Archive for the ‘Roulette Betting’ Category

Top line bet and other inside roulette bet probabilities

Friday, March 19th, 2010

There are a few interesting bets that I haven’t talked about yet, including one specific bet that can only be done on an American roulette wheel. First of all, a general rule is the probabilities for the outside bets will always have better odds than the inside bets. Outside bets include the 1 to 1 payouts such as betting on red or black, odd or even, etc.

The top line bet is the special one in American roulette where you wager on 5 numbers at a time with a single chip. This is the only type of bet like it on any variation of the game. Basically you are allowed to bet on the double and single zeros, plus the top line on the table (not on the wheel). This includes 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. The probability odds are 6.6 to 1, but the payouts are $6 for every $1 bet.

Corner bets are allowed on all roulette tables. Players may bet a single chip at the intersection of 4 different numbers on the table. If the ball lands on any of these numbers, you will win. You can choose any corner bet available on the table and there are a lot of choices. The probabilities are 8.5 to 1 and payout is $8 for every $1 bet on the American roulette version.

A basket bet is a type of bet similar to the top line bet, but with fewer numbers. In this bet, you select 3 numbers including one or both green zeros. On the American version, the numbers “0, 1 and 2″ or “00, 0 and 2″ or “00, 2 and 3″ would be the only three possible. The probabilities of the ball landing and winning on this bet is 11.7 to 1 and the payout is $11 for $1 bet.

The split bet is kind of like a corner bet, except you are putting a chip on the intersection of any two numbers and betting that the ball will land on any of the two. You can bet on horizontally or vertically adjacent numbers as well and there are plenty of choices. The odds of winning are 18 to 1 and payout is $17 for $1 bet.

The street bet is when you bet on a single horizontal row of three numbers on the table with odds of winning at 11.7 to 1 and payouts of $11 for $1 bet. Also, the column bet is similar but you are betting that the ball will land on a number in one of the three columns, which has probability of winning at 2.2 to 1 and payouts of $2 for $1 bet.

A dozen bet is something where you are betting on blocks of numbers on the table between 1 and 12, 13 and 24, or 25 and 36. The odds against winning are 2.2 to 1 and the payout percentages are $2 for $1 bet.

The six line bet is similar to a street or row bet, but you are allowed to bet on two adjacent horizontal rows. This would include six numbers such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 for example. The probability odds are 5.33 to 1 and the payouts are $5 for $1 bets.

Finally, the straight up bet is where you bet on any single number with a rare probability odds of 37 to 1 and payouts of $35 for $1 bet. On the European wheel, the odds are 36 to 1 but the payout stays the same at $35 for $1 bet.

Note that the probabilities listed above are based on the American roulette wheel. European roulette will have all the same payouts, but will have better odds against winning, so always play the European style to get better odds in your favor.

Using the Fibonacci number sequence in gambling and betting systems

Monday, March 15th, 2010

The Fibonacci sequence is actually a type of mathematical pattern that arises in science and nature time and time again. Ironically, this same pattern has been used as a betting system for casino games and gambling, including roulette. The pattern itself represents a type of growth or progressive expansion of a system and nearly everyone has heard about it since elementary school.

The pattern starts off with a single unit and begins to expand and grow as follows:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, …..

This pattern continues infinitely and there is actually a very simple way for you to determine the preceding numbers after the ones that I just displayed. All you need to do is add both preceding numbers to get the new one in the series. For example, 0 + 1  = 1, then 1 + 1 = 2. To get the next number after the numbers displayed in the series above, you would take 144 + 233 = 377.

Now for the purposes of gambling, you just start off using the series below:

1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, ….

It is exactly the same as the one above except you take one of the 1’s out of the beginning since it doesn’t make sense to bet the same value after a consecutive win. You could do this if the winning and losing streaks are really spotty, but it’s not necessary.

Here is an example. Suppose you wager 1 chip and each chip is worth $5. If you win a wager on black or red after the wheel is spun, you would then bet 2 chips or $10. If you win again, then you would bet 3 chips, then 5 chips and so on after winning each time in a row. If you win 10 times in a row, you would be betting 144 chips or $720!

The trick here is to determine when you are going to settle with your profits and start the cycle over. Also, this betting system depends on winning streaks since this is a positive progression strategy, which indicates that you increase your bets as you win. If you lose at any point along the series, then you start all over again at 1 chip, which reduces your risks and prevents you from losing your entire bankroll quickly. Risk management is one of the purposes of the safer betting systems. Many people swear by this betting system, mostly because this sequence of numbers appears in nature so frequently and people tend to think the immaterial and invisible “background” luck  of nature is on their side as well.

Using betting systems and different strategies at the casino

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

I went to the casino last night to try out some of the different roulette systems that I’ve been talking about over the past few days. The first thing I did was practice some of them online using the free flash roulette game. It didn’t take long to get a good grasp of how each one worked. After I tried them out, I confidently headed out the the casino in an attempt to play roulette.

I tried out the Paroli system first, which is the one where you double your bets after every win. It is the one where you also risk all of your profits. I really liked this one, but it really is unsafe and dissatisfying after you lose. I actually won 5 times in a row starting with a $5 bet for a profit of $155. Then I got greedy by trying to win 6 times in a row with a single $160 bet on red. As usual when a streak gets really big, I lost on the 6th wager and ended up with a net loss of $5…

The Paroli is great for getting a rush because roulette gets really exciting after the big money starts getting in and the streaks get longer. The key is trying to figure out when to quit. After losing, this big bet, I just decided to play some slots for awhile to cool off for awhile and get my mind in tune again after the big rush.

Next, I tried out the Parlay system. This one is exactly like the Paroli, except I decided to just wager 50% of my profits after consecutive wins. There wasn’t very many winning or losing streaks, maybe 2 or 3 in a row but that was it. When the results start getting spotty, these “streak dependent” systems don’t work too well. The good thing was the fact that I was keeping some of the profits after each win rather than risking them all. The bad part was that I wasn’t winning as much and the losses kind of offset the profits, so I didn’t lose as much. As expected, this system wasn’t very exciting but it wasn’t nearly as risky either.

Finally, I started using the 1-3-2-6 system. This one was really working well because the streaks were not very long, but they weren’t spotty either. The streak of 4 wins is quite common in games like roulette, especially last night. I made an original wager of $5 on black and then completed an entire cycle of 4 wins in a row for a profit of $60. It only took about 4 minutes to do! After the cycle was over, I started betting on red since I knew that was coming up soon. As soon as I did this, the ball landed on red 4 times in a row and I won an additional $60 profit! So I switched off to black again. Amazingly, the ball landed on red 2 more times (and I lost two times as well).

For awhile, the ball on the roulette wheel started landing on red or black in streaks of 1, 2 or 3 for awhile. It was kind of neutral where I was winning as much as I was losing and sort of breaking even. Every once in awhile the ball would land on green (single zero on European wheel) and everyone would lose (which is why zero tends to be known as the house number). I actually won about 5 of these 1-3-2-6 cycles, including a cycle where I used $10 instead of $5 units, giving me a $120 profit. All in all, I won $600 in profit at the casino and I believe the 1-3-2-6 is the best and funnest system to use that night!

Learn about the famous 1-3-2-6 betting strategy

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Another one of the most popular betting systems is the 1-3-2-6 strategy, which is used greatly at casinos. You can practice this bet management style online and use it in roulette along with just about any other casino game. This system uses properties of positive progression but it also has a cycle to prevent people from betting all of their profits on longer and longer winning streaks, which causes them to lose all of their profits.

The 1-3-2-6 system works by having the player bet 1 chip or unit on the first roulette spin. If the player wins, they will bet 3 chips, then 2 chips and finally a grand 6 chips. That is if they keep winning consecutively. If they win after a 6 chip bet, the cycle starts over again starting with a 1 chip bet. As you can see, a player only needs to have a streak of 4 wins in order to gain the maximum profit.

This strategy seems to be the best “middle ground” strategy to use in roulette. It is sort of a mix between many other systems because you are increasing your bet 300% of your first bet, or 150% of your profits. Then after you win that, you actually decrease your bet by 50%, thus saving a  lot of profits from being lost. Then your final bet gets increased by 300% again for a big win.

Basically the benefits of winning through the entire cycle is a 12 chip profit. For example, if you were wagering $10 at the start, you would have $120 profit if you won only 4 spins in a row, which can happen frequently. If you were to lose on the last big bet of 6 chips, you would have a net loss of $20 rather than $60 because of all the other profits you built up. Once you did win $120, you would then start over again with a $10 and try to complete the cycle again for an additional $120 profit. So if you were a high roller making a wager of $500, you could easily win $6000 a pop after each 4 win cycle. This is how the profits get big  money really quickly and it’s amazing how one could make a 1200% return on investment in such a short 4 win cycle.

Again, the key here is to make wagers on outside bets or the ones with nearly 50/50 odds or 1:1 payouts. The system depends on winning streaks, but fortunately the streaks do not have to be very long. This system greatly benefits players in the short term and it really just depends on your luck and how the game is moving along during a particular night. 1-3-2-6 is also an easy set of numbers to recall, so you can always remember this strategy if you are playing online or at the casino.

How to use the Paroli roulette system

Friday, March 12th, 2010

I talked about the Parlay system yesterday and how the Paroli strategy is just a variation of the Parlay. The Paroli system can be used in roulette and just about any other gambling game. Again, this is a positive progression system where you increase your bet sizes as you win and lower them as you lose. This system benefits more often when there are winning streaks over consecutive spins of the wheel.

Now the part that makes the Paroli roulette system different than Parlay is the fact that you are now betting 100% of your profits after each win. If you think about it, this complete all-in double down of your bet is actually risky. You also need to come up with a stop point to your bet or you are always going to lose and I’ll explain why.

Let’s say you bet $10 again at your first spin of the roulette wheel. If you win, your next bet would be $20. If you win this bet as well, you would have a net profit of $30 from your original $10 bet. If you lose, you would have a net loss of $10. The problem and disadvantage of using this system is whenever you lose the game, you will always end up losing all of your profits plus your original bet. This is because you are going double or nothing on all of your bets. In the end, you can never win if you keep on betting because the house has the advantage in the long term.

So the strategy here is to make a mental note or condition that you will accept your profits and reset your betting system after say 4 or 5 wins in a row. That way you can keep the profits and then start over at the bottom of the ladder. For example, if your original bet was $10 and you used the Paroli system over a 5 win streak, your net profits would be $310! If you were to continue, your next bet would be a staggering $320 and you would be risking all of your profits plus your original bet. If you were to win 6 bets in a row, you would have a $630 profit, but it gets riskier since all winning streaks will come to an end at some point and you want to get out before then.

Most importantly: Use the Parlay, Paroli and any of these other free roulette betting systems on wagers with the best odds! That means outside bets like red/black, or odd/even. Basically bets with nearly 50/50 or 1:1 payout odds. All of these systems would be very costly and would not work well when betting on single numbers or wagering on inside bets since you will lose much more often than you will win, even though the payouts are higher. This would defeat the whole purpose of these systems.

How to use the free Parlay roulette system

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

I talked about the Parlay system awhile ago and how I used this as a bet management strategy. This system is free to use and it’s just a fundamental pattern of betting really. Parlay uses properties that are much safer than the Martingale system and they can be used in just about any other type of casino game, including roulette.

The Parlay strategy uses positive progression, which means that you increase the size of your bets as you win and decrease your bets as you lose. This is sometimes known as the pyramid system because each time you win, your next bet will be the same as your original wager plus an additional part of your profit.

There are actually variations of the Parlay betting system, which can also be used in roulette. For example, the Paroli system is one of the most extreme systems where you bet all of your profits on each bet after consecutive wins and I will talk about this in tomorrows blog post. The Parlay is just a general pattern of using parts of your profits on each bet. By that, I mean you can increase your bets by 25%, 50% or even 100%.

A good way to use this strategy is to use an even number sized bet, such as $2, $10 or $100, something that is easy to work with in ratios. For example, if you bet $10 and win, the next bet could be $15 if you wish to wager 50% of your profits, or $20 if you wish to use 100% of your profits (the Paroli method). If you lose, you automatically start off betting the minimum or original bet of $10 and work your way up the ladder once more.

The key to success when using the Parlay system is to get long streaks of wins. As long as their are equally sized winning and losing streaks, you are guaranteed to come out ahead because you will lose less money when you lose the wager, and win more money when you win the game because you are increasing your bets as you win more often. If there are scattered wins and losses, this strategy doesn’t work too well. It all just depends on luck and how your game is going.

Have you heard of the Red Snake and Black Snake bets?

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

There are two very similar types of roulette bets that most people don’t know about but you hear them once in awhile at the roulette table. Actually, they aren’t very special but they sound arcane and use words in the usual gambling “slang” language. As you may have guessed, they are just bets based on the red or black colors on the roulette wheel.

People look at the table and see alternating colors along with numbers. You can actually see a connecting series of red colors, known as the Red Snake. There is also a series of black numbers that are connected to make up the Black Snake (sort of). Basically when you announce or call out these snake bets, the croupier will usually know what you are talking about.

I found a great picture on Wikipedia to illustrate which numbers to select in order to make a “Red Snake”. The numbers included in this bet are: 1, 5, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 23, 27, 30, 32 and 24. Note that this doesn’t really improve your odds or anything, but it’s just peculiar type of bet to try and mix up the table a little bit. This is more part of the socializing and entertainment going on at the table. Though some people tend to use this for better luck. It just depends on how you are feeling and if you think this bet will be good. Most importantly, this bet is very convenient to the croupier because they know exactly what the snake is. It is much better announcing this bet rather than naming off each number one by one!

Red Snake Bet

Note that the Black Snake really isn’t official. Many people assume that since there is a red one, there must be an opposite black one. Notice that you cannot make a correct snake out of the black spots in the same shape as the red ones. For that, you would probably have to call out the numbers one by one, which could be annoying and tedious for the dealer. I would probably stay away from the black snake unless the dealer knows what to do here since there is no one way to do it like the red one.

The Labouchere roulette system for bet management

Friday, March 5th, 2010

I’m going to talk a little bit about another famous free roulette system known as the Labouchere strategy. This is another one of those types of betting systems like the Martingale, Parlay and D’Alembert, which are all free to use and represent some pattern or style used in betting. First off, this is a negative progression type of strategy, but it is much more conservative and safer than the Martingale.

The characteristics of this system can be complex and you might want to bring a piece of paper or something in order to keep track. The Labouchere uses series of numbers that you need to keep track of. For instance, you can start off with the numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Each number will represent the number of chips you will bet on the table.

When you make your first bet, you will just need to add the numbers on both sides of the series or 1+5 = 6  chips. Note that you can write down the numbers in the series in any order. If you win this bet, you will cross off the 1 and 5 from the list of numbers and you will be left with 2, 3 and 4. Although if you lose the bet, you have to add the number 6 to the end of the original series so that you now have: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

So you just continue doing this until all the numbers are crossed off as in a type of cycle. This is great bankroll management if you want to walk into a casino and start playing roulette or any other game. Basically you can set up a series before you even play the game and mentally make a decision to walk out with a profit when all the numbers are cross out. That way you don’t stay in the game too long and lose against the house edge. The only thing dangerous about this system happens when you start losing a lot. Then you start adding large numbers to the end of the series and each bet becomes larger. Still, this is an interesting way of playing and many people swear that this is a winning roulette system, at least in helping you walk away with profits at the right time.

The difference between French vs European roulette

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

I’ve talked about French and European roulette being interchangeable with each other, but there is a difference between the two games. Legend says that roulette was invented in France, which is part of Europe, so many people assume it is the same game.

Both games use the same rules and both have a single zero, meaning the odds are better than the American version. The first difference is in the physical layouts of the table and wheel. In other versions, the wheel is usually on one side with a single table. In French roulette, the wheel is in between two tables. This fact makes it easier to spot in a casino. Also, the table is usually completely red and there are no black colors around the numbers, even though they are considered black. This is just part of the style and original version of the game.

As for the bets, everything is the same as the European version, except for a few additional types of bets that can work to your advantage. You may have come across the term “La Partage”. This is a rule that is nearly identical to the “En Prison” rule where a player will lose only half the bet when the ball lands on zero. I wrote about En Prison in an earlier post and you can read the full details of it here.

The biggest difference between the two game variations is that the French version has “call bets”. They are specific pre-made bets where players can bet on special groups of numbers ordered by their physical position on the wheel. I listed a few of the major call bets below with their original French names and translated into English:

Voisins du Zero – Neighbors of Zero: This bet covers 17 numbers surrounding the zero on the wheel as well as the zero itself.

Jeu Zero – Zero Game: This is similar to “Neighbors of Zeros” bet, but you are selecting only 7 numbers around zero and including zero.

Tiers du Cylindre – Third of the Wheel: This bet covers one third of the numbers on the wheel. Basically it’s the 12 numbers that are opposite of the zero slot.

Orphelins – Orphans: This is a bet on all of the numbers that were not included in the “Third of the Wheel” and “Neighbor of Zero” bet, which includes 8 numbers.

Finales – Finals: These are final bets that use the final digits of each number as a way to coordinate the bet. For example, if the player announces “Finales 5″, The numbers 5, 15, 25 and 35 would be wagered on. This would be allowed for any other number as well. Sometimes you are betting on 3 or 4 numbers at a time depending on which digit you select.

I hope this good Wikipedia image below will illustrate where these numbers are in respect to the positions on the wheel:
French Roulette Call Bet Numbers

If you are interested in this game and want to practice and try out these bets, play our free flash French roulette game with no download required, or go to Wild Jack casino to find out how to play this game online for real money.

I used a winning Parlay roulette system last night

Friday, February 26th, 2010

I hit up the local casino again to try out some roulette strategies and systems. Basically it was a winning night for me this time. I also got around to playing some Baccarat, a few slot machines of course and a few hands of blackjack. The system I tried out was a positive progression system, which is very conservative and safe. It also doesn’t require a huge bankroll and doesn’t take on as much risk as the Martingale system I talked about yesterday.

This system is known as the Parlay betting system. Basically it’s the exact opposite of the Martingale and requires some of the same properties which rely on long streaks. Basically I started off by wagering $5 on black. Then if I lose, then I continue betting $5. If I win on this bet, my next bet is $10. If I win again, the next bet would go to $20, $40, $80 and so on.

Well, I didn’t play this roulette game very long and I walked out with a profit. The ball landed on black 4 times in a row giving me a profit of $80. Luckily I decided to stop doubling-down after 4 wins and start the cycle over with a $5 bet. I lost at this point and then lost a few more times before getting another streak that lasted 4 in a row, giving me a profit of about $150.

I was happy about how this strategy worked, but the key is to end the cycle at some point. It is imperative that you cut the cycle at some point because you will always lose in the long run and end up with a net $5 lose after every possible loss. I will write a little bit about this strategy some more later. Other than that, it was quite an exciting night!