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The GameMasters Secret's Try Playing Roulette My Way

Almost all of the Roulette "systems" I've ever seen for sale come with some sort of vague guarantee and lots of hype:

" Win $300 a day!" "
"Travel the world!"
"Triple your bankroll!"
"The infallible Roulette system!"

You've seen them, too. Let's be realistic here, if these systems actually worked, why are the "developers" selling them? Here's a better question: Why do casinos toss out card counters, but not Roulette players? I'll be happy to answer that one for you: Casinos don't ask Roulette system players to leave, because there is no legal system that can beat a truly random Roulette wheel in the long run. The operative words here are, "in the long run" because there are a lot of systems that allow players to win for short periods of time. That said, remember that a random scattering of chips on the layout can also produce winners for short periods of time.

But I wanted to develop some means by which my friend could enjoy her time at the table, provide some discipline for her betting and incorporate one of the 'tricks' of playing a game where the casino has a built-in edge which is to make as few bets as possible. Of course, the ideal number of bets at any game where the house has an edge is zero. But, if a player still wants to participate, then s/he is much better off taking his or her entire bankroll and making just one bet with it. In that way, on a single-zero Roulette wheel, for example, the player who puts her entire stake on an outside bet like Red or Black has a 48.65% chance of winning and a 51.35% of losing. That is very close to a 50-50 proposition and it's about as good as it gets, at least at Roulette. Naturally, most players aren't willing to do it that way, because they want their $$$ to last longer than one spin, so they divide their bankroll and then the casino has them.

There is an "in-between" alternative, though. What if the player made some bets, but not one on every spin? In the long, long term that won't make any difference, but for a weekend of gambling a method like that could stretch the $$$ and maybe make the whole experience fun, win or lose. So, that's what I developed and, rather than discuss philosophy any longer, let me tell you how this works.

If you've ever played Roulette in Europe, especially in France, you may have noticed that they have a series of bets called "announce" bets. These don't appear on the layout, but if you tell the croupier, "finales en plein:0" then he (they're all "he's" over there) will take your chips and place them on the 0, 10, 20 and 30. In other words, you've asked for a bet on each number that ends in 0. You can do the same with 1 through 9 and that's the basis of my "system". Of course, it doesn't so much matter what you bet, but when you bet, so let me cover that.

What you do is take a sheet of paper and write the numbers like this:

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Now, as each number comes up, record it on this paper. For example, let's say that 6 comes up, then 35, then 26. Your paper would look like this:

0
1
2
3
4
5	1
6	1,2
7
8
9

You can see that what is being recorded is either the number itself (0 through 9) or the second digit of the number (11 through 36). The number 11 is a "1" and the number 20 is a "0". The 0 itself is a "0" of course.

Okay, got the concept? We are not betting at this point, but are simply recording numbers. Here is a copy of an actual sheet I used at the play-money game at an Internet casino:

0	1
1	1,2,3,4,5
2	1,2
3	1,2,3
4	1,2
5	1,2,3,4,5
6	1,2
7	1,2
8	1,2
9	1,2

You can see that every number has come up at least twice, except for 0. Now you need to remember that all the "ending" numbers from 0 through 6 have four spaces on the layout. For example, 5 is represented by 5, 15, 25 and 35. As you can see, 5s came up five times, but I don't know (or care) what the actual number was, since all I care about is its "ending" number. The ending numbers 7, 8 and 9 only have three numbers on the layout, since there is no 37, 38 or 39. Consequently, these will show up less often and you need to remember that.

But back to the chart. Currently, 0 is under-represented in the series of spins. That doesn't mean that 0, 10, 20 or 30 is going to come up on the next spin, but I can assure you that one of them will, eventually. Of course we may be broke by then, but this is gambling, not advantage play. Since we're "short" only one 0, I think we should wait before making a bet. Here's what came up on the next 13 spins: 33,13,29,23,25,35,25,31,3,6,18,32,26.

That series makes the chart look like this:

0	1
1	1,2,3,4,5,6
2	1,2,3
3	1,2,3,4,5,6,7
4	1,2
5	1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
6	1,2,3,4
7	1,2
8	1,2,3
9	1,2,3

We've recorded 39 spins (just add up the last number in each row) and numbers ending in 0 have come up once. The "expectation" is for them to come up 4 out of 37 since there are 37 numbers on a single-zero wheel and four of them end in 0. But we've seen only one. Perhaps this is the time to bet one chip on each of the four: 0, 10, 20 and 30. At, say, $1 per chip, we'll now be betting $4 per spin. Remember that up to this point we haven't yet made a bet; we've just been recording the numbers. But now we'll go for it and let's see what happened. Here is the next series of numbers that came up: 5,3,34,20.

I promise that I didn't make this up. As you can see, 20 hit and we had a $1 bet on it, so it paid $35. We lost $4 per spin on the first three and then lost the other $3 on the spin where 20 hit, giving us a net profit of $20. Now, our chart looks like this:

0	1,2
1	1,2,3,4,5,6
2	1,2,3
3	1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
4	1,2,3
5	1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
6	1,2,3,4
7	1,2
8	1,2,3
9	1,2,3

You'll notice that 7 is a little "weak", but remember that the probability of a 7, 8 or 9 is three in 37 and not four in 37 like all the other numbers. But the beauty of this system is that you don't have to bet every spin. Just watch until a number gets "out of balance", then bet.

I like this system because when you do win, you get paid something more than just even money, yet it doesn't take a huge bankroll to play. Also, it's adaptable to your intuition. For example, it would be just as easy to go with the "trend" as it is to go against it. Look at all those 5s! If the wheel was warped or biased in some way, a method of play like this could show it. But, the reality is that the wheel is just fine and the "scattering" you see up there is normal short-term variation from the mean. Do this long enough and they'll all be close to even.

A "system" like this will produce a lot of little wins, but someday, it will produce a gigantic loss that wipes out all the wins and then some. Or, it will produce a lot of little wins and a lot of slightly bigger losses. Either way, this method of play has done nothing to change the casino's 2.70 percent edge in the game.

We bet four spins at $4 each or $16 total in the example above, so it actually cost us $16 x 2.7% = $.43 even though we made $20. The odds will, in the long run, have their way with us, but I think this is an entertaining way to play the game. The problem here in the U.S. is that there are damn few single-zero Roulette wheels available, but my friend plays this way at Internet casinos. Many now have multi-player tables where you may observe and record the spins and bet only when you wish, so that's what she does. She buys in for $50, bets $1 chips and quits when she either loses it all or doubles it. As she's recording the spins, she has a lot of fun chatting with the other players, so even a losing session has some entertainment value.

If you'd like to try this, let me recommend you download the software from one of the casinos that offer single-zero wheels. You can go to either the GameMaster's Casino Directory for a list or just click on the "Gambling With The GameMaster" button over there on the left for my recommendation of where to play. You cannot play at a multi-player table in the "free" mode, so just bet $1 of your funny-money on Red at a single-player game and click off 30 or 40 spins to develop your chart. From that point on, it's all up to you.

This is my way of playing Roulette but unlike most others, mine comes with a guarantee. I guarantee that it won't make you rich, but you might have some fun.

See you here next time.