Pattern Bingo
Online bingo is a great way of enjoying bingo action without leaving the comfort of your own home. Pattern bingo can be found both online and in live bingo halls, but with online versions of pattern bingo the options available are pretty much unlimited.
Best Bingo Rooms Online
In pattern bingo, the goal is to create particular patterns on the cards using your numbers and your dauber, rather than just making five numbers in a row as in traditional bingo. Pattern bingo is more flexible and offers more fun options for playing your favorite bingo variants.
Playing Pattern Bingo
There are different patterns associated with different pattern bingo games. The most common bingo card used in a 75-ball game has five rows and five columns creating a 25 spot grid. As the game progress, the player marks off every called number on the card and if they can, makes bingo patterns at different stages in the game for prizes. Its like regular bingo where you would win a prize for a straight line or house; expect in pattern bingo, you’re playing for patterns. The different winning patterns vary from site to site, but some of the most common are the “X”, the “clover leaf” the “four corners” and “the kite”. Don’t fret; we’re going to cover the most common bingo patterns below.
75-ball game Pattern Bingo: Since 75-ball bingo is the game with most spots on every card, this is where you will find the most winning patterns. The kite for example, is created with four marked spots in any corner of the card, completed by a tail, (a diagonal row all the way to the opposite corner.) The corner leaf is when you manage to mark all four spots in every corner of the card. And the X, well you might have guessed it; it is two diagonal rows crossing over the middle spot of the card.
80-ball game Pattern Bingo: The 80-ball game card consists of 16 spots in a 4×4 box, creating a much smaller card than the one used in 75-ball bingo. This narrows down the number of possible patterns significantly. But still, there are several patterns to be made even in the 80-ball game. The most common one is the “Corners”, where you mark every spot in every corner of the card. The “Game X” is just like the Corners, but it is completed with all four-center spots on the card as well.
90-ball game Pattern Bingo: As for the 90-ball game, well, it is played a little bit differently. The card consists of three horizontal rows and nine vertical columns. Only five spots of every row are numbered, and clearing all five of these spots is considered bingo, or “Any line”. There are only three different ways of winning in a 90-ball game: Clearing any one line, any two lines or a “full house”, (all three lines on the card), will generate a win.
The Most Common Patterns for Pattern Bingo and How to Make Them
There are certain bingo patterns that like to pop up more often than others and if you want to play pattern bingo you need to know or at least have an idea of the patterns first. Pattern bingo is where you’ll find the largest amount of different winning opportunities, as the pattern bingo possibilities are literally endless. You can go pattern bingo crazy. Some bingo patterns are self-explanatory from their names, whilst others, which are a bit trickier, are explained below.
Tip: the following pattern bingo designs are all based on the 75 ball bingo 5×5 card.
• Alphabet Letters: Let’s start things off simple with the easiest bingo patterns to remember. Make any of the 26 letters of the alphabet individually as you play pattern bingo for prizes.
• Numbers: Numbers are straight up and usually include 1-10.
• Coverall: it’s in the name; this simple pattern involves covering all your tiles on the whole card.
• Any single Line
• Four Corners
• 4×4 Square: blocked out tiles in each of the corners of your card.
• Any Corner: Make any of the corners mentioned above, with single tiles blotted.
• Borders: Mark all the outside tiles on your card to create a border.
• Diamond: Mark the tiles that allow you to make the perfect diamond. In the first row blot the middle square, second row the second and fourth tiles, third row the first and fifth tiles, on the fourth row the second and fourth tiles and the last row the middle tile only.
• House Pyramid: start from the bottom and fill the whole of the bottom row and fill it, then take the first and last columns and fill two additional tiles each stacking upwards. On the top row fill the middle tile and to finish the pattern add two tiles on the second row, columns two and four.
• Any arrow: Make an arrow pointing in any direction, but take care, as the arrow tip must be completely blotted out to win.
• Triangles: Fill half of the tiles on your card in any direction and forming a triangle that uses one corner of your card.
• Ball: Make this pattern by leaving only each singular corner tile empty.
• Plus: Add up your prizes by marking off numbers in the shape of a cross in the middle of your pattern bingo card.
• Spots: cover every other tile on your card, start by blotting the first tile.
• Flower: blot the inner 9 tiles to make a square in the center of your card; this is the middle of your flower. Next mark off every other tile on the outside-unfilled rows, starting from a corner- these are your petals. This pattern may also be called a Star and is made up by blotting the exact same tiles described here.
• Cruise Ship: from the bottom row up fill the middle three tiles, the whole of the second row up, the middle square of the middle row, middle 3 tiles of the following row and on the top line, just the middle tile. When you’ve filled all these spaces, your pattern bingo card will resemble a luxury ship, you never know if you play your bingo cards right you could be joining a ship of your dreams soon! This can also be called a sailing ship, but only if the second row has two tiles marked to the left, instead of three in the middle- this shows the flag is up on a sailboat.
• Anchor: following on with the nautical theme, raise the anchor by filling the whole of the top row, then just the middle tile of the following two rows, the middle and left and right outside tiles of the fourth row and lastly the middle three tiles of the final row.
• Valentines: hit up some hard heart action by making this pattern masterpiece during a bingo game. From the bottom up, fill the middle tile of the first row, graduate to the next row and fill the middle three, for the next two rows, fill all five tiles and for the top row fill only the second and fourth tile- these will form the points of your filled up heart. This pattern can also appear as ‘Love’ for which only the outside of the heart is marked.
• Horse: effectively, this is supposed to look like a horses head, but you’ll need a good splash of imagination to see it. Start from the top row, filling only the fourth column, on the second row fill every tile except the first. On the third and fourth row fill every tile and on the fifth row fill the last two tiles.
• Clown: This is a smiley face; the eyes fall on the second row for which you need to fill the single tile on row two, columns two and four. The smile uses the fourth and last rows. On the fourth row fill the first and last column and to finish blot the middle three tiles on the fifth and last column.
• Gym’ll fix it: This is simply a letter G and plays on the saying, ‘Jim’ll fix it”.
• UFO’s: There are two ways to make UFOs and either should bring a smile to your face, as they both resemble the early generation mobile phone game- space invaders.
• HI: Use your pattern bingo card to spell HI and beat the other players with this welcoming and winning pattern.
• Plane: Make an aeroplane in the middle of your bingo card by filling in on row two the first, third and fourth tiles. On row three, all tiles and on row fourth follow the pattern on row two again!
• Thunderbird: play with childhood heroes and fill the second column down and the second row across entirely. Then on the third row fill the first and last tiles and you’re done.
• Disco Man: Pull out your best Saturday night disco hits to win the game with this move. Diagonally fill all the tiles from the bottom left to top right. In the second column mark off the second tile and in the fourth column mark the fourth and fifth tiles to complete this bingo pattern.
• Rainbow: On row one blot the second and third tiles. On row two blot the second, third, fourth and fifth tiles, row three fill the first and second tiles and finally on row four fill the first tile. Make this bingo pattern and find out if there really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
• Butterfly: start your butterfly by completely filling the first and fifth column. On the second and fourth column fill only the second and fourth tiles and on the middle column fill in the middle tile only.
• Electric: Fill the middle column completely. One the first row fill the first two tiles and on the middle row dab out the second and fourth tiles.
• Water: this looks like a tap and to make it you need to start by filling the first three tiles on the first row, then add one tile to the second row, second column. On the middle row, from the left, fill in four of the tiles then on the fifth row fill the first and fourth column and on the fifth row fill the tile on the fourth column and you’ve got your water tap.
• Candle Stick: this bingo pattern also looks like Poseidon’s trident. To make it you need to start from the first column, fill the first three tiles then on the fifth column repeat this pattern. On the third (middle) column fill it entirely and lastly fill all tiles on the third row.
Seasonal/ Event Themed Patterns for Pattern Bingo
These change depending on the event and the pattern bingo operator so it’s best to keep your eye out for specially themed bingo and check the patterns being used in the game before you start. Examples of these patterns include:
• Christmas Themes: Xmas Tree, Bell, Stocking, Candy, Santa’s Hat, Snow Flakes, Red Nose, and special Christmas Promos.
• New Years Eve: Noise Maker, Top Hat, New Years Castle, And Happy New Year.
• Valentines Day: Chocolate Box, Ice Cream Cone, Music Note, Full Wine Glass, Glass Slipper
Winning Pattern Bingo Online
The first player to mark her card with any of the pre-determined patterns wins, and usually, the game continues until every pattern has been called by players. You cannot make up your own patterns during the game, so make sure that you know which patterns are paying for the bingo game you are playing. Fortunately, when you play pattern bingo online, the software will alert when you win.
Now that you are fully armed with all the know-how about different patterns and ways of winning pattern bingo it’s time to start playing! Good luck and enjoy the variety pattern bingo delivers!