Finally, I found a new slots tournament that I can talk about. I still like playing slot tournaments at Rushmore the most, but it is really nice to see another site offer a $5000 guaranteed slots tournament.

This tournament will start Saturday, March 3rd at 3pm ET and ends Sunday, March 4th at 3pm ET. However, you will need to per-register for this tournament by Wednesday, February 29th at 3pm ET.

This is being listed under Pay Slots Tournaments even though it is a freeroll. This is because you will need to make a qualifying deposit of $50 or more to be eligible to register and play in this slot tournament.

The registration will open for the freeroll on Saturday, March 3rd at 3pm ET.

This is the way that this Slot Tournament will be played:

1) Click here to visit the Casino Titan slot tournament sign up page.

2) Make a deposit of $50 or more.

3) Select the March Madness Slots Tournament $5,000 Depositor Slots Freeroll and click pre-register before Wednesday, Feb 29 at 3pm ET.

4) Register for this slot tournament as soon as you can after the registration opens (Saturday, March 3rd at 3:00pm ET). This is because only the first 1,000 participates will be able to register. I would guess that you would at least have about an hour before the 1,000 spots are filled.

4) Enter the slot tournament sometime between 3pm ET Saturday and 3pm ET Sunday. Once you register, you can play anytime before 3pm ET on Sunday.

You are going to have a total of 10 minutes of playtime and 5,000 in Starting Chips. Basic math tells us that you will need to average about 500 chips per minute.

There are a couple of basic strategies that you can follow:

1) Bet the maximum amount (100) every spin. If you don’t get a bonus round, you will probably finish after about 4 or 5 minutes.

2) Bet the 2nd highest amount (25) to start. The idea is that you spin with a lesser amount if you think the reels will start off cold. You would change your betting to the maximum spin when your spidey-sense is tingling. The trick is always to hit the bonus round with a maximum bet.

3) Bet the lowest amount (10) if the reels don’t pay out anything for more than 3-5 times. The idea is not to waste the credits while there’s nothing to be won. It takes 10 spins at the lowest amount to equal one maximum bet. Still, if you hit the bonus round at the low bet, you probably won’t have a good chance to win.

If you would like to learn about these types of slot tournaments, take a look at this similar tournament at Silver Oak.

I know that I normally post the free slot tournaments on this site. This time I wanted to share a pay slot tournament that I am participating in. The contest started this morning just after midnight and lasts for the entire month of March.

It is called the March Madness 20111 slot tournament and it is being hosted at English Harbour (and Silver Dollar as well).

The entry fee for this tournament is $10 and rebuys are also $10. If you can do well at this tournament early (like being one of the first to hit the $10K plateau), you will have a good shot at one of the 10 prizes of $1000 or more. The winner of this tournament is going to get $25,000! Second place gets $10,000.

Although this tournament has just started this morning, only a little more than 300 people have signed up and started playing so far. In the coming days, this will balloon out to a thousand or more. This is still far less competition than the free slot tournaments and you have a legitimate chance of winning more than $1K.

Of course because this slot tournament takes the entire month, you can’t rest on your laurels and not play for two weeks. These tournaments are always the same. There are some very competitive people trying to get that one of those top prizes and don’t be surprised to see a top score over $100,000.

In case anyone didn’t figure it out, the “March Madness” is in reference to the upcoming NCAA Mens Basketball tournament. This is where everyone starts filling out their a March Madness Bracket for all of the contests and office pools that are being offered.

Playing in the March Madness Slot Tournament

Here are the basic rules, everyone who enters this slot tournament will receive a starting balance of $200. The first thing that you will want to do is bump up your total bet per spin by increasing the Bet. I usually like to start out at a total bet of $1.25 per spin (5 cents a line) and adjust my betting according to how hot or cold the reels are out of the gate.

I like using the Autoplay in games like these. I will normally set the number of spins to either 50 or 100 and see where it goes from there. If you aren’t going to pay close attention to what’s happening, you need to make sure to set parameters. I will usually set the Autoplay settings to let me know when I’ve either won or lost $50 at first. This will give you a basic idea on whether or not you should be due.

That’s a tricky slope to play though. Being wrong on the “I’m due” factor will quickly bust a lot of players. At $1.25 per spin, if I’ve lost $50 over 100 spins then I know that there should be some big payouts soon. If a couple of big payouts hit, I know to minimize the betting because the reels will try to recoup that money.

Butterflies Slots

The featured slot for the March Madness slot tournament is called Butterflies. This game is slightly different then the other games I’ve gone through here. I’m quickly going to show you the different features of this game.

There is no bonus round or free spins of any sort. The scatters do not do anything special and only give you a multiple of your bet when you win. There is one substitute that only shows up on the first reel. If you get this, you trigger the Butterfly feature.

The Butterfly will randomly land on the reels and each Butterfly can be used as a substitute to complete paylines. This is the big payout that you need to take advantage of. It ends up working the same as far as the amount paid out as a bonus round would give. Your $1.25 spin will probably be worth between $15 and $30.

You still have plenty of time to sign up and play. Click the banner above and you can visit and register for this slot tournament with English Harbour casino.