In this Vox video, pinball legend Roger Sharpe explains that playing the game isn't random and shares how players can manipulate the balls to their advantage.
Going into the video, I felt a little bit like, "What are things old people already knew, Alec?" but ended up learning some things. Never too old, I guess. Funny enough, I was just playing pinball last weekend (at the soon-to-be-closed Playland-Not-at-the-Beach... sniff) and totally could have used these pointers.