How it works
Bingo patterns decide how long each game runs and how hard it is to check. This page holds 64 of them in seven groups, from four corners and the postage stamp to the Indian star and cover-all. Each has a small picture of the card, the squares it covers, how many numbers it takes and whether the free center helps. Deal a program, then print it.
Read the full guide
Deal a night's program from one phone
The page opens on eight patterns, each beside a small picture of the card: dark squares are the ones to cover, and the ring marks the free center. The line under the name says which squares count and how many numbers that takes. For a longer night, press Add another at the end of the list; the × on a row makes it shorter. The dropdown under the button narrows the deal to one group, such as Lines or Letters, and a group at 16 shows every pattern in it, pictured. To keep the rows you like, take the others away with × and press again. The button's number is the number of rows its press changes. A program that climbs works well: any line or 4 corners bingo to open, a shape in the middle, and cover-all last.
How to read a pattern, and where halls differ
Squares are named by column letter and row from the top, so B1 is the top left corner and N3 is the free center, which counts as covered whenever a pattern uses it. That is why the letter X bingo pattern takes 8 numbers, not 9. The hardway bingo pattern is the opposite idea: a straight line that misses the center, so all 5 numbers must be called. Small picture frame bingo is the 8 squares round the center. Crazy means the shape may be turned, so crazy T bingo and crazy kite bingo each win 4 ways. Names are not standard: one book's ladder is another's large ladder, and the arrow has several drawings. Rules vary, so show the picture before the first call.
Print the program, and what the phone remembers
Print puts the page heading and the patterns on screen onto one sheet in two columns, each with its picture and its line, so the caller can tick games off. Copy the list copies each pattern with its line. No pattern comes up twice until you have seen all 64. The address keeps your group, so the seasonal patterns can be bookmarked. The full list lower down describes every pattern in words.
- For winter bingo patterns, choose Seasonal and keep the Christmas tree, bell and candy cane. The Indian star doubles as a snowflake.
- More ways to win means a shorter game: any line has 12 ways, and a fixed shape has one.
- With kids, stay on Lines and Letters. A shape they can name is a shape they can check for themselves.
- Say out loud whether the free center counts. In a hardway game it never does.
Questions and answers
What is a postage stamp in bingo?
A block of four squares, two by two, in a corner of the card. The postage stamp bingo pattern is usually drawn in the top right, where a stamp goes on an envelope: G1, O1, G2 and O2. Many halls play postage stamp bingo in any of the four corners, which gives 4 ways to win, and a double postage stamp asks for two corners on one card. Rules vary, so say which before you start.
What is the hardway bingo pattern?
A straight line made without the free center. That rules out the middle row, the N column and both diagonals, and leaves 4 rows and 4 columns: 8 ways, each needing all 5 numbers. Double hardway bingo asks for two such lines on one card, which takes 9 numbers when a row crosses a column and 10 when the two lines run the same way.
How many numbers does each pattern take?
The line under every pattern says. 4 corners bingo takes 4 numbers. Lucky 7 bingo and the diamond bingo pattern take 8 each, the Indian star bingo pattern takes 16 round the free center, and coverall bingo takes all 24. Picture frame bingo comes in two sizes: 8 numbers for the small frame and 16 for the large one.
Do these patterns work with the bingo cards on this site?
The shapes do. Cards from the bingo card generator are 5 by 5 with a free center, so every pattern fits them, and the bingo flashboard calls the numbers. Those cards do not keep numbers in lettered columns, though. A note such as "only B and O numbers help" applies to a standard card headed B, I, N, G, O.