I would use a Martingale only on the even-money outside bets at roulette, the odd or even, high or low, red or black. These bets give the player 18 chances to win with 20 chances to lose on the American double-zero wheels and 18 chances to win with 19 chances to lose on the European Roulette (single-zero wheels).
Roulette is one of the most popular table games in modern casinos. Although variations on the game have been around for several hundred years, there are now only 3 variations in American casinos.
You're likely already familiar with American roulette and European roulette. The most recent addition to the table game inventory is Sands Roulette.
Which of these games should you play?
How should you bet on them?
What's the smartest strategy for roulette betting?
I'll explain all that in this post:
What Are the Differences between American, European, and Sands Roulette?
Although these games have a few other differences, the most significant distinction between the 3 versions of roulette are the number of green slots the wheels contain.
Every roulette wheel has at least 37 slots.
36 of those slots are always numbered 1 to 36, and they're alternately colored RED or BLACK.
The additional slots are green.
In European roulette there is only one green slot, the '0'.
In American roulette there are two green slots: '0' and '00'.
- Outside bets offer the best odds of winning at roulette. These types of wagers are placed on groups as opposed to just numbers, for example odd or even, red or black, 1-18 or 19-46, dozen bets,.
- So, European roulette has 37:1 odds of hitting a single number, while the payouts are 35:1. American roulette has the odds of 38:1 while having the same payout ratio — hence a higher house edge. Tips on Roulette Betting. Although roulette is a game purely based on chance, there are some basic tips that could help you get over the hump.
- Any roulette betting strategy can only cut costs and allow you to play longer, that is, increase the chances of winning if you are lucky. The essence of Martingale's betting strategy is to double the bets in case of a loss. Let's say our first bet is 1 dollar. If we win, we get $1 profit and place $1 as a bet again.
In Sands roulette a third green slot, 'S', has been added to the wheel.
The green slots are there for one reason:
They make the game's statistical probabilities uneven.
This is because of the way roulette bets are paid off. You can win anywhere from 35-to-1 (for betting on a single number) down to 1-to-1 (for betting on 18 slots at a time).
The payoffs, called 'odds', are not as fair to you as the actual estimated probabilities of the roulette ball landing on any given slot. This is how the casino makes its money.
In a game of roulette the house should keep at least 2.70% of all the bets players make over time. The casino has no need to cheat the players. In fact, the players often make really bad bets that improve the 'house edge', as that casino profit is called.
One of the other differences between European roulette and both American and Sands roulette is that the European roulette table has an additional betting area. This secondary betting area is used to place specially designed bets. They are more complicated than the normal bets made in American and Sands roulette. I'm going to ignore this section of the table, because I'm going to show you how to place bets that have the best chances of paying off.
Is There a Winning System for Roulette?
Everyone who gets into roulette sooner or later starts to think about how they can 'beat the system'.
I'm going to be honest here:
There is no way to do that.
The green slots on the wheel make it impossible for anyone, anywhere, to ever design a betting system that is guaranteed to win. If you really want to guarantee yourself a win every time, then put a chip on each of the 2-to-1 outside bets and on each of the green number bets.
That's the only way you'll be paid money every time the wheel spins.
You'll also go broke.
You may have heard about a system called the Martingale System. It's a popular betting system with new roulette players.
Experienced roulette players just turn their heads and roll their eyes when someone mentions the Martingale System. The only way you can make money with the Martingale System is to write a book about it and get people to buy your book.
Even that's a gamble, though, because most people now know that the Martingale System promises more than it delivers.
Here's how this system works:
You start out betting the minimum. If you lose, you double your bet. If you win on your doubled bet, you go back to betting the table minimum. If you lose again, you double the size of your bet again.
This sounds great to inexperienced bettors but the problem is that you'll either run out of money or hit the table limit before you can recoup your losses as they add up.
The Martingale System is a sucker bet, plain and simple.
Every betting system in every form of gambling tries to leverage probability theory. The Martingale System and other roulette betting strategies also rely on probability estimates.
But there's a flaw in the thinking behind these systems. If you account for the flaw you'll be okay. You won't always win but your expectations will be more reasonable.
The secret to not going broke when you gamble is to set reasonable expectations and maintain your self-discipline. You should never drink or take drugs when you gamble. They lower your inhibitions and impair your judgment.
Treasure island free slot play. You might as well just hand your money over to the casino at the cashier window and say 'keep it' if you're going to drink or do drugs when you gamble.
How Do Probabilities Work in Roulette?
Probability theory came out of statistics. It tries to give us rules by which to guess what happens next in any situation. The guesses are seldom accurate predictions. Sometimes the guesses work out, and sometimes they don't. Gamblers love probability theory because they think it helps them pick the best betting strategies.
You're actually more likely to double your money during a roulette session if you put all your money on a single bet. Free chips konami slots. The more bets you place, the less likely it becomes to double your money.
That's because every bet brings you close to the long term expectations. The closer you are to the short term, the more likely you are to get better than expected results.
In roulette, the probabilities are simple. The dealer spins the wheel and releases a ball that whirls around the outside of the wheel and finally settles in a slot. With only 37 slots on a European roulette wheel you have a 1-in-37 probability of the ball landing on a specific slot.
Best Strategy For Roulette
This probability never changes.
This probability is calculated on the basis of all the known possibilities.
What probability theory cannot do, however, is predict where the ball will stop.
Nor can it predict whether the ball will land on red, black, or green any number of times over the next 100 spins.
Nonetheless, a lot of gambling guides tell you that you have the best chances of winning if you do this because of such-and-such probabilities. And many of these guides warn you that there is no way to predict the future, but by setting the expectation that the ball will land on red about 47% of the time, these guides are making predictions and promises they cannot keep.
They'll even back up their claims by talking about how to run computer simulations for 1 million spins of the wheel so that you see how often the ball lands on red, black, or green.
In the real world the Probability Fairy is always on vacation. She'll never be there to wave her magic wand to make things happen the way experts say they should. The ball could land on red over the next 20 spins. Or it could land on black or green or some random mix of color combinations.
You have no way of knowing how many of the next [X] spins will turn out a certain way. Talking about probabilities in this way is just dishonest.
What you can do is look at the wheel and ask yourself how much it costs to bet on the largest possible set of numbers. The idea here is to get as much coverage as you can without losing money too fast.
But even if you cover every number on the wheel you'll lose money.
So the only way to win in roulette–and this is completely random, never guaranteed–is to bet on less than all the numbers on the wheel. How to win at slots machines in a casino.
You also want to play bets that pay better than even money. You can place a variety of bets, but most of them aren't worthwhile.
Betting on single numbers is a bad idea. You can place bets on the lines between the numbers (these are called 'street bets') and on lines at the corners of numbers (these are called 'corner bets').
But even though you get pretty good odds (payoff) you're still covering too few numbers.
How Bets Work in Roulette
Divide the bets into two groups:
- Inside bets
- Outside bets
Inside bets are based on individual numbers or small groups of numbers. When you see players betting on the lines, corners, and individual numbers on the table they are making inside bets.
Outside bets are based on pre-selected groups of numbers on the wheel. The '2-to-1' bets cover 12 numbers each: 1 to 12, 13 to 24, and 25 to 36. The '1-to-1' or 'even money' bets cover 18 numbers each:
- Odd
- Even
- Black
- Red
- 1 to 18
- 19 to 36
The bets more likely to pay are the even money bets.
But unless you can win 5 times out of 9 on even money bets you'll lose your stake. That's the problem with roulette. You always have to win at least 1 more time than you lose no matter how you place your bets.
The '2 to 1' bets pay better than the '1 to 1' bets because they cover fewer numbers. You have less of a chance of winning.
There are 6 types of '2 to 1' bets:
- 3 kinds of dozens bets: (1 to 12, 13 to 24, and 25 to 36)
- 3 kinds of columns bets: ([1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34], [2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35], [3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36]).
You can make a bet by betting on any two of the '2 to 1' groups. That means that instead of covering only 18 numbers you'll be covering 24 numbers.
This type of bet is often called the 'double dozen' bet. It's popular among gamblers who like to hedge their bets. They have a better chance (all other things considered) of scoring a win with a 'double dozen' than with one of the standard even money bets. If you're playing it safe and going for even money odds, you should always play a double dozen bet.
If you want to bet more aggressively, then instead of betting more money on your double dozen, you can cover all 36 of the red and black numbers. Leave the green numbers alone. Yes, they'll come in every now and then, and you'll lose money.
But there's a way to keep your losses low.
How to Bet on Columns or Dozens Aggressively
Take 6 chips and distribute them across EITHER the three dozen bets or the three column bets.
Place 3 chips on 1, 2 chips on the 2nd, and 1 chip on the 3rd. If the ball lands on a green number you'll lose your entire bet, so always play the table minimum with this aggressive style.
If the ball lands on any number with your single chip bet, you'll win 2 chips and lose 5–for a net loss of 3 chips (half your bet).
That's the safest way to bet aggressively on the table.
If the ball lands on any number in your 2 chip bet you'll win 4 chips and lose 4 for no loss. This keeps you in the game.
If the ball lands on any number in your 3chip bet, you'll win 6 chips and lose 3 for a net gain of 3 chips. This will offset 1 single chip win.
The way this betting strategy works out, your money can grow substantially and still take some big hits. Where the strategy will fail you is when the ball lands on green or if the ball lands on the single chip bet more often than it lands on the 3 chip bet.
Sorry, but there's no way to prevent that from happening.
There Is No Guaranteed Way to Win in Roulette
Winning Strategies For Roulette
I can't say this often enough:
You can't win at roulette in the long run.
I think roulette is a fun game to play. It's exciting because you don't know where the ball will land. You take an active role in making your wagers.
And you'll find there are a lot of different betting systems to experiment with. The only thing that is guaranteed in roulette is that the casino will make a profit. What you hope for is that they make their profit at someone else's expense.
Players who try to improve their luck by making big bets do sometimes win, but most often the people who come out ahead are the patient players who use conservative betting strategies and take money off the table. If you only walk away with your beginning stake you'll be luckier than most gamblers.
And you can take that to the bank.
When you're trying to decide what the 'best' bets in roulette are, you have to decide what is going to make you happiest when you're playing. Some people want to enjoy frequent small wins and stay in action for as long as possible. Others like the thrill of hitting big wins less frequently, even if it means sometimes going broke faster.
Other gamblers might want to find the bets which offer the lowest house edge. On most roulette games, the house edge is the same for every bet but one. Choosing which game to play becomes the road to a lower house edge for those players.
This page examines the various bets in roulette and compares them with various players' goals so that you can choose which bets will bring you the most thrills, excitement, and fun.
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The Best Bets if You Want to Spend a Lot of Time Gambling
Variance is the term used by gamblers and mathematicians to describe the swings in your bankroll that are caused by statistical deviation. Usually, the higher the payout is, the lower the variance is. Some examples help illustrate this.
Best Odds Roulette Strategy
If you're playing roulette and making straight-up bets on a single number, you're going to win 35 units when you win, but you'll only win (on average) once out of every 37 hands. This is a higher variance option than an even-money bet.
With even-money bets, you'll win a lot less—the same amount that you bet. But you'll win a lot more often—47.36% of the time, which is almost every other bet.
If you're interested in spending a lot of time at the table, then the way to do so is to stick with the lower payout bets, because you'll lose less often. Your money will eventually all go to the casino if you play long enough, but it will last longer, and you'll have more fun.
The Best Bets if You Want the Thrill of Winning Big Bucks
Of course, if you're just looking for the thrill of a big win, the only bet that makes sense is the straight-up bet, which offers a payout of 35 to 1. If you place a $100 wager on a single number and win, you'll get $3500 for your trouble.
The only problem with this choice is that you can lose a lot of money very fast. But that's true of any gambling game in which you have the potential to win a big dollar amount on a single bet. The payoff might not be as big as a progressive slot machine jackpot, but you will see the big win a lot more often on this roulette bet.
How to Get the Lowest House Edge on Roulette
In American roulette, there are two types of bets—the ones with a house edge of 5.26% and the one bet with a house edge of 7.29%. If you want to minimize the house edge on an American roulette game, then it's easy. Just avoid the five-number bet, which is the only bet with the higher house edge. All of the other bets on the table offer a 5.26% house edge.
If that house edge is still too high, then your next step is to find an American roulette game that offers the surrender option. These can be found in some Atlantic City casinos. The house edge on this game is cut in half, to 2.63%, because the house only takes half your bet when you lose on the even money bets. Surrender only applies to those bets which offer even money, though.
Another option is to play European roulette, if you can find it. That game only has a single zero on the wheel, which reduces the house edge to 2.70%.
The best bet in roulette is on a European roulette table which offers the en prison option. This reduces the house edge by half again, making it only 1.35%. Here's how it works:
On a European roulette game with the en prison rule in effect, your even money bet becomes 'imprisoned' when the ball lands on the zero. The result of the next spin of the wheel determines your outcome. For example, if you bet on black, and it lands on zero, then you'll get your bet back if the next spin lands on black. If it lands on red, you lose the bet.
Roulette Systems and the Worst Bets You Can Make
In a larger sense, the worst bets you can make are on worthless roulette systems. All betting systems for roulette are equally nonsensical, so as long as you avoid them, you're making some of the better bets at the table.
The reason for my strident-sounding condemnation of roulette betting systems is that they offer false hope. I know lots of people like to think that you can control the universe by thinking positive thoughts, but the reality is a little bit different. That's true regardless of what nonsense is spouted in books like The Secret.
No one is well served by delusion. So don't delude yourself into thinking that you can come up with some clever way to beat roulette. People have tried for hundreds of years and the only ones who succeeded were the ones who got lucky.
And you don't get any control over the luck in roulette, other than choosing bets with a lower house edge whenever you can
