This is the second article in the How to Play Roulette series. In this article, we will discuss the methods you can use to win at casino roulette.
Rule number 1: The House Edge
For our purposes, we will focus on the house edge, or house advantage, which is the difference between the house edge for a roulette game on a European wheel and the house edge on a American wheel. Obviously, the numbers in roulette are much smaller than in blackjack, since the ace is counted as 1 instead of 0. Because of this, the house edge is much lower in roulette than it is in blackjack. The house edge is about 5.3% for roulette and about 2.7% for blackjack. However, you can lower the house edge even further, by following our methods of play below.
Now, we will put all of this into a European roulette wheel. We will start with the wheel, and then quickly turn it over to the money area. In this way, we will get a better perspective on the layout of the house edge.
Now, we will place several bets on the table, and we will expose the area to meet us. We’ll bet black, red, odd, even, 1st 12, 2nd 12, 3rd 12, and 1st 8. We’ll bet the opposite of our columns, so we’ll bet odd and even together. Now, we have exposure to all of the numbers on the wheel, and we can see that even, odd, and high numbers are all present.
Now, we have a clear view of what the layout of the house edge is, we can understand better where it is putting us at a disadvantage. Now, it is time to shift the wheel, so we are no longer looking at the numbers. We will now be looking at the layout of the wheel, taking into account our earlier observation of the numbers. The layout will now be represented by the numbers 1 to 36.
The numbers will now change as well, because the wheel spins, which is why you will see a window in the middle of the layout recently. The numbers will systematically get lower as you go from 18 to 36, then higher again as you move to 37, then 38, and so on.
Just as we did in the layout of the house edge, this will indeed give us a rough idea of where we stand. But, just as we have a rough idea of where we want to go, we also have an idea of where we are going too. If you have been tracking the numbers on a roulette wheel, you may have noted that particular numbers tend to repeat. In roulette, you may particularly see a sequence like 9, 18, 5, 29, 7, 22, 10, 17, 4, 2, 12, 16, 15, 13, 3, 1, 9, 16, 15, 13, and 2. These are seventeen reds, and they occur about six times in every roulette session. The idea is that the more a red appears, the more probability there is of a black coming up next. If you add up all of the numbers in the sequence, you will have a number bigger than it, and this sum is what we will call the danger zone. The danger zone sum is the sum of the danger zone numbers.
What does this mean? Just as there are as many reds as blacks in the danger zone, there are also as many evens as lows in the danger zone. The sum of danger zone numbers is always bigger than zero, and this sum is negative one. The sum of danger zone numbers is always bigger if nine numbers have appeared in the row, and this sum is negative one. It is this frequency in MPO500, where red appears several times in a row, that gives the casino its advantage.
Next, we’ll look at a table that has thirty seven numbers and a zero on the table. Now, when we add the numbers in our danger zone sequence, we do not have a number seven. Six reds in a row means six losses in a row. When we add a number to the end of our sequence, rather than a checksum, we have a number that we know will stay on the table. The sum of this number is seven, so we add three and have a rough idea of the number we want.
In summary, then, we have a sequence of numbers that can lead to a win, and a sequence that will guarantee a loss. How to play roulette to bet on the winning sequence is a difficult problem, but we have found a method that makes it easier.