For best online slots 2020 game that’s name literally derives from the french term, ‘little wheel,’ the humble game of roulette has certainly gone on to an incredible level of popularity around the world.
With the origins of the game coming from 18th century France, it is said that the game in it’s current form has been barely retouched or adjusted since as early as 1796 - after all, it is not easy to reinvent the wheel.
The game intrigued many as soon as it surfaced into some of the oldest casinos known, with the simplicity of the roulette wheel and the contradictory complex amount of outcomes possible captivating those in 18th century Paris and now, all over the world. The French ‘double zero’ board is widely acknowledged as the original format of the game, whereas later, the single zero version of the wheel was introduced to contest against the game’s old format, creating a roulette wheel with every so slightly better odds for those who bet.
Nowadays, you do not even have to have been to France to play on a roulette wheel, as the game has found it’s way out of French casinos, across the oceans to the UK and beyond, becoming one of the most iconic casino games there is. Captured in famous films and TV, the likes of Ian Fleming’s James Bond has even had a flutter on the roulette wheel, even inventing his own strategy it would seem.
And Bond isn’t the only one to conjure up his own ambitious mathematic strategy of how to play roulette numbers smartly. Some of the world’s finest math minds have drawn up plans on how to bet and crucially, how to win when playing. Or more so, how to not lose! They range from the farfetched to the conservative, from the time consuming to the obscure and whether wrong or right or somewhere in the middle, they are all fascinating and certainly worth knowing if you are into spinning the roulette wheel.
Know your opponent
Before looking into strategy, though, you need to know what the game and what the casino is all about. Of course, the dealer and the casino are not on your side - they are a business, after all. Therefore, you must work out that the casino is your opponent. You want their money and they want yours so, despite the smile and good manners they give you when you over the wheel - maybe even a free drink here and there - they are not on your side.
To beat the casino, in a game of wits, at least, is incredibly difficult. Games like roulette have been strategically crafted in their own right, formatted in such a way as to make them difficult to earn more money from than you lose. In gambling history, only rigged wheels have been able to guarantee positive results and even perhaps the greatest mind of our times, Albert Einstein, once uttered, on a trip to Las Vegas, that ‘you cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it.’
Famous roulette strategies: Martingale
However, not to undermine one the cleverest people who have ever lived, some people do disagree with Mr Einstein. There are a number of supreme gamblers and celebrated mathematicians who have devised plans, plots, theories and strategies in order to beat the wheel. Martingale stands out as one of the most famous and you can expect this name to pop up time and time again as you study the strategies of the roulette wheel.
Also with origins in 18th France, Martingale relates to a betting theory that is perhaps the most simple of all. Created to be applied to the most simple of betting scenarios such as the flipping of a coin for example - heads you win tails you lose. The thought is that every time you lose, you should double the bet you originally made.
The thinking here is to counteract your losses and play on the reality that an evens bet will have to see you in eventually. For example, if you were to bet ten pounds on a coin landing on heads, only for it to land on tails, you must bet twenty pounds next time. If you were to lose again, your next bet would forty pounds and so on, until you eventually win and end up in profit.
Similarly, this can of course be applied to the roulette wheel in question. The evens bet in the game of roulette is to place a wager on either black or red, odds or evens. Whilst the chances of this coming off is just under evens thanks to the inclusion of the green zero pockets, the bet is essentially double or nothing.
So, place that ten pounds on black and, if you lose, bet twenty on it next time. Lost again? Well then put forty on it, because it has to come in eventually. The key to Martingale is starting with a small initial bet, so as to not end up running out of money before your win finally comes in. Also, when you win a bet, you should halve the amount of the last time, so as to not dig into your winnings.
It can be a slow progress but is a very smart way of safe betting, not to mention being one of the most simple betting strategies out there. So simple, in fact, that many people think to have invented it themselves who have never even heard of Martingale.
Anti-Martingale System
As the name of this method may suggest, it is the oppose of the Martingale method. The Anti-Martingale has similar origins, with the differences being on what you do with your next bet when you win or lose.
Whereas Martingale sees you double your bet after a loss, so as to counter your losses and edge into profit, the anti-Martingale is a more risky method. Instead of the aforementioned, you must halve your bets when you lose and double them when you win. The game plays on the feeling of momentum and whilst this is more of a feeling than a method, it does have it’s merits.
It may be more risky but can allow for some greater wins once you get going, thanks to the effect that a win can have when you have double it time and time again. It is a more positive outlook than the original method that sees players look to capitalise their wins rather than cover losses. You may need a big budget for this one but perhaps, less time.
D’Alembert Strategy
Again, this theory stems back to 18th century France where the proverbial wheel was invented.
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert was a celebrated mathematician and one of the great minds of his day. Born in 1717, he is remembered for inventing (and naming) various formulas and equations, many of which relate to probability and gambling.
What with the roulette wheel being one of the finest and most exciting pastimes of his era, it is perhaps only natural that some of his work geared around the famous black and red wheel. His strategy is very similar to the super simple Martingale system that sees a player double his next bet after losing one. However, the style is much less aggressive and acts a similarly smart but perhaps more conservative way to play betting games where evens odds are possible.
Instead of doubling or halving the bets, d’Alembert seeked to only slightly increase or decrease the stake each time. The result is a super safe method of progressive betting, that will reduce the chances of running out of time and money at the wheel in your casino of choice. Again only working for the evens bets on the wheel such as red/black or odds/evens, it works on the assumption that a long streak of blacks will eventually lead to a long streak of reds. The smaller betting increases allows for more time for this eventuality to happen, making it one of the most safe methods out there.
Do strategies really work?
Knowing these strategies is all well and good, but sometimes you may find yourself wondering whether or not they really work. The answer is yes, but only sort of.
The unpredictable nature of the wheel and gambling in general means that no theory is error free - remember who your opponent here is after all. You may also find that getting the calculator out and working these methods takes the fun out of the game and, as the famous betting slogan goes, when the fun stops, stop.
Aggressive strategies like Martingale and the more risky anti-Martingale can leave you having little fun and, should it all go against you, no money left either. So do remember the reason that the world loves to spin the roulette wheel - top-rated slot games online are about enjoyment and adrenaline after all!