo fix without having to be online for that long.

Are you one who’s focus is only on how much you can win?  Speed bingo does allow you to play more games in a shorter time so it does tend to increase your odds in winning a prize.

About the only thing you can do is give it a try for yourself and see if you can keep up.  Of course, it eliminates any chance of chatting during a game as you won’t have time to type anything in the chat window!

For many of us, one of the biggest attractions to online bingo is the opportunity to meet other players and make new friends.  This is generally done within the bingo room chats and many people participate in that every day.  Sometimes, though, you will see someone in there who apparently doesn’t care for the social aspects and they generally make a jerk of themselves.  Some exhibit such troll-like behavior that they end up getting told to never return and their accounts get terminated.  I’ve seen some that seem to have that as their goal, because they go out of their way to be as obnoxious as possible.  If that is you and you can’t figure out how to terminate your account on your own, here is how you can be sure to get yourself tossed out of any online bingo chat room posthaste.

Start of by coming up with the most nastiest username you can – put in some sly sexual innuendo or perhaps a cuss word in another language.  You can be sure of offending as many people as possible upon first impression.  That’s a good way to start things off.

Then be sure to be as rude and snotty as you can to everyone in the room, especially the chat moderator.  They love dealing with obnoxious people, after all, that’s their job, right?  So make sure you make rude comments to everyone and be sure to put in a few ethnic jokes and slurs to ensure that you don’t leave anyone out.

Of course, if you happen to win, the other roomies will love to congratulate you so be sure that you repeat it several times and make sure to tell them what losers they are since they didn’t win and you did.  Other players simply love to celebrate with you….over and over and over and over.  Really.

They also love to commiserate with you when you lose so make sure you share that, as well.  Tell them how you never win anything and how it’s not fair that others do.  And be sure to have a lot to say if another player manages to win twice – that’s not really fair, is it?

Make sure that you keep your caps lock key on at all times, too.  That way you can be sure that your comments will stand out among the rest so everyone is sure to see them.

Most of us are taught manners by our parents when they were raising us.  With any luck, most of us were taught these basics and know to be courteous when dealing with others in any medium.  However, there are some who the anonymity of the computer screen seems to change their personalities or perhaps they just don’t know how to communicate effectively in text.  It’s hard to tell which it is at times so it is a good idea to give others the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

When playing online bingo, the main place that we will need to exercise our good manners will be within the bingo chat rooms as that is where you interact with both the chat moderator and the other bingo players.  You not only need to know how to treat other people and what’s expected of you, but you also need to know the right way to deal with others who may seem rude or unfriendly.

While in the chat rooms, you should always be polite and respectful of other roomies.  It’s always a good idea to lurk for a bit when entering a new room to get a feel for the behavior there.  Each chat room will have a different atmosphere and what may be appropriate in one room won’t be in another.  For example, you may find one room that the people are being flirty with each other but that would be frowned on in a different bingo chat room.

Don’t use all capital letters as online that is akin to yelling at people.  It’s also very hard to read on the computer screen.  You should not be using profanity under any circumstances nor make offensive comments towards any race, gender, etc., as you don’t know who else is in there.

When you feel like someone else is being rude, step back for a minute before jumping all over them.  Tones, joking and the like do not always come across the way they were intended in text so before getting angry, at least think about the possiblity that it was not intended to be rude.  When someone is out of line, report it to the CM if necessary but otherwise ignore the rude person and let the CM handle it – that’s part of her job.

I was searching for something new to bring you today and would you believe that I found a hot little house band from the Netherlands called the Bingo Players?  They have a sound that I’m not sure I can describe and I can’t say that I would listen to their music on a regular basis but I did find one that I enjoyed, called Devotion.  You can hear it for yourself, if you want, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYen6mnNgvQ.

They are obviously becoming quite well known within their own country but are touring through a few other European countries this fall/early winter as well, including Belgium later this week on the 23rd, Germany on the 30th and even the UK in December.  Their entire show schedule for the rest of the year, along with several of their videos, can be found on their MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/bingoplayers.

After I found this band, I tried to find out a little more about them and why they came up with the band name, but I couldn’t find any details anywhere online.  However, I did come across another musical item that I think you guys will appreciate – a parody of a Beyonce hit that’s all about bingo players!

I found this at http://www.amiright.com/parody/2000s/beyonce35.shtml which also has many other song parodies on the site.  You can read the entire lyrics on the site but I did get a kick out of one of the choruses:

Cause if ya heard it you should have put a chip on it
If ya heard it you should have put a chip on it
Don’t be mad if you miss heard and you screw up bad
If ya heard it you should have put a chip on it

Unfortunately, there wasn’t an mp3 or video so that I could actually hear the song being done so you’d have to imagine it to Beyonce’s hit, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)”.

Enjoy!

ITC Limited is a food manufacturer in India and they’ve named their new snack food line Bingo!  They said it took them nine months to come up with a plan and a suitable name but in India the game of bingo is relatively unknown so the term wouldn’t have any implications to the majority of people.  Their reasoning for choosing Bingo! as the brand is because it is short and catchy, yet wide open in terms of the categories of snacks it could cover.

Apparently, they are positioning Bingo! to breakthrough the market domination of Frito-Lay on the snack market in India.  Since launching just over two years ago, the brand is doing okay for itself, already taking an 13% market share away from giant Frito-Lay.  They offer a variety of salty type snacks such as potato chips and also some finger food snacks that are popular in India.

There television commercials have been quite interesting, focusing on brand recognition by using similar sounding words and also stressing the taste and characteristics of their products.  Of the commercials that are up on YouTube this one is my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ueMX-pxaY.

The company’s newest strategy is a bold one – they’re actually increasing the amount of the content by 50% but not increasing the price.  Boy, is that a strategy I’d like to see in the western world!  Considering that the price of almost all the base ingredients have gone up in cost, this move is surprising to many within the snack industry.  The company says that they have cut other costs and made deals with suppliers that are good for the country.  They have a unique business model that includes partnering with more than 100,000 small local farmers in order to obtain spices and wheat.

I wonder if this will ever become a global snack company?  Can you imagine going to the bingo hall to play a game of bingo and eating Bingo! chips while playing?  Of course, that’s not likely as the brand name would obviously have other connotations for people in the western world but it is rather a fun thing to imagine.