Roulette Strategy

If you’re serious about taking your land, online or mobile Roulette sessions to a new level by minimising your losses and maximising your winnings, you should use a Roulette Strategy. It’s crucial to understand, though, that most Roulette strategies focus on the management of your bankroll and betting patterns, instead of the prediction of the actual numbers.

In other words, you need to accept that every spin of a Roulette wheel and ball release – whether done in a land casino by a human croupier (dealer) or at a virtual casino by cutting edge RNG (random number generator) software – is 100% random, and thus impossible to predict. As such, most strategies in Roulette focus on how much and how you bet.

Here you’ll find many Roulette strategies and systems, and how they can be most effective. The thing to remember though is that luck plays a huge part in Roulette. This means you’ll likely have as many winning streaks as losing streaks. However, don’t be put you off by this because if you play responsibly Roulette can be one of the most fun casino games.

Before we come to the various Roulette systems, here are a few best Roulette tips you can follow to help you protect your chip stack as well as minimise your losses:

• Only play at licensed, reputable and established land and online casinos - If ever you come across a casino that has a poor reputation or that no one has heard of it, avoid it. The better a casino, the better its facilities, games, pay-outs and staff.
• Only play Roulette games with the lowest house edge - There are three main variants of Roulette – European Roulette, French Roulette and American Roulette. The first two have 36 numbers plus a single zero (37 numbers in total) which gives them a house edge (advantage) of 2.63%.
  
  American Roulette, however, has 36 numbers plus a single zero plus a double zero (38 numbers in total) to give it a much bigger house edge of 5.26%. This means it’s double that of European Roulette and French Roulette, and the reason you should avoid American Roulette games at all costs.
• Choose a table limit and bet size that suits your budget - Because there are so many different numbers and types of bets you can wager on in Roulette, if you don’t place your chips with caution you risk wiping out your stack in a single round.
  
  This is why you should choose Roulette games with table limits and bet sizes that match your particular budget. For instance, if you have $50 in chips, it’s better to choose a Roulette table with a minimum bet size of $1 so you can place up to 50 bets, rather than a table with a $5 minimum where you can only place up to 10 bets.
• Ignore previous spins or patterns - Because every Roulette wheel spin is completely random, there really is no point in making a note of all the previous numbers that have come up, even if casinos highlight them on the Roulette number boards.
  
  There is absolutely no connection between a number about to come up and any previous number, other than pure coincidence. Just because a number comes up two or even three times in row doesn’t mean it’s any more likely to come up again.
• Stick with even money bets - Even money bets (bets that pay 1 to 1) i.e. Red / Black, Even / Odd or 1 to 18 / 19 to 36 have the highest (best) odds of any bets in Roulette as they are the closest you’ll come to a 50/50 bet (a coin flip).
  
  We say ‘Closest you’ll come’ because all Roulette games have one or two zero slots (single zero or single zero + double zero), which means they’re not true 50% bets but 47.4% on European Roulette and 44.8% on American Roulette.
• Stay away from long shot bets - As tempted as you may be to pile your chips onto a single number or two (Split) or three (Street) or more, these are known as long shot bets because the odds of you being paid out are the lowest.
  
  While it’s true these bets have the highest pay-outs in Roulette, it’s only because the likelihood of winning them is lower than in the case of even money bets that pay out 1 to 1, in other words, where you can double your money.

Because Roulette has been around for so long and is such a popular casino game across the globe, many myths have evolved, the most common of which are highlighted below:

• Changing your bet size will help you win more often - False. Outcomes in Roulette are determined solely by the numbers that come up via the wheel and ball, and have nothing whatsoever to do with whether you bet big or small.
• You’ll eventually win enough to cover all of your losses - False. If you’re particularly lucky you may come out ahead. If not, you’ll likely lose more than you win. (If it was the other way around, casinos would go bankrupt all the time).
• If you play a number, it will come up in your session - False. Every result in Roulette is 100% random and independent of the number that came before and the number that comes next. In other words, it may come up twice in the next 5 minutes or not at all in a calendar day. Being random, there is no way to tell.
• There is such a thing as ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ numbers - False. Just because a number comes up twice in 10 minutes doesn’t make it any more likely to come up again in the next 5 minutes. Similarly, just because a number hasn’t come up in a few hours doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t show up in the next round.

There are a wide range of well publicised Roulette systems and/or strategies used by players all over the world including Africa, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. The following are the most common and popular:

2 Up 2 Down Roulette System (for even money bets)

This 2 Up 2 Down System is recommended if you have limited funds. The way it works is you must pick a base unit (like $1, $5 or $10) and keep betting it on any even money bet (Lo/Hi, Black/Red or Even/Odd) until you lose twice in a row (2 down).

Now raise your bet by one unit until you win twice in a row (2 up), and then go back down to your base amount. With every two consecutive losses keep raising your bet by one until you eventually win, thus covering your total previous losses.

The D’Alembert Roulette System (for even money bets)

This D’Alembert System allows you to increase your bets by a specified percentage. First you must choose an appropriate bet size (equal to or larger than the table minimum) and then pick an even money bet to put your chips on.

Whenever you win, raise your base bet by 10%, for example, and when you lose, decrease your bet by 10% and so forth. Because this system doesn’t have a set sequence, it means that you can stop whenever you choose.

The Fibonacci Roulette System (for even money bets)

The Fibonacci System makes use of the famous Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 etc.). All you have to do is start wagering a base amount of your choosing on any even money bet, and keep betting it until you lose.

At that point you must increase your bet size as per the sequence. For example $1 to $2 to $3 to £5 and so on until you cover your losses. The only issue is that you may reach the table betting limits before you can recover your losses.

The Labouchere Roulette System (for even money bets)

The Labouchere System uses a base unit, such as $1, and a set sequence such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7 and 8. What you do is select an even money bet and wager the sum of the first and last numbers of your sequence. For example, $9 ($1 + $8).

If you win the bet, repeat the process with the next two numbers in the sequence i.e. $9 ($2 + $7) and so forth. If you lose the bet, add the value of that bet to the end of your sequence and repeat the process. For instance, $10 ($1 + $9).

The Martingale Roulette System (for even money bets)

The Martingale System is one of the most famous Roulette systems because it’s so simple. It is also scary because you must double your bet size with each loss. The trick is to keep your bet size constant while you’re winning your even money bets.

As soon as you lose a bet, however, you are required to double your bet and so on until you cover all your losses. The only real downside of this bet is if you reach the table betting limit before you’ve had a chance to recoup your losses to that point.

The Parlay Roulette System (for even money bets)

The Parlay System is the opposite of the Martingale System where instead of doubling your chosen bet size every time you lose an even money bet, you drop it back to your initial bet size. Plus, you must double your bet size each time you win an even money bet.

The biggest benefit of this system is that you can win a lot of money extremely quickly. The opposite, unfortunately, is also true, where you can lose a lot of money just as quickly. As such, the trick with this particular roulette system is to quit while you’re ahead.