A checklist for reading a game before you stake

Read the three figures

• Find the RTP in the game's own help or rules screen — not in an advert, and not on a comparison page. Compare it against other games of the same kind.
• Note the volatility if the game states it. It governs how the session will feel far more than the RTP does.
• Note the hit frequency if it is published. Low hit frequency with high volatility is the grinding profile; plan for long gaps.
• Check the stake limits. The minimum and maximum stake set the range of session sizes the game allows.

Decide the session before it starts

1. Set a total you can afford to lose entirely — as a cost already spent, never as money you expect back.
2. Set the stake from the total, not from the moment. A small stake against the total stretches the session and softens variance.
3. Expect the average to assert itself over turnover. Fewer rounds cost less in expectation than many, at the same edge.
4. Never add to a session to recover a loss. The edge applies equally to replacement money; chasing it simply increases turnover.

Set the stopping points, then keep them

The stopping points are the only decision in a session that is fully within your control, and setting them in advance is what stops a bad afternoon from becoming a bad month.

• A loss limit — the total from above, treated as a hard stop rather than a target to defend.
• A win limit — a figure at which you stop and keep the result, rather than staking it back into the spread.
• A time limit — because turnover, and therefore expected cost, accrues with time spent playing.
• A break rule — if limits have been crossed once, they must be enforceable in the account's own controls, not merely in intention.

Writing the numbers down before the first round is the whole exercise. A limit decided in the middle of a session is not a limit; it is a counter-offer.