Betting Techniques in the game of Roulette
When it comes to devising that “perfect” gaming system, some players will swear that they have some advantage to “secure a sure fire win”. With Roulette, however, there’s no such thing.
A lot of gamblers have this belief that they are somehow “due” a win after a certain, unspecified period of time has passed. Basically, if a player hasn’t won in a while, then obviously a sure win is just around the corner, right? In reality, this is most certainly not the case (this is called the “Gambler’s Fallacy”.)
Still, with Roulette, there are a few betting systems one can employ, so let’s look at them:
The Labouchere System is a progressive betting system where the player uses a series of numbers adding up to his or her desired amount to win – the player adds two numbers from the beginning and end of the list to determine the bet size, and crosses numbers off the list after each win. Basically, this is a “keep betting until you win it back” system (which isn’t much of a system.)
The Martingale System can be used in Roulette as well – play the colors or odd/even bets, and double your bet after each loss.
The 1st and 3rd column strategy bets on the first and third columns (which covers almost all the red numbers), with a bet on black as insurance. In this case, there are 4 red numbers not covered (plus the 0 and 00). Although an interesting system, in the long run, the math does not favor the player.
There are also those that play the probabilities – the simple notion that if red has come up, say, five times in a row, it is inevitable that black will soon come up. However, as we know, any one spin is independent of the others – red could come up 100 times in a row, and those results have no bearing on the 101st spin.
Ultimately, the best strategy to implement on a Roulette betting system is to just not use a betting system at all. It may sound like harsh advice that isn’t open to daring and unorthodox points of view, but there is also a thing known as “common sense” that must be taken into consideration. This isn’t blackjack (where you can count cards) or poker (where you can bluff, etc) – this is more of a pure math game, and the math favors the house, and there is no way to change that.
But don’t get discouraged! There’s always hope that Lady Luck will take a liking to you, and give you that winning spin. And THAT’S what the game is all about.
