Roulette Best Odds Strategy

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Roulette is one of oldest casino games and its origins could easily be traced to more than a millennium ago when various simplified versions of it existed as a form of entertainment. Today, gamblers have access to dozens of betting systems, strategies, and even cheating devices that promise long-term success to those who dare use them. Still, there are only two simple concepts they need to grasp in order to improve their play and their chances of winning and that is the odds and the casino advantage that is built-in in every roulette game.

The Martingale roulette strategy has been used by gamblers for centuries. It’s one of the most straightforward strategies you’ll ever come across, but it requires deep pockets to make it work. It works by betting on Red/Black, Odd/Even, 1-18, or 19-36. Every time you lose, you simply double your bet.

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Bets on a table. Many roulette strategies do have a lot to do with the speed of the ball. For example, the visual ballistics tactic is similar to the roulette robot strategy, only there is no technology for this; you must apply the strategy yourself. The tactic revolves around predicting where the ball will land through realising how quickly the dealer spins the ball in the wheel, and how fast. One of the most well-known systems when it comes to betting on roulette is the Martingale strategy. It is a very simple doubling up betting system. For example, if you start off by betting £10 on red and it comes in black, double your next bet to £20 on red. You need to keep on doing this until it lands on a red and this will cover your losses.

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Knowing the odds is essential in playing roulette or any other game of chance where players’ decisions have no impact on the outcome of the round. Games of skill, in contrast, typically require at least basic knowledge of the rules and give skilled players the opportunity to improve their chances of winning. Unlike classic casino games such as blackjack or poker where individual actions can significantly change the outcome, roulette is a game of pure chance where the outcome is completely random.

Once players recognize this fact, they can truly understand the nature of roulette and learn how to optimize their play to avoid significant losses on the roulette table. Those who want to be successful in the long term need to learn the basic probabilities in this game and determine how likely to win or lose any given bet is. Moreover, all roulette fans should bear in mind that every bet they place is more likely to lose than to win – this is how casinos manage to always make a profit even with the occasional big wins they have to pay out.

So, what is probability and is there a difference between the true odds in roulette and the casino odds offered to players? These are fundamental questions that need to be answered honestly before gamblers sit around the roulette table.

Probability and True Odds

Often, the terms “probability” and “odds” can be confused by even professional casino players. Although they are, indeed, very similar in terms of their usefulness and relevance to evaluating different roulette bets, the two are quite different – at least theoretically.

First of all, players should know that if fair and unbiased, roulette wheels produce random results with every spin. Each of the numbers is equally likely to win or, rather, equally likely to lose. At the same time, for each number from 0 to 36, there are only two possible outcomes – a win or a loss.

Probability

The probability is the likelihood of any given outcome compared to all outcomes that are possible. Expressed as a number, the probability always exists between 0 and 1 – 0 would indicate that something is impossible to occur, while 1 would mean absolute certainty for the outcome. Even chances, for example, would be expressed as a 0.50 probability. In roulette, we have either 37 or 38 numbers in total, so these are all the possible outcomes.

Let us take the single-zero roulette wheel where for each number, there is only 1 way to win and 36 ways to lose. So what is the probability that the ball will fall on 17 in the next spin, for example? We can calculate it by dividing the number of ways to win by all possible ways – 1/37, which is 0.027. For most people, the probability is easier to understand as a percentage, so we simply multiply the decimal by 100 and we get 2.70%.

True Odds in Roulette

Now that we have established what probability is and how it is determined in roulette, we can compare it to the notion of “odds”. Odds are also used to describe the chance of an event occurring but they compare the number of ways it can occur to the number of ways it cannot occur. The odds of any particular number winning in roulette could be simply displayed as 1:36 or 1/36 where 36 is, once again, the number of ways to lose.

Sometimes, when it comes to expressing the odds of a particular bet in roulette, they would be in reverse, indicating the odds against winning. Using the same example, the odds of the number 17 against winning would be 36:1, or 36 to 1. These are known as “true odds” as compared to what some players refer to as “casino odds”. There is a huge difference between the two terms, but it will be explained in detail in the following section.

To make this even clearer, let us see the odds for probably the most commonly placed bet in roulette – red/black. If we place our chips on red, the probability would be 18 out of 37, while the odds would be 19:18 against us because there would be 19 ways to lose against 18 ways to win. In percentages, the probability would be 18/37 = 0.48648648648, 48.65%.

Casino Odds

When determining whether a roulette bet has good or bad odds, experienced players take into account not only their probability of winning and the true odds but also the potential reward they could bring. Each bet pays out differently, depending on its likelihood of winning – the less likely a given outcome is to occur, the more its potential payout would be. There is a sound logic behind this and in a perfect world where casinos would not have to make a profit, the payout of every bet would be equal to the odds against winning.

Let us take a look at the straight bet in European roulette – the odds against the player here are 36 to 1 (36:1) because as we have already shown above, there are 36 ways for this bet to lose and only 1 way to win. In order to offer a reward that would match the risk, the casino would be expected to pay players 36 to 1. In other words, it would be expected to return the original stake and to pay out winnings that are worth 36 times the amount of the bet.

Casino Odds Additional TipsIn reality, this does not happen, however, and the house gives a slightly lower payout of 35:1 on winning straight-up bets. The idea is that on every winning wager, players pay a small fee to the casino and in this case, it is one unit. The difference does not seem significant but it is how casinos gain their advantage over players – by paying every winner just slightly less than they should have. Over time, this tiny difference makes a large profit for the house and provides a guaranteed income in any possible scenario.

These payouts offered by casinos are sometimes referred to as “casino odds” due to their visible similarity. And while both are expressed as ratios of two numbers, they are never equal – the odds against winning are always slightly higher than the casino odds. The closer the casino odds get to the true odds of any given bet, the lower the advantage of the casino.

Roulette House Edge Explained

Roulette Best Odds Strategy Tactics

Clearly, the payout does not correspond to the true odds of roulette bets. This advantage of the casino over its patrons is called house advantage and can be easily demonstrated with the following example – we bet $1 on the number 17 and win. If given the true odds for this bet (36:1), we would receive our initial $1 stake back plus $36 as a payout. Instead, casinos pay us $35 and the original $1 bet but they keep the $1 difference.

The same concept applies to all bets in the game, which results in an average house edge of 2.70% for single-zero roulette and 5.26% for double-zero roulette. There are several formulas for calculating the house edge but probably the simplest one is the following – we need to subtract the casino odds from the true odds against success and then, to multiply that by the probability of success. So, the formula will look like this:

House Edge = (True Odds – Casino Odds) x Probability

When we substitute with the numbers we have already used for the straight bet, we get – (36/1 – 35/1) x 1/37 = 1×1/37 = 0.02702702702, or 0.027. To express it as a percentage, we multiply by 100 and get 2.70%. Several other formulas exist, but they all eventually come to the same conclusion and percentage for the house edge.

Roulette House Edge Additional TipsWhat this means for the players is that they can expect to lose 2.70% of their wager when playing a single-zero roulette. For every $100 they bet, they would lose on $2.70 on average. Of course, this is a theoretical ratio between the stake and the expected loss but things could be very different in real life. If we place a $100 chip on red, we can either win or lose its entire value. But we cannot win the bet and lose $2.70 at the same time.

So, the house edge can only get closer to reality with hundreds or even hundreds of thousands spins of the roulette wheel. It is a theoretical concept and while this may sound too vague to players, it is a good indicator of how much money they can expect to lose over time. Of course, they might win hundreds of dollars by the end of one gaming session or lose hundreds more in the next one. Still, they are less likely to lose their bankroll if they stick to specific games and bets where the casino has the lowest advantage.

Beating the Odds in Roulette

The idea that by using a complex strategy one could beat the odds in roulette is very popular but equally misleading. There are countless guides, books, and websites dedicated to convincing people that there is a guaranteed method of winning in this game. In fact, various betting systems, often inaccurately called “strategies”, have been developed over the years, as well as ways that would supposedly help players exploit the imperfections of physical roulette wheels and overcome the house edge.

Unfortunately, these methodologies have been repeatedly proven to be inefficient in securing winnings over the long term. Moreover, their short-term usefulness is doubtful and the reason is obvious to most expert-level players – roulette is a game with fixed odds that cannot be changed even with the best strategy. As explained above, the outcome of every spin of the roulette is random and based on probability. The house edge, therefore, also remains the same almost as a proof for the popular saying that the house always wins.

Roulette Strategies

The so-called roulette strategies are, in their essence, betting systems based on a progression where the amount of the stake changes after a certain outcome. Famous methods such as the Martingale or the D’Alembert suggest that you increase your bet after every loss, hoping that, in the end, one winning bet will compensate for all the losses. There are also systems where the bet is decreased, while in others, it remains the same throughout the entire game session. Overall, the idea is to help players minimize their losses or even generate some decent winnings over the long term.

While none of these betting progressions provides a fool-proof way to win, another type of strategies comes with exactly this claim. These strategies are based on the notion that you can increase your chances of winning by covering a large part of the table. Indeed, this sounds logical at first and certain methods even suggest that you should cover much more than 50% of the table. This strategy, however, will be too costly for most players, especially after a few losing spins.

If not used carefully, both betting systems and roulette strategies may “eat up” players’ entire bankroll within a short period of time. Placing neighbor bets or any other type of announced bets could be detrimental to those who are not well prepared to suffer serious losses. In conclusion, even the best methods and combinations of bets cannot aid you in beating the odds and overcoming the built-in casino advantage.

Advantage Play

Some roulette players rely on quite different methods for securing winnings. Known as advantage play methods, these include any strategies that give players either a statistical or a mathematical advantage over the casino. If employed successfully, they can beat the standard roulette odds and even if it is just by a little, it should be enough to provide players with long-term winnings. Unlike the betting strategies and systems described above, advantage play does not revolve around the betting layout but rather, around the wheel.

It can be used in both online and land-based casinos and online, advantage players would try to use special software that records and analyzes the results of hundreds of spins. The aim is to find a pattern in the winning numbers (such as repeating sequences of winning numbers) and then, to use it to make predictions. However, most online casinos nowadays offer roulette games based on RNG (random number generator) so finding patterns would be impossible as the outcome of every spin is random.

When it comes to playing a roulette game with a physical roulette wheel, however, advantage play is much more different. Players who try to use this technique would typically stand by the roulette table for at least 40-50 spins and write down all the winning numbers in the hope that they would be able to spot numbers that come out more frequently than others. In fact, sometimes they observe the wheel for hundreds of spins before they can notice repeating numbers, patterns or some irregularities.

Advantage Play Additional TipsThis method was mostly used in the past when casinos did not have such strict maintenance rules and protocols, while the wheels and other gaming equipment were manufactured in a manner that today would be deemed unacceptable. Players who wish to turn the odds in their favor these days need to be extremely discreet if they plan to observe the wheels before the casino security become aware of them. Exploiting roulette wheels’ bias and imperfections for one’s profit is not usually met with understanding from casinos.

How to Increase Player’s Chances of Winning

There are no reliable ways to actually beat the odds when playing roulette and even if such methods exist, they are neither simple nor acceptable by casino standards. Yet, players can increase their chances of winning by following several basic principles that can be applied to both online and brick-and-mortar casinos.

First of all, choosing a good roulette table is essential and obviously, single-zero roulette games are a much better option than double-zero games, which are mostly offered in casinos across the United States. The house edge in the American-style roulette is twice as high due to the additional sector on the wheel, the green 00. But picking French or European-style roulette variations is just the first step in learning how to maximize players’ expected value.

Second, players should always base their play around wagers with the lowest possible house edge. Of course, the best bets in roulette are the outside bets, which cover large portions of the wheel and require a single chip to be wagered. These include black/red, even/odd, and low/high, where the advantage of the casino is 2.70% while the player’s odds of winning are the highest. It is true that the payouts are not particularly attractive but these bets are less risky options in the game.

When choosing a bet, players need to compare the casino odds to the true odds and find the type of bet where these two as close to each other as possible. Often, the most attractive payouts are offered for bets which the casino pays much less than their actual worth. As a general rule of thumb, players should remember that the less risk they take, the less they can expect to win. All the good payouts, however, come with exceptionally bad odds and require a great tolerance for risk.

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I love writing about roulette betting systems because it gives me a chance to show off both my English skills and my math skills. And since no roulette betting system works in the long run, I get to educate and perform a public service — warning people off some of the slick system-sellers who make money from your naivete.

You might be surprised to know, though, that I love to use roulette betting systems when I’m actually gambling.

Yeah, I know you can’t win in the long run with such a system.

But I get bored playing roulette without some kind of system.

And sometimes, in the short run, these systems do work exactly as intended.

Here are my seven favorite roulette systems for you to try:

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1 – The Martingale System

The most famous of all betting systems is the Martingale System, and it’s also one of the easiest systems to use. If you can double a number, you can use the Martingale System.

To use the system, you just place an outside bet at the roulette table – one of the bets that pays off at even money. This could be red or black, odd or even, or high or low.

If you win that bet, great!

If you lose, though, you bet again – doubling the size of your previous bet.

You continue with this progression even when you lose multiple times in a row, doubling your bet every time you lose.

If you start with a $5 bet, you’ll bet $10 after losing once, $20 after losing twice, and $40 after losing three times in a row.

Eventually, when you do have a win, you’ll win back the amount of all your previous losses and show a $5 profit.

The Martingale System sounds foolproof at first glance, and it would be foolproof except for two things.

  • The first is that you don’t have an unlimited bankroll.
  • The second is that the casino has a maximum betting limit.

And when you’re doubling the size of your bets, the bets can get so big so fast that you either can’t cover them because you’re out of money or because the casino won’t let you bet that much on the next spin.

Let’s say you’re playing in a game with a $5 minimum bet and a $500 maximum bet, which isn’t an unusual set of limits.

How many losses in a row do you need before you bang against the maximum bet?

  1. $5
  2. $10
  3. $20
  4. $40
  5. $80
  6. $160
  7. $320

Lose seven times in a row, and you can’t make the next bet in the progression.

Plus, you’ve lost $495 up until this point.

Of course, in the short run, the Martingale System works a lot of the time, but you don’t usually show much profit.

In the long run, you’ll eventually hit a big enough losing streak to wipe you out.

2 – The Paroli System

The Paroli System is the opposite of the Martingale System. In fact, you’ll sometimes see it called the “Reverse Martingale.”

Instead of doubling the size of your bets after you lose, with the Paroli System, you double them after a win.

Once you’ve won a specific number of bets in a row (usually three), you return to your initial bet size.

The idea is that you’ll be taking advantage of the occasional winning streaks that are inevitable in a game of random chance like roulette.

You bet $5 on red, so you bet $10 on red on the next spin. You win again, and now you bet $20 on red.

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If you win, you’ve won a total of $35 over three spins of the wheel.

And you start over again betting $5.

Of course, in the long run, the Paroli System works no better than the Martingale System, and for the same reason:

Changing the sizes of your bets does nothing to change the odds of winning or losing.

Also, you have no way of predicting when a color gets “hot.”

That’s only visible in retrospect.

3 – The Labouchere Betting System

The Labouochere betting system isn’t one of my favorites because it’s more complicated than I’d prefer.

But it’s not that complicated that you can’t master it.

Here’s how it works:

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You start with a list of bets of varying sizes in order from smallest to largest.

For example, you might write 10, 20, 30, and 40 down on a notecard in a row.

You start by placing the lowest bet on the card. If you win that bet, you cross out the first and last numbers on the card.

Roulette Best Odds Strategy

If you lose that bet, though, you add the size of that bet to the last number in the series. 10 + 40 is 50, so your list would become 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.

You play until you run out of money or until all the bets are crossed off.

This is a progressive system, like the Martingale, that tries to win back your losses based on the rules in place for the system.

You could also eventually run into the same problem you have with the Martingale. You might hit a bet size that’s higher than the table limit or that your bankroll won’t accommodate.

4 – The Grand Martingale System

If you’re not afraid of risk, the Grand Martingale System might be just the ticket for you. It works just like the Martingale System but with one big difference.

Instead of doubling the size of your bet after each loss, you triple the size of your bet after each loss.

The advantage of the Grand Martingale System is that you’ll see bigger winning sessions when you do win.

The disadvantage is that the bet sizes will get much larger much faster, which means you’ll hit your bankroll or maximum bet limits sooner.

Here’s a Grand Martingale progression starting with $5:

  1. $5
  2. $15
  3. $45
  4. $135
  5. $405

Notice after just five losses, you must place a bet higher than the table limits of $500 to continue with the progression?

It’s a fun way to play, but it’s still a loser in the long run.

5 – The Hollandish System

The Hollandish System is a gentler roulette system because you don’t raise or lower your bets as often as in other systems. Instead of raising your bet after your first one, you make three bets at a certain amount before raising the size.
The Hollandish System also takes it a little easier on you by not requiring you to raise your bets by as much. You use a specific progression, as follows:

  • 1
  • 3
  • 5
  • 7
  • 9

So if you start by betting $5, when you get to the next level, you’ll bet $15. And then $25, and so on.

Strategy

You only move up in levels if you’ve shown a net loss from the three previous bets.

For example, you start with a $5 bet. You win twice, but you lose once. You’re showing a net profit, so you stay at that level for another three-bet streak.

Your buddy, though, lost twice and won once. After three bets, he moves up to betting $15 per bet for the next three bets.

One of the big advantages to this system is that you don’t have to increase the size of your bets as much during an extended losing streak.

Here’s what a progression would look like with six losses in a row using the Martingale System:

  1. $5
  2. $10
  3. $20
  4. $40
  5. $80
  6. $160

But with the Hollandish System, your bets would look like this:

  1. $5
  2. $5
  3. $5
  4. $15
  5. $15
  6. $15

You’ve lost significantly less money on this losing streak using the Hollandish System.

Roulette Best Odds Strategy Against

6 – The Hot Number System

This isn’t even a betting system, really. It’s just an attempt to win some money by betting on the “hot” roulette numbers.

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To put this system into action, just look at the board at the roulette table showing the numbers that have hit over the last 10 or 20 spins.

Find the number that’s been hit the most often.

Bet on it.

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Keep betting on it until another number gets “hotter.” (That just means it’s won more times over the last 10 or 20 spins than your original hot number.

The idea is that you’ll catch a table that isn’t perfectly calibrated and win money based on the higher probability of catching that hot number.

7 – Orson’s Go Big or Go Home System

This one is a system of my own devising. I like the idea of stop-loss limits and win goals, even though I understand that they don’t improve my probability of winning.

With my go big or go home system, I want to win a 35 to 1 payout or go broke, whichever comes first.

I start with about 40 bets of $5, or $200. That’s my loss limit. (I’m not willing to lose more than $200 playing roulette in a single session, almost ever.)

I then choose a number, and I keep betting on that number until it hits, or I run out of money.

Depending on when it hits, I make a big profit or a small profit.

And here’s what I do if I really want to hit it big:

  • I let my profits ride so that I can win two jackpots.
  • So I bet $5 on 16 and win 35 to 1.
  • Now I bet $180 on that number. That’s my winnings plus my original $5 bet.
  • If I win this one, it’s time to call it quits, because I’ve hit the jackpot — a cool $6300.

It’s like playing a slot machine with a $6300 jackpot, but my odds of winning are better than they would be on a slot machine game.

What are the odds of winning?

The odds of winning that bet once are 1/38, or 37 to 1.

1/38 X 1/38 = 1/1444, or 1443 to 1.

I’m still trying to win using this system.

Conclusion

That’s basically just a list of my favorite seven roulette betting systems to use. I want to warn you again that none of these work in the long run.

Betting systems are not advantage systems.

Do you have a favorite roulette system that I didn’t cover here?

Leave a comment and let me know.

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