You get better chances, if you pay the transaction fee :-D. I just played all 0.01 0.05 and 0.1 .. and of course, the biggest one did not have the fee included -> lost that one.
But that's the spirit of the game :-D. pay you taxes and you get luckier ;-)
Actually, you can increase your chances, if you know bitcoin. I do not know if it's good or bad

Anyway, here are some basics I'm aware of:
- pay the fee, your payment is more likely included in the block
- use a bitocoin client with as many connections to the network as possible (maybe forced connections to largest pools?).
- follow blockchain.info main page also and refresh it just before you hit 'send'. don't hit, if there is a new block ;-)