The straight up bet is one of the simplest wagers you can make in roulette. These are bets on what the number of the very next spin will be.You can either place bets on multiple single numbers at a time or combine them with outside bets.
- How To Bet On American Roulette
- Roulette Bet Names
- How To Bet On American Roulette Full
- Roulette 5 Number Bet
Winning at roulette doesn’t take a magic formula or a secret system. It’s purely a game of luck. So if you’re looking for a secret strategy or surefire way to win, you’ll probably be disappointed by the information on this page. On the other hand, if you’re interested in learning the real odds of winning and what you need to do in order to be a winner, you’ll be thrilled by the info on this page.
The Odds of Winning at Roulette
An America roulette wheel has 38 numbers on it—the numbers 1-36 (inclusive), a 0, and a 00. Calculating the odds of winning a bet on any single number is simplicity itself—you have one way to win out of 38 possible outcomes, which makes the odds of winning 37 to 1. This bet pays out at 35 to 1 odds.
Of course, the single number bet isn’t the only way to win at the roulette table. A plethora of betting options await the roulette player, in fact. These betting options have different odds of winning, but they also offer different payouts.
Another easy example of roulette odds are the even money bets. 18 of the numbers on the roulette wheel are red. 18 of them are black, and two of them, the 0 and the 00, are green. So if you bet on black (or red), then you have 18 ways to win and 20 ways to lose. Your odds of winning are slightly less than 50%. 18/38 is 47.36%. This bet pays out at even odds.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that in both of these scenarios, your odds of winning are less than the payout odds. This is what gives the house an edge over the player. In the short run, anyone can walk away from the roulette table a winner. But in the long run, the house is always going to come out ahead.
So how do you become a winner at roulette?
The Maximum Boldness Strategy
Let’s assume that your goal is to just double your money. How do you maximize your chances of doing that?
The correct mathematical strategy is to make one bet of your entire bankroll, cross your fingers, and hope you get lucky. If you lose, you’re out of money, but if you win, then you’ve succeeded in your goal.
The maximum boldness strategy entails placing a single even money bet and hoping to get lucky. You’ll have a 47.36% chance of doubling your money.
Suppose, on the other hand, that you’re going to place two bets with half your bankroll. You’ll have to win both bets in order to double your money. What’s the likelihood of that happening?
That isn’t hard to calculate either. When you’re calculating the probability of two events happening, you multiple the probability of each event happening. So you would simply multiply 47.36% by 47.36%.
The result?
22.42%
Your chances of doubling your bankroll drop dramatically in that case, don’t they?
Suppose you divided your bankroll into four separate bets. Your chances of doubling your money would drop even further.
47.36% X 47.36% X 47.36% X 47.36% = 5.03%
So if your goal is to double your money, the best strategy is to place a single bet. The more bets you place on any negative expectation wager, the more likely the house edge is to catch up with you.
How To Bet On American Roulette
You might still walk away a winner in this situation, but it will be a smaller win. And you’ll be less likely to double your money.
What about Systems?
Roulette systems don’t work. Most of them involve increasing or decreasing your bet based on the outcome of your previous bet. The idea is that the odds of losing several bets in a row is smaller than the odds of losing a single bet, and vice versa.
The problem with this line of thinking is that you’re not placing a single wager on a series of bets. You’re placing multiple wagers on multiple events, and the odds of each event are independent of each other.
The house’s edge over the player doesn’t change based on the previous spin of the wheel. If you bet on black and lose, then the odds of black hitting on the next spin are still 47.36%. The probability doesn’t change because of what happened previously.
The most common of these bogus systems is the Martingale system, which requires you to double your bet every time you lose. The idea is that you’ll eventually win back your previous losses plus a single unit.
Here’s an example. Suppose you bet $5 on black and lose. On your next bet, you wager $10 on black. You lose again, so your next bet is $20. This time you win, so you’ve won back the $15 you lose on the first two bets, plus $5.
At first glance, this seems like a pretty good system. But it has two problems.
The first is that you’ll eventually hit a losing streak where your next bet will be too high for your bankroll. It only takes eight losing bets in a row to get to the point where you’ll need $1280 to place your next bet. (The progression looks like this: $5, $10, $20, $40, $80, $160, $320, $640, $1280.) And remember—you don’t just need $1280 for the last bet. You’ve already lost $1275 by this point in your betting progression.
If you do win this $1280 bet, you’ll only be up $5, which means you’re making a large wager for a very small return.
The other problem is that even if you do have a sufficient bankroll to cover this kind of progression, all casinos have maximum bets. If you’re playing at a $5 roulette table, the maximum bet is probably $500 or $1000. So you’ll be unable to continue your progression.
You might be thinking, how often will I have a losing streak of eight in a row, though?
That answer is not often, but it will happen often enough to make sure that you’re not a long term winner at roulette.
So How Do You Win at Roulette?
In the short run, the only way to win at roulette is to get lucky and walk away. In the long run, the only way to win at roulette is to get even luckier and quit while you’re ahead. The more you play a negative expectation gambling game, the more likely you are to become a net loser.
Does this mean you shouldn’t play roulette?
That’s not our point at all. If you enjoy roulette, then play. Just don’t think you can make a living at it by using some mathematically bogus system or strategy. Earmark your roulette money as an entertainment expense. Then play as much as your bankroll allows until you’re no longer having fun.
Roulette Bet Names
How to Play Roulette
In the game of Roulette players can wager on either a single number or a range of numbers, on the red or on black, or on whether the number is even or odd. To determine the number and color, a croupier spins the roulette wheel and rolls a ball in the opposite direction. The ball eventually falls into one of 38 numbered and colored pockets on the wheel (0, 00 and numbers 1 to 36).
How to Place a Bet
A player can place Inside and Outside Bets. Inside Bets are bets placed directly on numbers or on a line between numbers that select a combination of numbers. Outside Bets are any of the bets in the boxes surrounding the numbers on the table.
To place Inside and Outside Bets:
- Choose a chip value.
- Click on the bet you wish to place on the Roulette table.
- Click on Spin or Turbo Spin.
Inside and Outside Bets
- Straight Up: Place a bet directly on any single number.
- Split Bet: Place a bet on the line between any two numbers.
- Street Bet: Place a bet at the end of any row of numbers, covering three numbers.
- Corner Bet: Place a bet on the corner where four numbers meet.
- Line Bet: Place a bet at the end of two streets on the line dividing them. A line bet covers all the numbers in either street, for a total of six.
- Dozen Bet: Place a bet in one of the boxes marked “1st12″, “2nd12″, or “3rd12″, each of which covers twelve numbers.
- Column Bet: On the short side of the roulette table are three boxes marked “2 to 1″. By placing a chip in one of these boxes, the player selects all twelve numbers above it (excluding 0 and 00).
- 1-18 / 19-36 (High/Low): A bet placed in one of the boxes marked “1 to 18″ or “19 to 36″, covers 18 numbers.
- Note – if a player has placedwagers on 1 to 18, and/or 19 to 36 and the ball has come to rest on either 0 or 00, then the player will lose these wagers entirely.
- Red/Black or Even/Odd: A bet placed in one of the four boxes, on the sides of the board, covers half of the numbers on the board, as described in that box. The 0 and 00 are not covered by any of these boxes. Each box covers eighteen numbers.
- Note – if a player has placedwagers on red, black, odd, even and the ball has come to rest on either 0 or 00, then the player will lose these wagers entirely.
- Trio: a bet on 0, 1 and 2; 0, 00, and 2; or 00, 2, and 3. The chip is placed at the intersection of the three desired numbers.
- Top line: a bet on 0, 00, 1, 2, and 3. The chip is placed at the corner of 0 and 1.
Payoff
Inside and Outside Bets: | |
Bet | Payoff |
Straight Up (1 number) | 35 to 1 |
Split Bet (2 numbers) | 17 to 1 |
Trio Bet (3 numbers) | 11 to 1 |
Street Bet (3 numbers) | 11 to 1 |
Corner Bet (4 numbers) | 8 to 1 |
Top line (5 numbers) | 6 to 1 |
Line Bet (6 numbers) | 5 to 1 |
Dozen Bet (12 numbers) | 2 to 1 |
Column Bet (12 numbers) | 2 to 1 |
Red/Black (18 numbers) | 1 to 1 |
Even/Odd (18 numbers) | 1 to 1 |
Low/High (18 numbers) | 1 to 1 |
Red/Black, Even/Odd, Low/High and the ball falls in the 0 or 00 slots | Entire wager is lost |
NOTE: Malfunction voids all pays and plays.
Special features
The Advanced Panel
To open the panel, click on the Advanced tab in the top right corner of the game screen.
Neighbor Bets
Neighbor Bets allow players to wager on numbers that appear next to a certain number on the Roulette wheel. For example, a Neighbor Bet on 12 would include 12, 29, (the neighboring number on the left), and 8 (the neighboring number on the right). Players can place Neighbor Bets on up to 4 numbers (the four numbers that appear adjacent to a number on the left and on the right sides).
To place Neighbor Bets:
- Click on Neighbor Bets in the Advanced Panel.
- Click on the number of Neighbor Bets on which you wish to wager (1 – 4).
- Scroll over the Roulette Wheel image to preview the bet you wish to place.
- Click on the number you wish to bet on. Chips are placed on all relevant numbers.
- Click on Spin.
Hot/Cold Numbers
The Neighbor bets window will always showcase the five numbers that have won the greatest number of rounds (Hot) and the five numbers that have won the least number of rounds (Cold). Players can quickly and easily bet on one or all five displayed Hot or Cold Numbers. Every number on the roulette wheel is categorized by a ‘temperature’ of hot or cold. This is illustrated on the Advanced panel with colors that fill the pie-shaped space below each number on the Roulette wheel.
- Clicking on All hot or All cold will place five chips on the table, one for each number.
- If two numbers were called the same amount of times, the number that was called last is “hotter.”
- The five coldest numbers are displayed only after enough spins occur for them to be determined.
- Hot and cold numbers are determined per session only.
Autoplay
The autoplay feature allows you to automatically play a chosen number of successive game rounds without having to place your bets and click on the Spin button each time.
- Click on Autoplay in the advanced panel.
- Choose the number of spins you want to play automatically.
- Click on Start.
Minimum and maximum betting limits
Minimum bet = 1 USD
Maximum bet = 300 USD
Premium Roulette
How To Bet On American Roulette Full
The premium version of this game has the same rules and functions.
Roulette 5 Number Bet
The table color is black and the betting limits are higher:
Minimum bet: 5 USD
Maximum bet: 2000 USD
The player’s percentage of theoretical return is 94.74%