Full House Bingo Pattern

A full house bingo pattern is the primary goal in most bingo games, but what is it, and what should you know about it? Here’s a brief rundown of the central pillar of bingo.

What Is a Full House Bingo Pattern?

In 90 ball bingo, a full house bingo pattern covers all 15 numbers on a single ticket. Reaching this pattern is usually the last action in a single game, at which point jackpot rewards get calculated, and the group starts a new game.

Some people also refer to this as a blackout or a coverall, but a “full house” or “house” is the common term when playing 90 ball bingo.

What To Do When You Get a Full House

The best thing to do when you get a full house depends on where you’re playing. In many live games, you need to call something out to get attention. Online games usually automate this process, though you might have to press a button to simulate calling out.

 

Are There Any Other Winning Patterns?

Yes. There are four winning patterns in 90 ball bingo.

The first pattern, called Four Corners, involves getting the leftmost and rightmost numbers on both the top and bottom lines. As this is the fastest way to win, it typically offers the lowest prize in areas where it’s allowed.

The next winning combination is a single line, which entails all five numbers appearing in the same row. A double line pattern is all five numbers in any two rows. In some cases, a double line pattern can also be all five numbers in a row and nine numbers in a column, going across three tickets. That’s rarer than two horizontal lines, though.

Finally, a full house is every space on a single ticket.

Getting “house” is the primary winning combination in most 90 ball bingo games. Games may award prizes for other patterns but don’t always do so. If there’s a jackpot on the line, it usually requires getting a full house.

 

How Fast Can Someone Get a Full House?

In theory, you could get a full house in just 15 calls, the minimum number of pulls to cover every square on a single ticket. However, the odds of this happening are so vanishingly small that it’s unlikely you’ll ever see it happen in a full house bingo pattern.

The fastest realistic result for getting a full house is 31 pulls, at which point the odds of any particular ticket having a match are about one in a hundred million. Getting 31 pulls is usually the threshold for the highest payout in a progressive jackpot, where you can earn more cash based on how quickly you get a full house.

Numbers can vary by company (and we’ve got some recommendations for places to play), but a progressive jackpot usually stops around 45 calls. That still requires a lot of luck, but it’s considerably easier than 31. Wins that take more than 45 don’t have any further reduction in the prize.

Most bingo games end with a full house of between 60 and 70 calls, especially when there are a lot of participants. Having more people does increase the chance that “house” will happen sooner, but it takes quite a few participants to change the odds.

It usually happens by the time you hit 90 calls, but the odds of going that far in any game with a decent number of players are so small as to be functionally nonexistent. A bingo game cannot exceed 90 calls in any circumstances.

How Long Does It Take To Play Bingo?

Most bingo games take between 5 and 10 minutes. A lucky ticket can end a round in three or four minutes, but it’s unlikely you’ll see any game faster than that.

Bingo clubs and online bingo sites try to keep things moving quickly. If games finish fast, players may be tempted to buy another set of tickets, so companies try to keep things snappy. Amateur and casual bingo games tend to be much slower, especially if participants aren’t used to playing.

 

Rare Patterns

90 ball bingo only has a few rare patterns for victory. You won’t see these in most games, but online bingo sites like Mecca Bingo and Ted Bingo may occasionally offer them.

Any four game ends when a player gets four numbers on a single ticket. This is faster on average than a single-line game or the four corners pattern, making it ideal when speedy games are the goal. These tend to run quickly enough that ticket costs are lower than average, and some people use this as the game of choice for amateurs.

90 ball bingo doesn’t allow for many patterns, but there may be special rewards for certain lines. For example, there could be an extra prize if the first line of the game is in the top row of the first ticket or if the second full house is on someone’s second ticket.

Patterns like these are somewhat irregular, but companies occasionally throw them in as an extra reward to make games feel more enticing.

Why Are There So Few Winning Patterns?

Unlike 75 ball bingo, a game more common in the United States, 90 ball bingo uses rectangular tickets with 15 of their 27 spaces filled randomly. A set of six tickets will include all ninety numbers in the game.

However, there’s no standard amount of numbers in any one column. There are always five numbers in a row, but since they’ll cover five of the nine spaces in that row, you can’t design a pattern to be universally applicable across them.

The practical result of this game design is that filling one, two, or three rows is the fastest and most consistent way to find winners. The four corners also work because that applies to any ticket, but those games are too fast for many players to have fun.

 

Final Thoughts

A full house bingo pattern is easy to understand because it’s just marking off every square. You’ll see this happen a lot if you play bingo regularly, and since you never know how fast it will happen, every game feels fresh and different.

Last updated: Jan 24, 2023