You know the scene all too well. There’s a crowd of well-dressed, important people standing around a roulette table in either a casino, or at some type of fundraising event themed as a casino night. Then there is that one person who has all the luck in the world. He or she is standing at the table, opposite the croupier (dealer), and every bet seems to be a winner. Pretty soon, this person is having “lucky” (and normally very attractive) people blow on the lucky chips, only increasing the odds and of course resulting in more wins. Then after multiple times as a winner, the person finally follows the “quit while you’re ahead” strategy and exists the table with stacks of chips and insurmountable wealth – this is the TV version of the game.
Trust me, I’ve been to a real casino with a real roulette table, and it is not normally that glamorous. Often times, you’ll find people standing around the table with bags under their eyes from a sleepless night of trials and errors. The ones without the bags were able to sleep a few hours in the hotel room they were given as consolation from the casino for graciously losing so much money with them – fun times, right?
Though the two scenarios I’ve presented can be very real, they are also opposite extremes. Just like any other gambling game you take part in, roulette is based on luck and chance – if you’re lucky, you win; if you’re not, you lose. While I cannot provide tips on how you can guarantee yourself a win on the table, I can introduce you to the game and give you a few tips, and even practice sites that can help you become a skilled player.
What is Roulette?
Roulette is a gambling game named after the French word for a small wheel. To start the game, the croupier spins the wheel in one direction then lets the ball fall on a circular surface and it begins to spin in the opposite direction. When it actually lands onto the wheel it will land into one of the 38 available slots (coded in colors and numbers), one or more of which has been betted on by the players around the table trying to predetermine the winning number (the number that the ball falls on).
One major difference between this and other table games is that the chips have no denomination on them. This is because a particular colored chip’s value is determined by the value of the player’s buy-in, and the dealer determines the color’s buy in by placing it on his own stack – in other words, value varies from game to game.
When placing bets on the table, you can place either inside bets or outside bets. Inside bets are characterized by selecting the number (pocket) or range of numbers the ball will fall in. On the other hand, the outside bet is placed for determining different positional groups of pockets, colors, and even whether it will be odd or even. Minimum and maximum bets are sometimes pre-determined and payout for a winning bet is always based on probability.
Tips and Strategies
Number Placement – One way to have one up on your opponents in this game is to not treat this wheel as a random creation. While it does take luck to determine where the ball will fall, you do have the ability to increase your odds of a winning bet by paying attention to where the numbers fall on the wheel. If you pay close attention, you will see that the red and black numbers alternate and two odd numbers commonly alternate with two even numbers. If you learn to calculate the odds of the ball falling in the same places again, you might have a chance of placing winning bets – again, this is no guarantee, only a way to help you pay closer attention to how the wheel moves.
Wheel Tracking – There is a rumor going around that the wheels are biased; there is a heavy side and a light side. According to those who claim this to be true, the gravity causes the ball to land on the heavy side more often than the light side. If this is true, then you can watch the wheel on multiple spins to determine what side the balls seems to fall on the most then bet on numbers on that side. Again, this has never been deemed a fact and should not be used as a rule of thumb.
Playing Roulette Online
Aside from relying on faulty wheels and number combinations, your best bet to become as skilled as you can is by practicing. While you can learn by diving right in at your local casino, it might be your best bet to learn to play online, where the chips are free and the experience you can obtain is plenty. To help you out, here are a few highly-recommended websites to learn the game.
Roulette4Fun.com is a great resource for learning to play roulette and getting plenty of practice. All you have to do to start is enter their site and you’ll be greeted by a game that is in the process of loading. This site does not offer interactive games with live players, but it does give you the opportunity to learn the basics before stepping out into the real gambling world.
Gambleversity.com is a site more geared toward providing the rules and strategies of the game. They’ve created 14 free online courses ranging from learning the basics of how to play, to learning the odds. And when you’re all done, they have an actual game you can play.
Learning roulette can be a piece of cake if you are willing to set aside some time (and eventually some money) to understand the basics. The best ways to get your feet wet is to play online for free – after that you will be well on your way. Just don’t let me see you standing at one of those roulette tables with bags under your eyes – that’s never a good look!
Jeffrey Meier of Jam727 Enterprises at http://www.Jam727.com offers information articles on a wide variety of subjects including Roulette at http://www.jam727.com/roulette/how_to_play_roulette.htm