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The Martingale betting system used when playing roulette

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

One of the most famous betting systems used in all casino games is the Martingale system. The Martingale betting system is actually most popular with roulette because of the high table limits since roulette usually has a larger maximum than the other table games. This system is very popular but it also requires players to have deep pockets and to take on enormous risks.

The basics of the Martingale are simple. It is a negative progression form of betting where players make larger whenever they lose and keep the bet the same whenever they win. This system works best when customers bet on red or black colors, odd or even numbers and high or low numbers. Basically the outside bets are perfect to use here. The key here is you want to bet on something with the best odds, or nearly 50/50 odds with these outside bets.

Here is an example of using the Martingale betting system while playing roulette. First a player can bet $10 on red. The croupier will then spin the wheel and drop the ball in. If the ball lands on the red slot, the player will win $10 and the next bet they will make is $10 again. Basically the bet will always be $10 after winning a bet and you will always make a $10 profit after every win.

If you lose though, then your next bet will be double the previous bet. For instance, if you lost on a $10 bet, you would then bet $20. If the ball lands on red, you would win $10, which would cover your previous loss of $10 plus a $10 profit. If you lose for a second time in a row, you would again have to make a wager that is double that of your previous bet, or $40. If you win here, you would cover your total loses and again make a profit.

The severe risk comes when you start getting a long streak of losses. Say you lose twice in a row, then your bet keeps doubling to $40, then $80, then $160, $360, $640 and then over a thousand dollars. You would need to lose six times in a row before you would start betting over $1000. This is nearly equivalent to flipping a coin and having it land on heads six times in a row. It is theoretically possible but highly unlikely. It becomes more and more unlikely that the ball will keep landing on red. Eventually it should land on black since the odds should even out over the long term.

As you can see, there are two major requirements to use the Martingale system effectively in roulette. You need deep pockets (large bankroll) and you need a roulette wheel with high table betting limits. In the example above, lets assume the table limit is $1000 and you need to double your $640 bet. You can only bet $1000, so this screws up the whole system. In fact, a player could theoretically never lose while using this system if there was no table limits and he had an infinite amount of money.

For practical purposes, a billionaire probably would never have to worry about losing all of their money if the started off with small bets. It is because of this system that casinos placed betting limits on roulette tables, so that the Martingale system would eventually fail after a long streak of losses, otherwise the casino could lose a lot of money like it has done in the past.

Try out the Martingale betting system on our free flash roulette game. There is a low betting limit in this flash version, but if you play for real money, the table limit is much higher. At least you will get a feel for this system and be able to practice it a little to see how it works.

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The D’Alembert betting system is used in roulette as well

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

A betting system is basically just a type of risk management and bankroll control system. The Martingale system is an example of one of the most popular betting strategies used throughout the world. Also, many of these systems can be used in just about every casino game. These are most popular with games like roulette, craps, blackjack and other table games but they be used with slot machines as well, even though it’s not that common.

One thing that should be made clear before we explain a little bit about the D’Alembert system is that fact that the house always has the edge. There is no system that can increase your chances of winning since each spin of the wheel gives the ball the same probability of landing in any of the numbers or in the colors. The wheel cannot remember past spins either so the ball could theoretically land on a red or black color 20 times in a row.

This system was first conceived by the Mathematician Jean Le Rond D’Alembert. It starts off by assuming that when you win during one spin, such as betting on red, you will likely lose on the next spin if you bet on the ball landing on a red slot again. This is basically betting that there will not be a long streak of spins where the ball lands on the same color, which would be red for example.

So when you win a bet, you subtract one chip from your bet since you are assuming that you will lose on the next spin. If you lose, then you add another chip to your bet, which the assumption that your odds are better for the next spin being a win. This is just a style or a type of pattern that people use when betting.

It really is useful though if you use it for bankroll management or knowing when to walk away. For example, if you put up $100 bet on red using ten $10 chips, you can make a decision to walk away from the table once all of your chips have been subtracted one by one. You can also set up a limit to control your losses, such as walking away from the table after the chip count increases to twenty, which would be a bad losing night.

Since we all know that we will lose in the long run to the casino because they have the house edge, the only way to really win is to walk away at the right time in the short term. On a really lucky night, you could walk away from the roulette table using a ten chip D’Alembert system with over $550 in winnings while starting off with only $100 bet. Realistically, pulling all your chips off using this system is not unheard of and this really is a conservative and safe system to use compared with some of the others.

Posted in Roulette, Roulette Betting, Roulette Strategy, Roulette Systems | 1 Comment »

What is the special “En Prison” roulette rule?

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Someone asked about this on a discussion forum so I figured I would write a little bit about this. There is sometimes a special rule that players will be allowed to take advantage of. This rule applies to both American and European roulette in some casinos. Note that not all casinos will allow players to use this and you will usually notice the En Prison rule at big casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, especially if you are playing on a single zero wheel.

Ok, basically if you are betting on red or black, and the ball lands on a green slot, the dealer will give you the option to use the En Prison rule. Now this only applies when you are betting on black or red, and then the ball lands on the single zero or double zero (if your roulette wheel has the 00 slot).

For example, if you bet $100 on black and the wheel lands on a zero, the first option is to surrender half of your bet or lose $50. The other option is to chose to go into prison “En Prison”. If you choose to go in prison, the dealer will place an “En Prison” marker over your bet and you leave your $100 on the table and the dealer spins the wheel once more.

The goal is to not have the ball land on the green zeros or the red slots since your original bet was black. If the ball lands on single or double zero again, you lose the bet. You will also lose the bet if the ball lands on red. If it does not land on any zeros and it lands on black, then you go out of prison and you break even. When using the En Prison rule, you can never win. Basically you lose your entire bet or your break even.

Posted in Roulette, Roulette Betting, Roulette Strategy, Roulette Tips | 1 Comment »

A few tips for winning at roulette

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Probably the number one tip I can give is to always check what game you are playing. Roulette has a few variations of the game, each with different odds. The good game is French and European roulette. These have single zero tables and wheels with only one green slot. The American wheel has two green slots: a single zero and a double zero “00″. This extra green slot throws the odds off and gives the casino a much bigger edge on every single bet. So my best tip is to play at a roulette table with a single zero. The house edge or profit margin on the American variation is 5.26%, which is much higher than the 2.70% edge on a European wheel for instance.

Tip 2 is an important tip deals with betting systems like the Martingale for example. Practice these systems online using a free roulette table like the free flash games we have on this site. That way you can get the system down good and learn how to do them properly. If you use the system wrongly, you will not be able to manage your risk and bankroll as efficiently.

Tip 3 is to always bet on outside bets such as the red/black, odd/even, hi/lo or something with low payout odds. You will win $1 for every $1 but you win more frequently. The house edge is also smaller on these bets so you won’t lose as much in the long run.

Tip 4 is to observe any patterns going on. For instance, some casinos display the numbers and colors that the ball lands on for the previous spins. If you notice a lot of black numbers coming up for example, then you should know that eventually the red ones should come up soon since it is highly unlikely that they will keep coming up. For instance, imagine flipping a coin 20 times and getting heads on every flip. Eventually you will get tails in the long term.

Tip 5 involves watching the numbers that are appearing after each spin. You need to watch closely for a long period of time in order to discover some kind of bias in the roulette wheel, such as a flaw in it’s engineering. Some people can figure this out in their head but most of the time you need a computer to input and save all the numbers. In the old days and still in older casinos with old equipment, there are biased wheels that would let the ball land on certain numbers more frequently than others, usually due to a slight unbalance or the wheel leaning in a certain direction. If you can figure out the bias, even a slight one, you should bet on the biased numbers and you might be able to beat the tiny 2.70% house edge.

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Biased Roulette Wheels – Cheating at Roulette

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

A biased roulette wheel is one that is off balanced and favors certain numbers over others. Theoretically every roulette wheel is biased in some way or another and some are more biased than others. This is just a matter of physics because no wheel can be absolutely perfect with ideal balance. Anything from wear and tear or microscopic weight differences can cause a wheel to go unbalanced. Even the small engineering flaws can cause it to not spin in a way that would give every spot on the wheel complete randomness.

For practical purposes, casinos have high quality roulette equipment that is as fair as possible. In the past though, casinos had old lower quality wheels that did not spin perfectly. Basically a wheel could be leaning over in one position and because of this, the ball spinning around would land on certain numbers more often than others. If someone was able to figure out what numbers these were, they could make a ton of money from the casino and this actually did happen at some point. In one case, a gambler actually broke the casino!

A biased wheel can be found by using computer software to find a pattern. Every time the ball is spun in the wheel, the number that it lands on gets recorded into the computer. After so many iterations, one can find what numbers the ball lands on more often. In fact, many companies that manufacture the roulette wheels need to use these computers to test out a wheel before it goes to the casino to ensure that there is a large margin of fairness and that there is no major bias in the numbers.

Cheaters can use the same technology to find patterns. It may not be useful to use this software on a brand new wheel, but it can be beneficial if one was to use this software on an old wheel that has seen a lot of use over many years. An old wheel is likely going to have some bias to it due to age and these are the ones that cheaters tend to go after. They can use the software to find the biased numbers and then bet on those numbers because their odds are better than the rest of the numbers. The computer can sometimes calculate the odds as well and depending on what variation of the roulette game you are playing, a lot of money can be won if those odds exceed the house edge or the odds that the casino normally has against everyone playing.

Note that a casino is a business and they need these odds in order to make a profit to stay in business. Every casino game has odds in favor of the casino unless you can find a vulnerability in the game. Dice control in craps is a way to beat the house in craps. Card counting is another method used to beat the house in blackjack. Finding a biased wheel is actually the way to beat the house in roulette.

Interestingly enough, you might find it obvious that you could not find a biased wheel by playing at an online casino but it is possible! You would have to find an online casino with live dealers with an actual roulette wheel otherwise the virtual software version of roulette uses a random number generator (RNG) to select numbers to perfect fairness. Live dealers usually have a real roulette wheel on a web camera where you could use your computer software to find the bias of the wheel over the internet. One of the deterrents is routinely switching out wheels with other random wheels, even at land-based casinos.

The drawback of using biased wheel software is it normally takes at least 5000 numbers to be inputted into the computer to find a pattern. If you have every played roulette in a casino, you know that sometimes you can only get 40 to 100 spins per hour so it would essentially takes days to find a pattern. More importantly, we are not recommending that anyone actually bring this software into a casino because it is illegal. You could risk getting thrown out of a casino and possibly serving jail time. This is just an interesting article for those who were interested.

Posted in Casino Roulette, Roulette, Roulette Strategy, Roulette Systems | 1 Comment »

The Basic Strategy When Playing Roulette

Monday, February 1st, 2010

There is no fixed basic strategy chart or anything like “basic strategy” in blackjack. Really, it depends on what kinds of bets you want to wager while playing this game. Some are won more often than others but they pay less. For instance, if you would like doing outside bets such as betting on red or black, you will generally win slightly less than 50% of the time in the long run and you will win nearly even odds or $1 for every $1 bet. Then there are inside bets such as betting on single numbers or clusters of numbers. You generally land on these roughly 3% of the time but the payout is enormous. Usually you win about $36 for every $1 bet.

The paramount basic strategy though is to not play on an American roulette wheel. Always play on the European wheel, French wheel or anything with only a single zero green slot in it. This automatically improves your odds by a factor of two.

As for betting, the basic bets you should be doing are the ones with low odds like “red or black”, “even or odd”, “high or low”. These are slightly less than flip-of-the-coin 50/50 odds. The reason you should do this is the payout odds are better than the really risky bets like corner bets, row and column bets and single number wagers. In fact, the house edge on a single zero table is 2.70% on outside bets. This is about as good as it gets. In case you were wondering, the house edge is 5.26% on an American roulette table. This means the casino is taking more of your money much quicker. The basic strategy is that you should always make wagers on bets that have a low house edge.

The next basic thing to do play only for a short time. The casino is guaranteed to win in the long run in every casino game. So people usually win if they quit while they are ahead in the short time. For instance, if you are on a hot streak and come out way ahead after 100 spins, the best thing to do is leave because the more you play, the more the odds are against you and eventually your bankroll will evaporate.

As for betting systems like the Martingale, Labouchere, Fibonacci or something else, these are not considered basic strategy and they do not affect the odds of the game or your chances of winning. These are basically different risk management styles or bankroll management to prevent great losses or to keep you in the game longer. Some are even risky and require large bankrolls, so these are dependant on the style of player and size of bankrolls.

Posted in Roulette, Roulette Betting, Roulette Strategy, Roulette Systems, Roulette Tips | 1 Comment »

How to get better luck when playing roulette

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

This may seem like a strange topic but I have a very important tip that I can’t stress enough when playing roulette. Many people keep getting caught up in playing American roulette, which is a variation of the original game. Basically anyone who plays roulette on an American wheel actually has much worse luck than someone playing on a European or French roulette wheel. In fact, your luck can be nearly twice as bad due to the odds and I’ll explain this below.

Unfortunately, nearly all casinos in the US use American roulette wheels, which have two green slots with a single zero and double zero “0″ and “00″ numbers. It is this double zero that gives you bad luck because the European wheel only has a single zero. If you compare the odds, the house edge on the European roulette is 2.70% vs 5.26% on the American version. The difference is actually 2.56%, which makes the American roulette game a bad game for luck and you will lose your money twice as quick.

Many people reading this are probably saying “yeah, that’s common sense, you’ve said this all over your site”. The problem is there are many people who don’t know the difference between the wheels. People in the United States might just play on the American roulette table just because they are citizens of the country and play due to fanfare of their nationality. Realistically there isn’t much of a difference between the wheels except for that addition of the double zero green slot. There is absolutely no benefits to playing American roulette in terms of odds and chances of winning. Basically this game was invented in 19th century America during the gold rush out west when casinos wanted to get in and make a bigger piece of profit when everyone was rich with pockets full of gold! Nowadays, why play on this wheel where there are others with better odds? This game is almost like a novelty relic of casino games that many people never think about.

So if you think you are having some hard luck when playing roulette, check to make sure that you are not playing this American version of the game. If you find yourself playing on this variety, you can literally improve your odds and give yourself good luck or at least better luck on the European, French or single zero roulette game.

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Why you can never win at roulette in the long term

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

I thought this might be an informative topic to blog about. Many people think there is some strategy out there that can beat the system. It is true for something like blackjack where you can count cards to gain an edge, but that is different because each time the cards are dealt, you know a little extra information about what cards are still in the deck as you count the cards that are used up. This of course become obsolete online because the computer reshuffles the whole deck in a few seconds.

For roulette at land based casinos and online though, each spin has no memory or information of the previous spin. Basically every number on the wheel has an equal chance of being hit by the ball. Normally you would think that if you bet red or black, you would eventually break even because there are an equal number of black and red (50/50 odds) right? Well the thing that trumps all the strategies and betting systems is the green slot which holds a single zero “0″. Even though there is an equal number of each color or equal number of even and odd numbers, your odds are diminished because of this green slot.

Basically this is where the casino makes their money, it is essentially a house number but you can still bet on it. Your odds would normally be 50/50 if you bet on black and red. Over the long term though, every once in awhile, the ball will land in the green slot and everyone betting on black or red loses no matter what. In fact, this slot gives the casino a 2.70% house edge or profit margin on a European and French roulette wheel. On the American roulette wheel, there are TWO green slots with a double zero “00″ in the other slot. This means the casino has more green slots in the mix and the ball lands on green more often. In this case, the house has a 5.26% edge over the players, meaning more profits over a shorter time. In fact, the strategy is to never play on an American roulette table, there are utterly no advantages! If you read my page explaining the history of roulette, this table was created way back during the United States gold rush of the 1800′s when casinos got greedy and wanted more money.

Also, the casinos pay out less than true odds so even if there was no green slots and there was a 50/50 absolute chance of landing on red and black, the casino would pay out odds less than 50:50 because they are a business for profit. Betting strategies do make the game more interesting and can sometimes help. For instance, a very rich person could benefit from the Martingale system as long as they didn’t have a astoundingly massive losing streak… Other systems manage your risk and your bankroll essentially but they do not turn roulette into a personal ATM.

Although, biased wheel computer software can really work, yet this is illegal in casinos of course and you can get in trouble if you get caught. It takes a lot of spins for the computer simulation software to select which numbers come up more often from a flaw in the engineering of the wheel. Joesph Jaggers did this in the 1800′s and won a ton of money in Monte Carlo because he was the first to discover a horrendously flawed wheel that let him win over a quarter million francs. This is pretty much the only way you could really win at roulette in the long run, unless of course you collaborate with the dealers and what not.

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