Different Strategies for Playing Roulette
Are you a fan of James Bond? Perhaps you always lay your Roulette bet on the same “red seventeen” as the super spy. Do you believe in double or nothing? Meaning if you lose five dollars on a bet you turn around and wager ten dollars to break even. Perhaps you think that an old, bored dealer has developed a spin pattern that turns up the same numbers on a regular basis, and you place bets on the most common among these numbers.
There are many theories and strategies for Roulette, and just as many opposing theories or mathematicians who tug out their hair in argument against any strategy for this popular game of chance.
Regardless of what a player or mathematical genius believes there are several popular strategies used on a regular basis by Roulette enthusiasts:
- Martingale’s “Double or Nothing” strategy states that a player must double their wager each time they lose. That’s right, each time they lose. The player who loses five dollars on a spin must then place a ten dollar bet on their next. If they lose that they will be obliged to lay a twenty dollar wager on their third try. This strategy basically works to win back loses, and bring a player to their original bet.
- D’Alembert’s “Pyramid” is formulated on “units” and procedures around winning and losing them. Basically the strategy says one unit wagered on black, and a roulette of red leads to two on black. If the next roulette is red then the next wager is three on black and should the roulette be black the player then has a positive amount of three (or breaks even). A win means one less unit than the previous wager, so for this example a two on black with a black roulette leads to two additional units. What this boils down to is a one unit increase on a loss and a one unit decrease on each win.
- Parley “Double or Nothing” is based on the Martingale system but in reverse, meaning pick a color to play in Roulette and stay with it. When a player loses they re-bet the previous wager, when the player wins they double their original bid and then double it again if they win again. The hazard is that a single loss takes all of the winnings along with it. Most experienced players stop this strategy at three in a row.
- Contra D’Alembert “Pyramid” runs oppositional to the original D’Alembert system meaning an increase of wager on a win, in fact this strategy says double bets on a win, and continue doubling them until a losing bet is hit. This is usually applied to even bets, such as a black or red bet.
- Numbers system “High Risk” Roulette a series of numbers to determine their wager. For example the player says their ten dollar bet relies on four and six. The player wins and has a ten dollar profit or loses and adds ten to the series which makes their new bet fourteen dollars. A win here cancels out the four and ten and leaves the player with six dollars for their next bet.