Math behind Pay Line Combinations

Hi,

i have a question regarding the Pay Line Combinations of Atkins Diet but basically its about the math behind these combinations in general.

(im not allowed to post links yet but its the example on the this page) /games/slots/atkins-diet/

So in this specific example 5 reels with 32 stops, the Atkins Symbol appears once on every reel. How do we end up with 28 possible combinations for 4 in a row?

To give an example how i think it has to be calculated:

5 reels, 32 stops and a symbol with a frequency of 5 on each reel.. for 3 in a row:

5 * 5 * 5 * (32 - 5) * 32 = 108.000 possible combinations

So my thought process here is 5 possible stops on each of the first 3 reels, then on the 4th reel it can be any stop but the five stops of the symbol - because otherwise
it would be 4 in row, then on the last reel it can be any of the 32 stops.

In this same example assuming each reel has one wild symbol the math would be

6 * 6 * 6 * (32 - 6) * 32

To me this seems plausible but if i use this formula on the atkins example i never end up with the same results as shown in the paytable.. so i guess im doing something wrong here


it would be really nice if you guys could help me out here

thanks in advance

david

There are 32 combinations in which the first four symbols are Atkins.
One of them has Atkins as the fifth symbol; that is counted as 5 Atkins.
Three of them have Steak as the fifth symbol; as 5 Steak is worth 1000 and 4 Atkins is worth only 500, they are each counted as 5 Steak.
The remaining 28 combinations do not pay more than the 500 for 4 Atkins, so they are counted as 4 Atkins.