Monthly Archives: February 2010

What is Russian Roulette?

Uncategorized

You may have all heard about American roulette, French and European roulette but Russian roulette is sort of unique game that people have heard about but never knew what it was. Actually, Russian roulette has nothing to do with your ordinary casino games or spinning a ball around a wheel and making bets on a table. In fact, it does relate to spinning a bullet around in a revolver though.

As the name suggests, this game was invented by the Russians in the 19th century. Many say that it was brought up by prison guards in Russia. It was stated in some stories that the guards would play this game with the prisoners. Other stories suggest that the game was invented by the Russian army where soldiers would play the game as a way to show off their toughness, bravery and to impress people. Of course it was a stupid way for them to do this. Though, these are just guesses on when the game was made since no one really knows for sure or that the cowboys of the wild west invented it.

In the late 1800’s, the Russian army had standard double action revolvers called Nagants. Revolvers of course were required for this game, particularly any revolver with six shots in it. A soldier would put a single bullet in the chamber and spin it around, then put the gun to their heads and pull the trigger. If nothing happens, the gun is handed off to the opponent who pulls the trigger on their head. There is a 16.7% chance that the bullet is in any of the six slots in the bullet chamber, meaning that’s the chance that you would be shot.

Some would consider this an extreme form of gambling. In one case, two wealthy men would play this suicidal game and wager everything they have. Whoever gets shot would lose the game and probably die. The winner would take everything the loser possessed including their home, money and land.

This may seem so unbelievable to be true but people have actually played this game and died. Famous people like William Shockley, who helped invent the transistor and won a Noble Prize in Physics was said to play Russian roulette solo by himself. Some say that Johnny Ace, a blues musician killed himself playing solo Russian roulette. Though the KEY to the game is to use a spinning revolver. Some people have died trying to play this game with a semi-automatic pistol without ever thinking that the odds are 100% that a bullet will be shot when the trigger is pulled…

Another night at the casino

Uncategorized

Last time I went, I won big time with 1369 to 1 odds when the roulette wheel hit the same number twice. This time I went, I decided to play some slot machines and a little bit of roulette. There was one guy who was betting high roller stakes at the roulette table of $100 on red or black. I happened to notice that he was actually trying to use the Martingale strategy.

I was going to try and say something about it not working with a $1000 table limit. Obviously he would have to mess up his system after about 4 losses or so since the table would not allow him to bet more than $1000. I didn’t tell him anything just in case he wasn’t using this system. Realistically though, the Martingale would work great with $1 or even $5 bets since anyone could double the previous bet after each loss before losing it all after 10 losses in a row before the table limit.

Not much happened with me, I tried experimenting with the 1-3-2-6 betting system for while and sort of broke even with that slight loss on a lame night. No major luck streaks, yet no major losing streaks. Overall, I enjoy heading to the casino just to get out of the house now and then.

Casinos with single zero roulette

Uncategorized

When playing at land based casinos, almost every casino should have a single zero roulette table, if they even have any form of roulette. In fact, you will find the single version game, known as European or French roulette more often than American roulette, which is found exclusively in the United States.

If you are playing at casinos based online, you are pretty much guaranteed both single zero and double zero roulette games since these are pretty much the default and most popular games around in gambling besides slot machines. The casinos we list here also have them. One thing to note, you should never play double zero roulette unless you want a lower chance of winning. The odds are much worse than single zero games.

CasinoMax is a casino that offers the game with great graphics and smooth game play, they are extremely popular and one of the most reputable online casinos in the world. Their brand owns a few other casinos but the games are pretty much the same. The only problem is they will not allow US players to deposit money. Fortunately, there are a few other great casinos out there that ALSO WILL accept US players. Slots Capital and Black Diamond Casino

The simple rules of roulette

Uncategorized

The rules are quite simple and roulette is one of the easiest games to learn. In some cases, this game is as easy as betting on whether a flipped coin will land on heads or tails. This game can be played with multiple people at a land based casino or on the internet.

Basically to start off, there are a few versions of roulette. Mostly commonly American and European. American roulette has an extra number called double zero or “00” in the wheel. This game dramatically reduces your odds so play on a European table. The rules of the game are simple, basically you buy chips and make bets on what number or color on a roulette wheel that the ball will land on.

First you place your chips on a table, which displays the numbers and what background color that number is on. Then the dealer or “croupier” will spin the roulette wheel, which is next to the betting table that the chips are on, and throw a ball into it. The ball will randomly bounce around on a rapidly spinning wheel and land in a slot, which contains both a color and a number.

You can either bet by colors, or whether the ball will land on black or red. You can bet on whether the ball will land on an odd or even number. You

Looking for some Free American Roulette Games?

Uncategorized

I noticed a few people searching through Google looking for free American roulette games. I am assuming you are looking for one of those Flash Macromedia type of games you can play right in your browser, right? This is known as a no-download type of casino game, so if you are looking for a game where you don’t have to sign up, fill out annoying forms to select usernames, password and submit email addresses, I can show you a game to play.

Click here to play free American roulette. It is powered by Wild Jack casino, which is an excellent gaming platform for casino games. When you click it, you will be redirected to the game itself with no sign up or any of that stuff. You will get a full screen game with excellent graphics and you will be able to play this game for free, making it a great opportunity to practice roulette and play other casino games on their game menus.

For those of you that are interested, you can still sign up here and play for real money. Unfortunately players located in the US cannot play here. US players are in luck though, there is a different brand out there where you can play for real money, but it uses different casino software. You can play at CasinoMax or Cherry Jackpot, which are my top casinos available for US players and credit card deposits.

Just a side note, I noticed many people are searching for American roulette. I’ve stressed throughout this blog that American roulette has the worst odds out of any roulette game variation. You should play European roulette because the odds are much more in your favor.

The Basic Strategy When Playing Roulette

Uncategorized

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 dependent on the style of player and size of bankrolls.