Let's Talk About Strips

[00:00:01] Hello and welcome to the Broke Bingo Addict. This is a podcast that ventures through the wild and crazy world of bingo. This is much more than your grandmother's bingo. My name is Shari and welcome to this week's episode, which as always is for entertainment purposes only.

[00:00:28] Hi everybody and welcome to this week's episode of the Broke Bingo Addict. In this episode I want to talk about strips because I don't think those guys are getting enough love out there. Everybody knows that right now pool tabs are the darling of bingo.

[00:00:45] People will sell their soul to get some pool tabs. And I mean that literally, people will go into a hawk to get themselves some pool tabs. But I love strips because they serve a really wonderful function.

[00:00:58] And again, partly because of the fine enantial issue because people literally will go into a hawk to get some pool tabs. And the problem with that is you're spending all that money and sometimes you don't even get a pool tab.

[00:01:09] I have absolutely been in a situation where I have spent a lot more money than I meant to to try to get a pool tab and still not even get a number. So that is why I love strips.

[00:01:21] And I love them because they serve the function of knowing that you're going to spend your money and actually get something back for it. Does it guarantee you when apps are fricking lutely not, but it does guarantee you the opportunity to play.

[00:01:34] So that is why I love strips and I want to take a minute to talk some more about them. Now I can't speak for the entire country. My experience with strips is definitely limited to California and mostly Southern California at that.

[00:01:47] But I am going to give you the information that I have that hopefully will help people out there when they run into the situation where they're playing strips, especially if they've never played them before or if they're just not sure about them sometimes.

[00:01:57] Maybe they're going to someplace different and they haven't experienced this. So there are several different types of strips out there, but there are a couple formats that tend to be pretty common. OK, so to start with most strips are three inches by 10 inches and they can

[00:02:12] be either horizontal or vertical. But what tends to be similar in all of them is that they have five different sections. And in each one of those five sections, they have three rows. OK, they have three rows of three.

[00:02:27] OK, three numbers going across the top, three numbers going across the middle and three numbers going across the bottom. So again, in each one of those five individual sections, you've got a total of nine numbers.

[00:02:39] And what the objective is, is that you want to get a line either going horizontal, vertical or diagonal. In each one of those five squares. So you'll need to get a line of three in each one of those five squares.

[00:02:53] And whoever gets that line first is obviously the person who wins. So that's how that game is played. However, there is one location where I play and they add an extra little touch to this particular game.

[00:03:04] And that is they also count the outside corners of that block of nine. So if you get the outside numbers for the block of nine, that actually counts too. So in some of the five sections that you have, you can have either a line

[00:03:18] or you can have the outside numbers. But again, whoever gets either all five in that one pattern or a mixture of those patterns, whoever gets that first is the person who wins. So I've only seen that at one place for the majority of locations

[00:03:31] I've played at it is again is always that diagonal, horizontal or vertical line. That's what's counted. So that's what you have when you see that when you come into that block of nine, that's how that particular strip is being played.

[00:03:43] Now, another version of a strip that's very popular is the either or. OK, so again, you're still going to have that three by 10 strip of paper. But what they're going to have now is they're going to have six numbers

[00:03:56] and you're going to have a choice of either or. So and you're going to have a choice of like six or seven or you're going to have a choice of nine and 15, whatever. You're going to have three numbers lined up next to each other

[00:04:09] in five rows for the entire strip. I don't know if I said that. OK, let me say that again. You're going to have five sections on the strip, like I've said before. And then you're going to have in each section, you're going to have

[00:04:23] a total of six numbers, but you only need three of those numbers. You need to have either or for one, either or for the second group and either or for the third group. And again, whoever gets all three of the either or numbers

[00:04:37] and each of the five sections is the person who wins first. I don't know if that was as easy as explained as I thought that was going to be. But anyway, that's what I'm saying is that those are two of the most popular types,

[00:04:50] so the ones where you have to get three numbers in a line or the ones where you're picking it in either or. But either way, you've got to get it in all five sections to be the person who wins.

[00:04:59] Now there are a couple other things that pop out here too that you should be aware of. And that's that in some of these instances where you've got the five squares that I've mentioned. Sometimes you get some free sections. Sometimes you get two free sections

[00:05:12] and so that could make it easier. Although for my own personal experience, that has never made it easier for me. Usually those are the strips that I have the hardest time getting the numbers on. But you will see many people winning these things

[00:05:23] where they had two free sections or one free sections and so they got to get those patterns a lot easier or faster than somebody else. In other instances, they may not have the entire block completed for you, but they will have like one of the numbers

[00:05:38] so you don't have to worry about it. You don't need all three numbers, you just need two numbers so that can make it easier for you. Now there's another set of strips, again, three by 10. But this has nothing with doing a diagonal,

[00:05:51] this has nothing to do with either or. This is a strip where you still have the five different sections, but in each one of these sections you have a set of numbers, either three or four numbers, maybe even five numbers. And you've got to cover all those numbers.

[00:06:05] But in some cases, all those numbers are even and some cases all those numbers are odd. The name for the strip that's all odd is called Odd Even which I don't understand because like I said, I think they're always odd so that's kind of funny.

[00:06:18] And then they have the other one, conversely, which is called even Stephen and all the numbers there are even. And I have to say, I've noticed something recently about this strip, particularly about the odd even. Now it used to be a time when you were playing these strips

[00:06:33] and people would approve them and they'd show them to somebody else to show that they're approving it to make sure that the person actually won the game and they're just reading the numbers and you're not thinking anything about it. It's like, okay, they read the numbers,

[00:06:44] the person's obviously won. But now that they have the lovely invention where you can physically see the strip right in front of you, you can see all the numbers that were called, I've noticed the last few times when they've played odd even that there's a strip out there

[00:06:59] that has multiple free spaces. Now, typically when you buy this particular strip, at least I've noticed, you only have like two free spaces, you know, one in one section over here, one in another block up here. But that's it, two free spaces for the entire game,

[00:07:14] for the entire of each of the five blocks that you have. But somebody out there is getting like 10 fricking frees. I mean, it's just like a multitude of free spaces. So clearly that person has the advantage to win this particular game.

[00:07:29] I don't know if I've seen that for the even Steven, but like I said, I've absolutely seen it for odd even. So if you're in the position and you have the money and you can keep buying some of these strips, maybe by five, six, whatever,

[00:07:39] if you can play that many, I would absolutely try to see if I can end up being the person who gets that strip that has the 10 free spaces on it. Cause definitely, definitely a big advantage for that person. Now most of these strips I've spoken about

[00:07:55] are going vertical, but there are some very popular horizontal ones where they're instead of being a, again, diagonal, they are an either or. Now there's still five groups, five separate blocks and those five blocks are broken up by B, I, N, G, O.

[00:08:12] So you're gonna have a set of numbers in the Bs, you're gonna have set of numbers in the I, you're gonna have it set of numbers in the N, the G and the O. So just like the other games that have either or

[00:08:21] you only need to click one of those numbers. Now in some of the boxes, you're gonna have a set of two either ors and some of the boxes, you're gonna have a set of three either ors and some of the boxes you're gonna have four either or.

[00:08:33] It just depends, there can be a breakout. Sometimes for these particular strips you also get a free section too. But just like everything else, it's all about who can cover the appropriate amount of numbers first. So quick little tip for you,

[00:08:48] for the strips where you're looking to make the diagonal horizontal vertical or even outside quarters, something to notice is that the numbers when you're looking for it, I think a lot of people get confused. They see all those numbers because it's a lot of numbers

[00:09:02] and they get all confused when they're new at this and they're looking all over the place. Just a quick little tip for you, you will notice for these three rows that you have and again it's three rows of numbers going from top to bottom

[00:09:14] that for the first row, those numbers are gonna go from one to 25. For the middle row, they're gonna go from 26 to 50 and for the last row, they're gonna go from 51 to 75. So if you're looking for your numbers, if you just keep that in mind,

[00:09:28] if you know what the numbers are that you're looking, if they say B of 15, you know where to look for it. If they say I 26, you know which row to look in. So that's a little tip for that. There's also another strip that's out there

[00:09:41] that I hadn't spoken about and that's one that's pretty popular too. That's the one where again, you've got two columns, right, you've got a column on the right, you got a column on the left and inside each column, similar to the other ones we've already spoken about,

[00:09:55] you've got five different sections. Within each one of those sections, you've got five numbers and they're laid out similar to like a, when you have dice and you have the number five and you've got the number in the middle and you've got two numbers up the top

[00:10:09] and two numbers at the bottom of that. So keep that in mind. It looks like a five die. Anyway, so in this particular game, still trying to get a diagonal in most places, it's interesting to me that when it first came out,

[00:10:23] people were like, how do you play this game? How do you play this game? I don't understand. And people were so really super confused about how to play this game. But I think it's interesting that at a certain point, people kind of get on board

[00:10:35] that everybody kind of decides that this is how we're gonna play it. And ultimately what it is, is that for this particular game, you have to make a diagonal. So it's not across, it's not horizontal. It has to be a diagonal

[00:10:48] in all of either all five or either all 10. I have seen a little variation on that. Some people say you have to do all 10 blocks. Some people say you only have to do five, but either or it has to be all on one side

[00:11:00] or all on both sides. So that's pretty common for everybody to do that. But the other thing I wanted to point out to this is because there are an awful lot of numbers there, people tend to get kind of confused

[00:11:10] and there is an easy thing to help you. And that is again, you've got the five different sections. But the first section is gonna be B. If you're looking for a B, it's gonna be at the very top. If you're looking for an I,

[00:11:25] it's gonna be in the next block. If you're looking for an N, it's gonna be in the middle block. If you're looking for a G, it's gonna be the next to the bottom. And if you're looking for an O, it's gonna be in the bottom.

[00:11:35] So if you keep that in mind, you just know to scan those particular areas. You don't have to keep looking up and down this entire thing because you know if it's a B where it's gonna be, you know if it's an N and so on.

[00:11:46] So that actually makes that game a lot easier for a lot of people if they just keep that in mind because it can be a little confusing. Also just a little FYI for people, it's helpful that this particular game

[00:11:58] has a free spot in each one of those 10 squares. So at least one number comes to you free, making it a little easier. But similar to the situation that we had with the odd even where I noticed

[00:12:09] that there are some cards that have a butt load of freeze, I've also noticed that there's a card out there for this particular game. And unfortunately, I think it was Lucky Charms where somebody had the free in the center of every one of those 10.

[00:12:23] Well that makes it real easy if you've got that free directly in their center of that. That's a definite advantage to anybody who runs into that particular card. Now I've tried to cover most of the strips that I see generally speaking in most areas

[00:12:40] and give a quick little breakdown on that. But there's always somebody out there who's gotta be different. And I'm gonna talk about two of those. One of those is called Kaboom. Okay, Kaboom's got five separate little sections in there and it's got a multitude of numbers.

[00:12:55] So it's got even numbers, it's got odd numbers but they're not in any kind of a line. They're again in that little five die section kind of thing where you've got that number in the middle situation going on.

[00:13:06] So people haven't seemed to figure out how to play that yet but what seems to be the most common is they're either gonna say everything that's an odd number is free. So go ahead and cover that or everything that's an even number is free.

[00:13:18] So go ahead and cover that and then they'll play it as a cover all. So then after you've covered all your free numbers be it even or be it odd then you gotta go finish out the game by covering up all the other numbers

[00:13:29] and that's how you win the game. So that's something out there that you'll see too. And then there's another one just to make everybody a little nervous. There's something called classic strips if you haven't seen that one. It is just a mixture of everything.

[00:13:45] So generally speaking what you have on the top you've got an either or situation. Sometimes you have four numbers where you have to make an either or sometimes you have two numbers where you have to make an either or sometimes you have three numbers

[00:13:57] where you have to make an either or situation. So but that's gonna be in that top section the top block out of the five. In the second section you're gonna have a triple dot, okay? So you either make a diagonal, vertical or horizontal generally speaking on this

[00:14:13] they're also gonna give you a free space. They're either one number or two numbers, okay? So you either need two more numbers to make it or not. So they have that. But what's tricky about this particular strip is in the middle

[00:14:26] you're gonna have either three, four or five numbers and you've gotta cover all those numbers. I can't tell you how confusing that is for people because they continue to think it's gonna be a triple dot situation where you only need to cover like a line

[00:14:39] where you only need to make a diagonal, horizontal or vertical and that's not the case. You have to cover all of those numbers. But then after that, yes you are gonna have another triple dot. Underneath that is a triple dot

[00:14:49] and if you got two free numbers up at the top space you're only gonna get one in this one. They do it either or. So triple dot and then in the bottom they're gonna break out to another either or situation.

[00:15:00] You're gonna have two little lines in that box it's either gonna be like five or gonna be 12 or it's gonna be 16 and 25 whatever it is, it's an either or in that last square. So again on the top you've got an either or situation

[00:15:12] you've got a triple dot in the middle you've got a blackout in the center you've got a triple dot and then you've got an either or situation. So yes, that's confusing and I see a lot of times where people think they've won

[00:15:25] it's that blackout section that gets them every time and they don't have it and I hate to see people say bingo when they don't have bingo it just breaks my heart but that hopefully is a good rundown of some of the stuff that you'll see out there.

[00:15:39] And let me say it one more time I am so freaking pro strip because I know when I spend my money that I'm actually gonna get to play as much as I love the tabs I just think about all the money that I've wasted

[00:15:51] not just getting a tab and playing it but all the money that I've wasted trying to get a pool tab and not getting it and that money just going down the toilet. We've all been there when you look at that trash bag

[00:16:01] or whatever it is and we see all those unused pool tabs that didn't add up to anything. So I love the fact that when I pay for a strip that I know I'm actually gonna have the opportunity to play and some of those strips pay a fortune.

[00:16:14] Some of those strips pay a lot of money. I know that Paul recently for the big summer shakeup 2024, that strip which I think again was the lucky charms just the one where you have the two columns and then the five numbers in each of the five sections there

[00:16:29] that thing paid $5,000 and I know their places where it pays even more than that. So there's no reason to look down on strips because they can be pretty beneficial and I'm here to say it. So anyway, that's it for this week's episode of the Broke Bingo Attic.

[00:16:45] I hope I gave you some information that was useful. More importantly, I hope you'll come back for the next episode. Thanks so much. Bye. Just have a game, just a large step.