What are bins in plinko?
Bins are the row of pockets where the ball finishes its fall. Each one carries a fixed multiplier, so the bin you land in is the entire outcome of the bet: bin position in, payout out, nothing else to resolve.
Everything above the bins is journey; the bins are the verdict. The multiplier printed on each slot is applied to your stake the instant the ball settles. Bin values are arranged symmetrically, generous at the edges and lean in the middle, with the exact spread controlled by your risk level.
How many bins does a plinko board have?
Always rows plus one. A ball making 16 left/right deflections can finish with anywhere from 0 to 16 rightward moves, which is 17 distinct outcomes, so the 16-row board needs exactly 17 bins to catch every possible path.
That count is forced by arithmetic, not design taste. After n coin flips, the number of rights taken is an integer from 0 to n, giving n + 1 reachable endpoints. This is why the bin strip visibly widens as you raise the rows slider: 9 slots at 8 rows, 13 at 12, 17 at 16, with each new row adding one fresh slot at the board's edge.
Why are some bins hit so much more than others?
Because far more flip sequences lead to the middle than to the edges. On 16 rows, 12,870 of the 65,536 possible paths end dead center, about 19.6%, while exactly one path reaches each edge bin, a 1 in 65,536 shot.
Landing in bin k requires exactly k rightward bounces, and the number of ways to arrange those bounces is the binomial coefficient C(rows, k). The center has astronomically more arrangements than the corners, which is precisely why edge bins can afford multipliers like 1000x. Our plinko odds calculator lists every bin's probability as both a percentage and a "1 in X" figure.
See every bin's exact odds
Pick a board size and risk level and get each bin's probability, multiplier, and expected contribution side by side.
Open the Plinko Odds Calculator