Caveman Keno Strategy: Eggs, Odds & Winning Tips (2026)

Picture this: You're at a video keno machine, and three dinosaur eggs appear on the board before the draw. Twenty numbers light up — and two of those eggs hatch. Your modest 3-out-of-5 catch just turned into a 4x payout. The guy next to you, playing standard keno with the same numbers, got the base pay. Same draw, same catches, four times less money.

That's the Caveman Keno difference. The egg multiplier mechanic is what makes this variant one of the highest-RTP keno games on the casino floor — 91-94% on good machines in 2026, compared to 85-92% for standard video keno. But most players have no idea how the eggs actually work, which spot counts maximize the multiplier benefit, or how to tell a good Caveman Keno pay table from a bad one.

This guide covers the real caveman keno strategy: how the egg mechanic works mathematically, which spot counts give you the best return, a strategy chart you can reference at the machine, and a step-by-step approach for beginners. No miracle systems. No "lucky number" nonsense. Just the math and decisions that actually affect your results.

TL;DR — Caveman Keno Strategy Cheat Sheet

Key Numbers at a Glance

Bottom line: Caveman Keno's egg mechanic gives it a higher expected multiplier (~1.51x) than standard keno, which means better RTP on equivalent pay tables. But the base pays are lower to account for the bonus — so you need those egg hatches to hit the full return. Pick 4-6 spots, check the pay table, and manage your bankroll. Use our session simulator to model typical outcomes, and the bankroll calculator to set proper limits before you play.

What Is Caveman Keno? (And How It Differs from Regular Keno)

Caveman Keno is a video keno variant with one major twist: before each draw, the game places 3 dinosaur eggs on random numbers across the 80-number board. If enough of those egg numbers get drawn, your winnings are multiplied. Everything else — picking spots, the 20-number draw, the pay table — works exactly like standard video keno.

The game was designed by Caveman Games (now part of IGT's keno library) and has become one of the most popular keno variants on casino floors and online platforms. In 2026, you'll find Caveman Keno on most multi-game keno terminals alongside Cleopatra Keno, Superball Keno, and standard video keno.

The Egg Mechanic Explained

Here's exactly how the eggs work, step by step:

1. You pick your spots — choose 2-10 numbers from the 80-number board
2. 3 eggs appear — placed on 3 random numbers (can be on your picks or not)
3. 20 numbers are drawn — standard keno draw from the 80-number pool
4. Eggs hatch if drawn — any egg whose number is among the 20 drawn numbers "hatches" into a baby dinosaur
5. Multiplier applied — based on how many eggs hatched:

The key insight: The eggs hatch based on whether their numbers are drawn — this is independent of your picks. You don't need the egg to be on one of your spots for it to hatch. But the multiplier only matters if you actually win something on that draw. Hatching 3 eggs with zero catches still pays $0.

The expected multiplier across all draws is approximately 1.51x. This means that over thousands of draws, the egg bonus effectively multiplies your base return by about 51%. The pay table accounts for this — Caveman Keno base payouts are lower than standard keno to keep the overall RTP in the target range.

Caveman Keno vs Regular Keno vs Cleopatra Keno

Caveman Keno sits between standard keno (no bonus, lower volatility) and Cleopatra Keno (bonus draws, highest RTP). The egg mechanic adds excitement without the complexity of bonus round rules. If you want a detailed comparison of all video keno variants, see our video keno strategy guide.

Caveman Keno Odds and Pay Tables

Understanding the actual probabilities is what separates strategic players from people randomly tapping numbers. The odds in Caveman Keno are the same as standard keno for the base draw — the egg multiplier is layered on top.

Return to Player (RTP) by Number of Spots

The base keno probabilities follow the hypergeometric distribution:

$P(\text{catch } k \text{ of } s) = \frac{\binom{s}{k} \binom{80-s}{20-k}}{\binom{80}{20}}$

In plain English: 20 numbers are drawn from 80, and this formula calculates your chance of matching exactly k of your s chosen spots. Caveman Keno uses the same math — then multiplies your payout by the egg bonus.

Here are the key probabilities for popular spot counts:

4-Spot Probabilities (Caveman Keno):

6-Spot Probabilities (Caveman Keno):

Notice how the base payouts are lower than standard keno, but the multiplied payouts push them well above. Catching 6/6 with 3 hatched eggs pays $8,000 on a $1 bet — that's the Caveman Keno jackpot dream. The win probability calculator can model your exact odds for any session length and spot count.

Probability of Hatching 2 vs 3 Eggs

The egg hatch math uses the same hypergeometric distribution. Three eggs are placed on 3 of 80 numbers, and 20 numbers are drawn:

$P(\text{hatch } k \text{ of } 3) = \frac{\binom{3}{k} \binom{77}{20-k}}{\binom{80}{20}}$

In plain English: with 3 eggs on the board and 20 numbers drawn, each egg has a 25% chance of its number being drawn (20/80). The exact probabilities account for the without-replacement nature of the draw.

What this means in practice: Roughly 1 in 7 draws (13.87%) will give you the 4x multiplier. About 1 in 72 draws (1.39%) will give you the 8x multiplier. Over a 200-draw session, you'd expect about 28 draws with 4x and about 3 draws with 8x. The question is whether those multiplied draws coincide with actual catches — that's where the real variance lives.

How Pay Tables Differ Between Casinos

Not all Caveman Keno machines are created equal. The same game name can have dramatically different pay tables:

Always check the pay table BEFORE playing. Press "Paytable" or "Help" on the machine and compare mid-tier payouts (3/4 or 3/5 catches). If they look lower than the numbers in our tables above, you're on a poor-paying machine. The house edge calculator can convert specific pay table numbers to RTP percentages.

Best Caveman Keno Strategy: How Many Numbers to Pick?

The number of spots you pick has the single biggest impact on your expected return — bigger than number selection, egg chasing, or any "system." This section breaks down each viable spot count.

2-Spot Strategy (High Frequency, Low Payout)

Playing 2 spots is the simplest Caveman Keno approach: pick two numbers, hope both get drawn. The catch probability (2/2) is about 6%, paying 12-15x on most machines.

The problem: 2-spot has the lowest RTP in Caveman Keno — typically 75-80%. The pay table can't offer much because the base hit is relatively common (25% for catching at least 1), and the top hit (2/2) isn't rare enough to justify a large payout. The egg multiplier helps, but starting from a low base means even 4x doesn't push you into competitive RTP territory.

Verdict: Not recommended unless you purely want entertainment with frequent small hits and accept a high house edge.

4-8 Spot Strategy (Optimal Balance)

This is the sweet zone — and it's what Google's AI Overview already recommends for Caveman Keno. Here's why:

4-Spot: The entry point. Catching 4/4 pays 56-91x (base, depending on pay table), with egg multipliers pushing that to 224-728x. RTP sits at 86-91%. The hit frequency for any win is about 26%, so you'll catch something roughly 1 in 4 draws.

5-Spot: Often the single best choice for balanced play. Catching 5/5 pays 200-500x base, with 8x eggs pushing that to 1,600-4,000x. But the real value is the mid-tier catch: 3/5 hits about 8.4% of the time and keeps your session alive. RTP: 88-92%.

6-Spot: The highest consistent RTP zone. Catching 6/6 pays 1,000-1,500x base — with 3 hatched eggs, that's $8,000-$12,000 on a $1 bet. The trade-off is lower hit frequency for the top catch (0.013%). RTP: 90-94%.

7-8 Spot: Higher volatility with the potential for maximum RTP (91-94%). The top catches are extremely rare (7/7 hits once in ~41,000 draws, 8/8 once in ~230,000), so your session mostly depends on mid-tier catches and egg multipliers. Best for experienced players with larger bankrolls.

Why More Spots Means More Egg Value

Here's something no other guide explains: the egg multiplier's effective impact increases with more spots. With 2 spots, you rarely catch anything — so the 4x or 8x multiplier usually applies to $0. With 6 spots, you catch something 16% of draws — so the multiplier has more opportunities to boost real winnings. The egg bonus is most valuable when paired with 5-7 spot play.

Optimal Number Selection in Practice

There's no mathematically superior set of numbers. Every number from 1 to 80 has the exact same probability of being drawn: 20/80 = 25%. The RNG treats all numbers identically.

What does matter:

• Spot count — directly affects RTP and hit frequency (pick 4-6)
• Pay table quality — varies by 10-20% between machines
• Consistency — pick numbers you'll remember and stick with (for comfort, not for math)

The numbers themselves are irrelevant. Pick birthdays, lucky numbers, random taps — the expected return is identical regardless. If anyone tells you certain numbers are "due" or "hot," show them the gambler's fallacy simulator. It demonstrates exactly why that intuition is mathematically wrong.

Caveman Keno Strategy for Beginners

If you've never played Caveman Keno before — or you've been playing without thinking about the pay table or spot count — this section is your starting playbook.

Step-by-Step: Your First 10 Games

1. Set your budget. Decide the maximum you'll lose before sitting down. This should be entertainment money — not bill money, not savings. $20-$50 is plenty for a first session at $0.25 bets.
2. Find a casino floor machine (not bar-top). Casino floor Caveman Keno typically runs 91-94% RTP. Bar-top machines can be as low as 73%.
3. Check the pay table. Press "Paytable" or "Help." Look at what catching 3/4 pays. If it's less than 3x your bet, find a different machine — the RTP is poor.
4. Start with 5 spots. Five-spot gives you the best combination of reasonable RTP (~90%), decent hit frequency (~34%), and interesting payout potential. Don't overthink which numbers — just tap five you like.
5. Watch the eggs. Before each draw, notice where the 3 eggs land. After 10 draws you'll start recognizing the hatch animation and multiplier pattern: ~14% of draws give 4x, ~1.4% give 8x. Most draws are 1x.
6. Flat bet every draw. Play the same bet size for all 10 games. Never increase after a loss or a win. Flat betting is the mathematically optimal approach for any negative-EV game.
7. Note your results. After 10 draws, check your balance. You'll likely be within 30-50% of your starting bankroll. This gives you a feel for the pace of the game.

Bankroll Management Basics

Rule of thumb: Budget 100-200x your bet size per session.

For a $0.50 per game player, bring $50-$100. At 200 draws per hour, that gives you 30-60 minutes of play.

Key principles:

• Stop-loss at 50% — walk away when your bankroll drops to half your buy-in
• Win goal at 150% — cash out when your balance grows by 50%
• Speed kills — video keno plays at 200-400 draws per hour, burning bankroll fast

At $1 per draw with 10% house edge, you're losing about $20-$40 per hour on average. The loss calculator puts this in perspective when you see the monthly totals. And every betting system ever invented — from Fibonacci to Martingale — fails to change this fundamental math.

Free Play Before Real Money

Many online casinos offer Caveman Keno in demo or free-play mode. Use it:

• Learn the egg animation — so you can instantly recognize hatches during real play
• Test different spot counts — play 50 draws at 4-spot, then 50 at 6-spot. Feel the difference in hit frequency and payout size
• Find pay table differences — compare free-play Caveman Keno across 2-3 platforms. The pay tables genuinely differ, and you want to play on the best one
• Practice bankroll discipline — even with fake money, set a budget and stick to it. Build the habit before real money is at stake

Free play can't replicate the emotional pressure of real-money decisions, but it teaches you the game mechanics without any cost. Use it.

Advanced Caveman Keno Strategies

Once you understand the basics — spot count, pay tables, bankroll management — these advanced approaches can optimize your session experience. None of them change the house edge, but they change how you interact with the variance.

Multiplier Optimization (How to Target the Eggs)

You can't control where the eggs appear or whether they hatch — both are RNG-driven. But you can think about the egg multiplier's impact on your overall session:

Focus on mid-tier catches. The egg multiplier is most valuable when it hits on a real payout. Catching 3/5 (pays 3x base) with a 4x egg = 12x total. Catching 3/5 without eggs = 3x. That's a 4x difference on a catch that happens 8.4% of draws. Over 200 draws, you'll get about 17 mid-tier catches — and roughly 2-3 of those will coincide with a 4x or 8x multiplier.

The math behind expected multiplied payouts:

The expected multiplier of 1.51x applies uniformly to all payouts. There's no way to "target" the eggs strategically. But understanding that roughly half your lifetime payouts come from multiplied draws changes how you think about session planning.

Expected Multiplier Distribution Over Sessions

In a 100-draw session:

• ~42 draws: 0 eggs hatch (1x)
• ~43 draws: 1 egg hatches (1x)
• ~14 draws: 2 eggs hatch (4x)
• ~1-2 draws: 3 eggs hatch (8x)

In a 500-draw session, you'd expect about 7 draws with the 8x multiplier. Whether any of those 7 coincide with a meaningful catch is pure luck — but 500 draws gives you a reasonable sample.

Grid Pattern Play (Clusters, Rows, Corners)

Some players organize their number selection by board regions. The keno board is an 8×10 grid of numbers 1-80. Common patterns:

• Cluster: Pick all numbers from a small region (e.g., 31-35)
• Diagonal: Pick numbers along a diagonal line
• Corners: Pick numbers from the four corners of the board
• Columns: Pick one number from each column

The honest truth: None of these patterns change your probability. Each number has a 25% chance of being drawn regardless of position on the board. Patterns are a comfort tool — they give you a consistent approach and make the board easier to read visually. If using a pattern makes your session more enjoyable and keeps you disciplined, use it. Just don't believe it improves your odds.

The volatility calculator can show you that two different 5-number selections (random vs. clustered) produce identical variance over 1,000 draws.

Caveman Keno Plus Strategy (Extra Balls Feature)

Caveman Keno Plus takes the standard egg mechanic and adds an extra ball feature. After the initial 20-number draw, if certain conditions are met (typically catching a specific number of spots), you receive 1-3 bonus draws. These extra numbers can improve your result — turning a 3/6 catch into a 4/6 or 5/6.

How Caveman Keno Plus differs:

Strategy adjustment for Plus: The extra ball feature increases variance further. Your session results become more "spikey" — longer dry spells punctuated by bigger hits when the extra balls connect. Budget 150-250x your bet (not 100-200x) to account for the higher volatility. The session simulator can model how the extra balls affect your session outcomes.

Caveman Keno Strategy Chart

This is the reference table you can save and check at the machine. It combines spot count, egg impact, and practical recommendations:

Spot-by-Spot Recommendation Guide

How to use this chart:

1. Find your comfort level with volatility (Low → High)
2. Pick the spot count that matches
3. Check the pay table on your machine — if the RTP is in the lower end of the range, try a different machine
4. Combine with egg multiplier awareness: 14% of draws give 4x, 1.4% give 8x

Our pick: 5-spot for most players, 6-spot for players comfortable with higher variance who want maximum expected return. Both pair well with the egg mechanic because they produce enough mid-tier catches for the multiplier to matter. Use the cashback calculator if your casino offers loyalty rewards — even a 0.5% cashback meaningfully reduces the effective house edge over hundreds of draws.

Best Numbers for Caveman Keno

This section exists because "best numbers for Caveman Keno" is one of the most searched phrases around this game. The answer is straightforward, but important.

Hot vs Cold Numbers — The Verdict

Every number from 1 to 80 has the exact same probability of being drawn: 20/80 = 25%. This is a mathematical fact, not an opinion. The RNG has no memory and no bias.

"But I've seen number 17 come up four draws in a row!" Yes — and that's completely normal. In 1,000 draws, each number appears about 250 times. But those appearances cluster and gap randomly. A number hitting 4 draws in a row is a normal statistical event, not a signal.

Tracking hot and cold numbers in Caveman Keno is a waste of time that has zero effect on your expected return. The draw doesn't know what happened last game. The machine doesn't "owe" you anything.

If you want to see why this intuition is so persistent (and so wrong), our article on AI lottery prediction covers the same principle in detail — even the most sophisticated algorithms can't find patterns in truly random data.

How to Choose Your Spots Consistently

Since all numbers are mathematically equal, pick numbers based on comfort and consistency:

• Birthdays and anniversaries — easy to remember, emotionally meaningful
• Visual patterns — a row across the board, a diagonal, a cluster
• Random taps — genuinely random is mathematically identical to any "system"
• The same numbers every session — creates familiarity and reduces decision fatigue

One practical tip: Avoid picking numbers above 31 exclusively. Many players use birthdays (which max at 31), creating a mild statistical clustering in the 1-31 range on multi-player machines. On Caveman Keno this doesn't affect your odds at all, but varying your range gives you better visual coverage of the board.

The bottom line: spend your energy on spot count and pay table selection (which affect RTP by 10-20%), not on number selection (which affects RTP by 0%).

Common Caveman Keno Mistakes to Avoid

Three mistakes cost Caveman Keno players the most money. All are completely preventable.

Over-chasing the 8x Multiplier

The 8x multiplier hits about 1.4% of draws — roughly once every 72 draws. Some players fixate on it, extending their sessions far beyond their bankroll to "wait for the 8x." This is the gambler's fallacy in action: the next draw has the same 1.4% chance regardless of how long you've been playing.

Fix: Treat the 8x as a bonus when it happens, not something you play toward. Your stop-loss limit exists for exactly this reason. When you hit it, walk away — even if you haven't seen a 3-egg hatch all session.

Ignoring the Pay Table Before Playing

Two Caveman Keno machines sitting side by side in the same casino can have a 15% RTP difference. One pays 56x for catching 4/4 base, the other pays 91x. Over 200 draws at $1, that's the difference between losing $12 and losing $40.

Fix: Check the pay table every time you sit at a new machine. It takes 30 seconds. Compare 3/4 and 4/4 payouts (for 4-spot) or 3/5 and 4/5 payouts (for 5-spot) against our tables above. If the numbers look low, move to a different machine. The house edge calculator can quantify the difference precisely.

Changing Numbers Every Spin

Switching numbers between draws makes no mathematical difference — each draw is independent. But it does two harmful things: (1) it wastes time between draws, which some players compensate for by playing faster, and (2) it creates a false sense of "trying something new," which can lead to abandoning a sound spot-count strategy in favor of chasing random patterns.

Fix: Pick your numbers once per session. Stick with them. The mental energy you'd spend on number selection is better spent monitoring your bankroll and watching the pay table. Every draw is a fresh independent event — your numbers from 5 draws ago have zero effect on the next draw.

Want to see how the same probability math applies to multi-card play? Our 4 card keno strategy guide covers overlapping numbers, cluster patterns, and bankroll management for the multi-card format. And for a broader look at how losing streaks work mathematically, the variance concepts apply directly to keno sessions.