While roulette is a game of chance and the outcome is mainly decided by engineered randomness, there are factors within the game that the player can control. The player decided what tables to play at, when to play, what number(s) to bet and how much goes into that bet. This opens up the game for players to have a roulette strategy that gives them the highest chance of winning, even in the randomness. Below we will go through what a roulette strategy is, and how to use it in the real world.
Units
When speaking in roulette strategy terms, we will mention “units” when speaking of bet sizes. This is because all players has a different bankroll, and there are no absolute bet sizes that can fit every player. A unit is therefore individual, and decided by you as a player and the size of your bankroll.
Progression
Almost all roulette strategies are built on adjusting your bet size over time, and this is called the “strategy progression”. The progression is important for you to decide if you want to use a volatile roulette strategy, or a more stable one.
Even Money Bets
Even money bets, or 1:1 bets, are simply bets that pays out a 1:1 profit would your bet be successful. Examples of even money bets are red-black, odd-even or 1-18/19-36, which are commonly used in roulette strategy.
The most famous roulette strategy in the world is the Martingale Strategy. It’s a roulette strategy that most seasoned players come up with themselves after playing the game for a while, and it’s very simple.
You start off with betting a small amount on a bet with a 1:1 payout, e.g a red-black bet, and if you lose the roll, you double your bet amount for the next bet. Every time you lose you double up your last bet, until you win. By following this betting pattern, your win will always cancel out all the past losses and net you a small profit.
To go further into this ingenious roulette strategy, please read our in depth guide to the Martingale System.
The Labouchere betting system is a negative progression roulette strategy that cancels out losses for wins and takes a slow approach toward giving you a small net profit in the end. It is a good mix between the Martingale and a less volatile roulette system, which mitigates some of the risks of exponential bet size growth that other betting strategies have.
In short, you decide what bet unit you want to use, and divide that unit into a sequence of numbers, like 1-2-3-4 (bet unit $10). Then you bet the first and last number in the sequence, in this case $5. If you bet is successful, you cross out the two numbers and take the next first and lats number for your next bet. If you lose, you add the bet you made to the number sequence.
The Labouchere can give you an edge over the casino by shifting the need to win spins, and instead focus on steadily growing your bankroll. To learn more about this roulette strategy, read our Labouchere guide.
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D’Alembert Strategy
This roulette strategy was discovered by French mathematician Jean Le Rond d’Alembert. The d’Alembert strategy is built on his fallacious thought that a flipped coin which continuously landed on tails had an increasing chance of landing on heads in the future. While his idea was a fallacy in theory, it holds some value in the fact that a coin tends to return equal heads and tails over a long period of time. This argument was incorporated in gambling and used as a system in playing roulette.
Description of Gameplay
After deciding your bet unit, the d’Alambert roulette strategy is very simple to use. You start off by betting 1 unit. If your bet wins, you increase your bet 1 unit, this time to 2 units. If you lose, you decrease your bet size with 1 unit. The strategy uses, like many of the other roulette strategies, even money bets with an assumption that the results will even out over the long run.
It is prudent to set the base unit at less than 5% of your bankroll for the session. With the D’alembert strategy, you increase you bet with the base unit each time you win and decrease by the same unit each time you lose. This means that bet sizes will increase over time when you hit a losing streak, but never in an exponential manner like in other systems.
The D’alembert strategy pitfall is that you will win small amounts as the base unit is low. And since you are playing a game with a negative expectation, in the long run the house will catch up with you.
d’Alembert Strategy with $200 bankroll
Spin | Bet | Outcome | Profit/Loss |
1 | 10 | Loss | -$10 |
2 | 20 | Loss | -$30 |
3 | 30 | Loss | -$60 |
4 | 40 | Loss | -$100 |
5 | 50 | Win | -$50 |
6 | 40 | Win | -$10 |
7 | 30 | Win | $20 |
Oscar’s Grind roulette strategy is a good strategy for players that want to hold the bet sizes down in comparison to the Martin Strategy. The progression is sequential, meaning that in order to raise your bet size, you need to win one bet in the previous bet size first.
There are four parts in this roulette strategy, 1 unit, 2 units, 3 units and 4 units. You start off by betting 1 unit, and keep betting until you win one spin. When you win, you increase the betting size to 2 units, and maintain that size until you win another spin. When you win again, you increase your size to 3 units, and eventually 4 units following the same pattern.
Betting Round | Unit(s) | Win | Loss | Net Profit | Action |
1 | 1 | X | -1 | Bet Size Remains Unchanged | |
2 | 1 | X | -2 | Bet Size Remains Unchanged | |
3 | 1 | X | -1 | Bet Size Increases | |
4 | 2 | X | +1 | The Sequence Ends |
If you at ANY time reach a net profit of 1 unit during the whole system (which might be the very first spin, or come later), the sequence is over. You take your profit and make the decision if you want to play again. If you are extremely unlucky and make it all the way to the 4 unit bets, win a 4 unit bet and still do not have a net profit, the sequence is also over. See, what’s great about this roulette strategy is that you mitigate the loss of units by setting a hard stop on the betting progression. That way it is very unlikely that you empty your bankroll in one sitting, which is very easy when getting carried away at the roulette table.
What Happens After the Sequence is Over?
In case you see no need for quitting and want to enjoy the game more, you should begin with a new sequence and start with the initial level. Just make sure that’ll you always start at the same first level of betting, even if you’ve had a good streak going. There are always risk of a bad streak coming up, and the point of this roulette strategy is to mitigate the losses.
In the long run, the odds for the roulette table is the same, and the house still faces the common 5.26% on the American wheel and 2.70% house edge on the European wheel.
The Paroli System is in many ways considered the opposite to the Martingale roulette strategy. Instead of being a negative progression roulette strategy, you progress in your bet sizes when you are on a winning streak.
How to Use the Paroli Roulette Strategy
- As always, decide what bet size will be your unit.
- Pick an even money bet, like red-black or odd-even.
- Bet 1 unit. If you win double that bet to 2 units. If you lose keep betting 1 unit.
- If you win another bet, double your bet again to 4 units.
- If you win yet another bet, go back to your base unit of 1. Congratulations! You have just finished one successful sequence of the Paroli Roulette Strategy.
The logic behind the Paroli roulette betting strategy is designed to capitalize on a hot streak. You take all your winnings and place them into the next bet for three bets in a row, hoping that the exponential return will increase and basically pay you a 700% return on a single unit bet. A 2014 movie titled The Gambler played by Mark Wahlberg paints a clear picture of this betting strategy.
Another negative progression roulette strategy is the Fibonacci System. Initially discovered by the Italian mathematician, this roulette strategy is based on an exceptional mathematical proof. The Fibonacci sequence of number appear in almost everything from budding flowers to poetic structures to swaying trees among others. Here, each number is separated from the other through the addition of two previous numbers, such as 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8 and so on, as indicated below:
1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377
Players use these numbers to structure their bets:
- Start off with betting 1 unit.
- If you lose, you move up one step in the sequence, if you win you stay at one unit.
- When moving up the ladder, any time you win a bet, you move down 2 steps in the sequence.
The good thing about the Fibonacci roulette strategy is that it is very easy to comprehend and apply. In the event that you win your initial bet, you can bet until you buy yourself an island. Better yet, if you choose to play in a casino that allows en prison or surrender on even-money bets, rest assured of better even-money play as the house takes smaller cuts.
If all the above roulette strategies were based on number sequences and structured betting progression, there is another school of thought. Some betting experts believe that in order to beat a random game like roulette, you need to fight fire with fire. Therefore, here are some of the most popular chaos betting strategies to use:
YANS or You-Are-Nuts-Strategy
One of the most popular roulette strategies, if it could even be classed as a strategy at all, that resonate with lots of roulette players out there goes by the name YANS or You-Are-Nuts-System. The reason for such a name is that here, roulette enthusiasts easily throw away their hard-earned cash all over the board, without knowing that the more bets they get to place, the more the house edge grinds away at their bankroll.
The reason why the YANS strategy isn’t profitable is because every bet you place is treated as a different game by the house. For instance, in case you are betting 12 while the player next you bet 13, those are two games against the house. Also, if you place bet 12 and 13, these are also two games against the house.
YANS proponents have little to no comprehension at all regarding the odds and game percentage. You’ll notice that a majority of roulette enthusiasts either use this strategy or some of its versions, and not surprising, the results are somewhat predictable. Most of the times, they lose their bets and win in rare occasions.
The Kavouras Roulette Strategy
The Kavouras system of betting requires a player to wager half the numbers inconsistently. To say the least, betting this way is nothing but chaotic as the best don’t have a clear method of selection. They are randomly thrown together without being accorded any thought, a move that makes betting using this strategy highly chaotic.
Fighting Chaos With Chaos
The idea here is to attempt countering chaos with chaos, hoping that something good will be realized out of such a process. If anything, two negatives make a positive. In other words, only confusion can beat confusion.
Surprisingly, the house edge cannot be beaten or triumphed over by this system. Simply picture all the players placing all those bets on their preferred roulette games in a casino of their choice. What do you think will happen? The casino will automatically win its percentage edge.
No Expense For Players
The Kavouras betting strategy is one of the most expensive avenues, especially for a player. By wagering several amounts, players put out a lot of their hard-earned cash, and the potential returns are close to nothing significant. In fact, you can continue losing more and more cash as you continue wagering, and losing too much money on your end is a path towards disaster, regardless of how much money you have.
If you don’t intend to lose a lot of your cash, it would be wise if you would place small wagers on proposition bets such as black-red, high-low or odd-even. Better yet, you can splurge and place a small bet on a single or two of the dozens in place. While gambling, you need to ensure that you save some cash. However, relying on the Kavouras won’t really help you achieve this goal.
The Black And Red Columns Wager
Carefully observe the second, and the third columns bet moving from left to right. Have you managed to notice anything interesting? If not, you must have realized that the third column counts the number of red bets, and they are eight when compared to the four black bets.
Looking at the second column, can you note the number of black bets there? If not, they are eight and four red bets. The colors are evenly split across the first column and consist of six blacks and six reds. There are plenty of ways to play outside bets, as highlighted below.
EXAMPLE 1: Sticking with the third column
Here, a player places a third column bet consisting of only four black numbers and eight red numbers and then betting the black wager on the outside. Depending on how much a player chooses to wager on either proposition will decide whether he wins or loses.
The good thing here is that a player can structure this betting system in any manner they like. However, such cannot overcome the house edge at all. If you so wish, you can place 10 units on black and 10 units on the third column. If you are lucky and the column hits you, then you win 20 units but lose 10 on the black. This will give you a win of 10 units.
That’s not all. If you so wish, you can place a wager of 10 units on the third column of the roulette table and 20 of the units on the block. In the event that the column wins, then you get back 20 units though you also lose 20 units for the black wager. This is known as a push in other terms.
EXAMPLE 2: Sticking with the middle column
In this case, if the second column of your bet consists of eight black numbers and four reds only, you bet that column while placing a wager on the extreme or outside red bet. Just like the previous betting strategy, you can structure this one the way you like.
Still, just like all other roulette betting strategies, the house gets to keep or maintain its percentage edge over the player.
The trend betting roulette strategy is a system where you bet depending on a recent streak or place wagers against that streak going on. For example, if a certain team loses its matches continually, you place a bet with the belief that this team will continue losing. In short, you are engaging in trend betting.
Though random is random and streaks occur almost every other time, in random games, you cannot predict on how to go about structuring your bets. To save yourself a lot of mental struggle, learn to live with the fact that it’s impossible to predict which trends will occur and when such trends will come to an end.
The Ultimate Trend Betting Strategy
Now, with the above warning, it’s now time you got to know something about the Ultimate Trend Betting System. By using this type of betting strategy, you will soon realize three things as highlighted below:
- You will use a relatively small stake compared to a player who bets on every spin.
- Your chance of losing will be diminished significantly.
- You will get lots and lots of anticipatory satisfaction here.
Description of Gameplay
The Hawking’s ultimate trend betting strategy is suited with even-money bets. And actually gets better if you play in a casino that allows surrender or en prison rule. This strategy works by observing the outcomes of the even-money bets. You bet on the third round after two consecutive reds, 1-18, or odd result. For instance, if two consecutive spins results in a red outcome, you bet on red on the third spin. Should you win the third spin, continue betting on red until you lose. Once you lose, wait until two consecutive black or red shows and bet again.
An alternative is betting on the counter trend by watching the wheel, and in the event that red hits twice in a row, then you bet black. If it is black twice in a row, you bet red.
Conservative Hawking’s strategy
If you are the conservative type of player and you intend to use the Hawking’s trend betting strategy, then patiently wait for three of the same color, or of either even or odd, or off either low or high on the first sequence. But it will stretch you to the limit on the grounds of limiting the exposure you’ll have on the house edge. Also, your anticipatory feelings will get supercharged few minutes before playing.
Outside Trend Betting Strategies
There exist outside trend betting strategies that focus on columns, the dozens, and the combination of several numbers. Let’s take the example of column bets for a clear understanding since all the other ones can be handled in the same manner.
Carefully watch the scoreboard, and when a number from a certain column appears, then bet that column. Note that you have to place a single wager only, and if it wins, enjoy it. However, if it loses, patiently wait for one spin to what the next column brings and bet that column. Columns pay 2 to 1.
To be on the safe side, if you hit a losing streak, make no attempt to increase your bet as means of recouping your losses. That will be a disastrous move on your end.
It’s Fine To Lose Less
As long as you don’t fall into the trap of playing longer or raising your bet, playing using any spin wagering strategy will reduce your losses by around 50%. If you wish, you can take combination bets and try the same thing. By doing so, you’ll find that the losing streaks are many but the winning ones bring you a lot of money.
Here, the house edge never changes as such unless there is a surrender or en prison option on even-money bets. What changes here is that you are placing your wagers less while enjoying those anticipatory moments even more. Better yet, you can expect little losses as opposed to the ones you could have encountered had you placed bets on every spin.
What If You Are Alone At The Roulette Table?
There are moments when you will find yourself alone at a roulette table. It could be because the tables are fully occupied or no other tables are there though you want to play.
In case you are a low stake bettor, then –too bad- you are stuck. But if you really want to play, then you have to place your wagers in the same way you normally do. Never ever raise your bet if you are encountering a losing streak. Remember to also slow the pace at which you place your bets. Don’t get trapped into placing one bet after the other without regular breaks.
Wagering As A Single Player At A Table
Let’s assume that you aren’t a table-minimum type of bettor. Again, let’s say that the minimum bet available is 10 units. Highlighted below is how everything would look in case you are the only player at the table:
- Your standard bet unit is a $10
- First, place your bet as a table minimum bettor: $1
- Secondly, bet as a table minimum player with $1
- If there is a development a trend bet, go to $10 and employ trend betting strategies
- But if there are no conditions for trend betting, continue wagering $1 until such conditions appear
A Radical Trend Betting Roulette Strategy
There’s something most casino players fail to consider. For instance, let’s assume you decide to bet black if two blacks appear. However, you may decide to pick color black in your mind on one spin and then tails on the second spin and then place wager on one or the other. There are chances that you could be right two times in a row.
In other words, you made an imaginary bet as opposed to real trends that have occurred on the table. A lot of bettors do not know whether this trend of betting is the same as sitting and waiting for two blacks and thereafter betting black or even then betting even.
Stalemate? Here is what to do.
Regardless of the bet you place after imagining this or that, it has exactly the same house edge as that bet you place the moment you’ve seen two highs or two lows, dozens, or two blacks or two reds. The bet is random (regardless of whether it’s imaginary or not), and they have the same edge no matter the strategy you used in placing your bet. Sadly, a majority of players seem to be in the dark regarding this unquestionable truth.
Imaginary Bets
If anything, two imaginary winnings don’t come with the emotional impacts as it would with two hits on this or that proposition or this and that color. For this reason, it would be good to go for the one that makes you feel a lot of anticipation. The essential element is feeling the goodness of anticipation. Remember that you are playing for fun and that which gives you a lot of fun without harming your emotions is the best.
FAQ
What is roulette trend betting?
Trend betting hopes for streaks to bet either with or against
What is “counter-trend” betting?
Just look for two hits of the same proposition and then bet against it.
What’s the basic Martingale?
The basic Martingale is attempting to double up a bet after a loss on a even-money bet until you win, which effectively cancels all the losses and nets you a small profit.
What is Labouchere, Fibonacci, and Paroli System?
In Labouchere system, each number entails a unit of betting while the Fibonacci system follows a sequence of numbers to establish a player’s betting levels. Lastly, the Paroli system is more of an up you platform where wins increase once the previous one is successful.
What is the “Gambler’s Fallacy”?
The Gambler’s Fallacy is a popular belief that the odds for one outcome will increase over time if it does not occur. However, the probability for that outcome will be the same for every instance, regardless of streaks or trends without the given outcome.
The Kavouras betting strategy is also known as the “chaos” system. Why is that?
Because it involves placing bets haphazardly.
Would it be better to play large section of numbers as opposed to using the Kavouras system?
Large section numbers is a good option if a player plays the dozens, columns, or even-money bets since such will be fun and cheap.
Is there a better way to play the “red column” and the “black column”?
Actually there is and that’s by betting the column of black or red then placing a separate bet on black or red.
What is the house edge of all these systems for American and European wheels?
The American wheels’ edge is 5.26% while that of the European Wheels’ is 2.70%.