Roulette Strategies

Roulette strategies categorically don't work, but roulette players try them anyway. You can find roulette websites and roulette books which offer whole sections on roulette strategy, but I wouldn't put too much stock in their strategy tips. Since you probably came looking for some roulette knowledge and not blanket assertions, let me cover some of the most common roulette strategies and why they don't work.

Roulette Strategies - Martingale System

The Martingale system suggests you double your bet after a loss when playing roulette. Assume you are betting black/red for 1-to-1 odds. If you bet $5 on "red", then you should be $10 the next spin. If you lose that spin, you bet $20 on the next spin. If you lose again, you bet $40 on the next spin. You continue this until you win.

The idea of the Martingale System is the roulette player wins back their original stake when betting this way. So if you lost $5 on the first hand, then if you bet $10 on the second, you end up covering the original lost stake and win extra money while doing so. If you lost $15 on the first two hands but win the third, then you end up winning $20 on the next hand.

You might have noticed something about the Martingale system, though. If you lose several hands in a row, the amount of money you're wagering becomes rather large. If you have a series of unlucky spins, you can bust out really quickly. And you have a definite "risk of ruin" doing so.

The problem with roulette and Martingale betting patterns -- and most people who've played know this already -- is that players have short and even long losing streaks quite often. If you double your bet after every loss, you have a high likelihood of losing your entire bankroll on most roulette sessions. Studies show that betting the Martingale system on roulette ends in big losses for a player most of the time.

Roulette Strategy Tips - Laouchere System

The Labouchere system is another progression betting system, like the Martingale system. The Labouchere tries to avoid the volatility of the Martingale system by limiting the amount of progression on losing bets, keeping the player's bankroll under the table limits and within the comfortable betting limit for that particular player. The LaBouchere method is much more flexible, though it requires the player to perform more math in their head. That's because the Labouchere is a cancellation system, requiring the player to cancel out (or add) numbers from a list of such numbers, depending on wins or losses.

When a player uses the Labouchere system, that roulette player must first decide how much he or she wants to win. Then the player makes a list of positive numbers which can be wagered at roulette. The sum of this list of numbers should equal the amount the player wants to win. To start using the Labouchère system, the player takes the first and last numbers in the list, adds them together and bets that amount.

If the player wins that spin, the player crosses off (from the list) the numbers just used. If the player loses, that player adds the number just wagered to the end of the list. The player then takes the first and last numbers from the list to determine his/her next wager. This means the bet size will grow with each loss, but nearly as fast as it would with the Martingale method. Also, in case of a winning streak, the player will eventually cross off all the numbers on the list, the player will have won the amount of money he/she wanted to win in that roulette system, and that session of roulette will end.

Like just about any betting system, the Labouchere does fine when you're winning. And when your wins and losses roughly offset one another, the Labouchere system performs pretty well. But like any progressive system, if you hit a sustained losing streak, the Labouchère system will assure you have huge losses at roulette.

That's the problem with all progressive betting systems in Roulette. If you're betting a flat rate of $5 every bet at roulette, you can lose big amounts of money on a cold streak. But if your bets increases every time you lose, the amount you bet on a spin ends up being huge when your losing spins start to pile up. You'll quickly either be required to bet more than you're comfortable betting, or lose your entire bankroll. If you aren't a high roller, I would suggest you set a loss limit when using the Labouchère method -- though some purists would argue this undermines the method itself. I would argue that it isn't a very good system if it dictates you to lose your entire bankroll at one sitting.

Roulette Strategy Tips - Fibonacci Sequence

Another little-used progressive betting system is the Fibonacci Sequence. Fibonacci numbers were introduced to Western mathematics since 1202. The Fibonacci number sequence are those numbers which equal the sum of the two numbers in the previous sequence. So if you start at 0 and 1, then the Fibonacci sequence would be 0+1=1, and therefore begin 0,1,1. Then next number would be 2 (1+1), then 3 (2+1), then 5 (3+2), then 8 (5+3) and so on. Eventually, the sequence would read 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34 and continue increasing at an ever-growing rate.

As you can see, betting according to the Fibonacci Sequence (when losses occur) would get out of hand rather quickly, in the event of a losing streak. While the increase would not be as fast or dangerous as the Martingale System, your betting pattern would cause a risk of ruin if you lost 5-10 times in a row at any time. Also, the Fibonacci system has no basis in strategy, except that it's a neat mathematical concept. Once again, stay away from these gimmicky roulette strategies.

Roulette Strategy Overview

Roulette is a easy to learn and easy to play and understand. Roulette is a relatively slow-paced casino game, which is a reason some people gravitate to playing roulette. Like most slow-paced games, the house edge is large in roulette. There is no strategy or betting system that's going to get around that edge. In fact, most roulette betting strategies dictate progressive bets that carry a real "risk of ruin" -- that is, loss of your entire bankroll.

Which Roulette Bets Are Better?

So if betting systems don't work, you might decide to find the roulette bets with the best odds. Most every bet in roulette carries the same rough odds, except for one. That's the 5-number bet on 0,00,1,2 and 3. Never make that bet, because it has a house edge over 7%, where all other roulette bets are just over 5%. That's about the only roulette strategy advice I can say is sure to save you money.

Playing Roulette

Choose to play roulette because you enjoy it. If you enjoy the slow-paced and relative lack of hard decisions, play roulette. If you enjoy the spinning of the wheel and the game relaxes you, enjoy roulette. But don't pretend you have a roulette strategy for beating roulette odds, because you're only fooling yourself. Some roulette strategies are dangerous for your bankroll, so you could be losing a lot of money on these roulette betting strategies.

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