The first strategy when playing roulette is to always play on a european wheel. The european wheel has only one zero with a house edge of -2.70%. The american wheel has two zeros and a house edge of -5.26%. In lamens terms, you have better odds on the european wheel than the american one, so stick to the european wheel. All the strategies listed on this site are meant for the european wheel. They'll work on the american wheel too, but not as well.
The second strategy is to always play roulette online as opposed to a live casino. The reason is that online casinos offer $1 minimum bets. Live casinos usually have $2 minimum bets. Also, no one can see what you're doing when you play online.
The strategies on this page are the most basic in roulette. Before we go any further, I want to recommend that you use extreme caution when using some of these strategies, especially the martingale. These are some of the most famous betting strategies known, but they're famous because of how many people have lost everything they have trying to use them as systems and not playing them properly. I'm not saying they can't be used. If you're playing smart and using them as guidelines and not sticking to them as systems, they can prove to be quite successful, but still only in the short run. Use caution when playing these strategies.
The Martingale betting strategy
This is one of the oldest strategies in the book, and possibly the worst if played wrong. But no strategy page would be complete without it, and many good strategies incorporate it, so we'll start with this one. This is where the gamer doubles the bet after every loss, so that the first win would recover all previous losses, plus win a profit equal to the original bet. To apply it in roulette, place a bet on red or black. We'll say $5.00 on black as an example. If you lose the $5 bet, bet $10. If you lose the $10 bet, bet $20, then 40, 80, 160 and so on. Odds are you'll win before the betting gets too high. When you win, you will have recovered all the previous losses and be up $5.00 (the initial bet). Now place $5.00 on red and repeat the process. If you land on 0, count it as a normal loss and increase your bet as usual until you win.
A lot of people try to pitch this system as fool proof to scam people out of their money. They'll put a fancy new name on it, say they invented it, give it to you for free, and ask you to buy the rest of their "original" systems when you win. They pull this off because when you first start using the martingale, it does seem fool proof and at first, you will win. You'll go on a short losing streak, but then you'll hit your win, and get back your losses, plus a profit. Here's the problem, eventually you'll hit a real losing streak and one of two things will happen: You won't have enough money to double your bet after a certain point, leaving you with HUGE losses because you've been doubling up so much, or you'll hit the table betting limit and then you won't be able to double up, which will again leave you with HUGE losses because you've been doubling up so much until that point.
There's only one way to actually be successful using a standard martingale strategy. What you have to do is keep track of a few spins until one of the outside bets hasn't appeared for a while. For example, keep track of red and black. Eventually, one of them is going to appear multiple times in a row. (If you had started betting right away, this would be very bad. Instead, were going to use it to our advantage) Let's say red has appeared 5 times in a row. Now you can start the strategy by betting on black. This variation on the martingale works so effectivly because even though any previous spin has no effect on any current spin, and red has every chance of coming up 10 more times as black does, odds are black is going to come up soon. Sure red could come up 20 times in a row, but it's highly unlikely. Keeping this in mind, it lowers the odds of the problems associated with the martingale from happening. Being successful at roulette is always about manipulating the odds in your favor.
The Paroli strategy
This strategy is played exactly like the martingale strategy, except you increase your bets when you win instead of when you lose. For this strategy, you will need to plan a betting procedure whereby you know how far you will let the bet build before you take it down to the initial starting bet and how much to raise after each win. This is also known known as the reverse martingale strategy.
This actally works much better than the standard martingale because you increase your bets on a win instead of a loss, which makes the risk much lower. The same goes for the reverse labouchere as opposed to the standard labouchere. (see below)
The 1-3-2-6 Strategy
This strategy is based on the premise that you can win 4 times in a row. Play this strategy on the even money bets. (red / black, 1-18 / 19-36, etc...) It works like this, Your initial bet is 1 unit, the second 3 units, the third 2 units and the fourth 6 units. Let's assume that each unit is $10. The first bet is $10. When winning, $10 is added to the $20 on the table making the second bet $30. When winning again on the second bet, there would be $60 on the table. Of this you take down $40 and the third bet is now $20. If the third bet wins, you will have $40 on the table to which you add $20 making a total of $60 for the fourth bet. If the fourth bet wins, there would be a total of $120 on the table, all of which is net profit. Now the whole bet is taken down and you start the system all over again at $10. Also, each time you lose, at any level, you start all over again at $10. If you lose the first bet, your loss is $10. The second level loss is $20 (because you added another $10). At the third level, a loss will give you a net profit of $20 (because you have taken down $40). At the fourth level, a loss leaves you breaking even (because you put back $20 out of the $40 taken down).The attraction of this system is that you risk $20 at a chance of making $120 net profit. This means you can lose six times at the worst level (second bet), and with one win (a set of four wins in a row) get your money back.
The D'Almbert Strategy
The strategy here is to increase your bets by one chip after every loss and decrease by one chip after every win. So if you begin with a one chip bet and lose, you then bet two chips. If you lose again you bet three chips. If you win on this spin, you decrease your bet to two chips.
The Labouchere strategy
This strategy works like this: Write down a small line of numbers. We'll use 1234. Your first bet is the sum of the first and last numbers in the series, in this case the sum of 1 and 4 = $5. If you win your first bet, cross off the 1 and 4 and your remaining line is now 2 and 3. Your second bet is the sum of 2 and 3 =$5. If you were to lose your first bet, you add the sum onto the end of your line. Now your line is 1234-5. your next bet is the sum of 1 and 5 =$6. Keep this up until all the numbers in your line are crossed out. When your line is finished, you will win the sum of your original line, 1+2+3+4=$10. Your line can be any series of numbers you wish, but it's better to keep it short and simple. This way it's easier to finish your line so you can start another one.
The Reverse Labouchere Strategy
This is played the same as the Labouchere, except when you win, you add the winning bet to the end of your line and cross off the first and last numbers of the line when you lose. If you're winning, you have to decide yourself when to stop. If all the numbers in your line are crossed off, you have lost this round.
The Fibonacci Strategy
The fibonacci sequence is a mathematical pattern that looks like this:
1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 13 - 21 - 34 - 55 - 89 - 233 - 275
It works like this: 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, 5+8=13, 8+13=21,and so on. To apply this in roulette, the bet called for is always the sum of the two previous bets. For instance in the series 1-2-3, the three is the sum of 1 and 2. The next bet called for would be five because it is the sum of two and three. Then would come 8, 13, 21 and so on, up the line. A Fibonacci progression generally increases to the next bet in the series after a loss but is often decreased by two levels after a win. For instance in this series, 1-2-3-5-8-13, had the 13-unit bet been won, the following bet would be decreased 2 levels and a 5 unit bet would be made. However, some prefer to play more aggressively and only reduce one level after a win. Whether you decrease two levels or one level is entirely up to you.
The Parlay Strategy
A.K.A.= Let it ride. Make a bet, and then leave the winnings there to ride on the next bet.
The Oskar's Grind Strategy
The aim of this strategy is to make a 1 unit profit. Place a 1 unit bet on red or black. If it wins, you've won 1 unit, and the strategy is finished before it even started. This strategy only starts when you lose a bet. When you lose, you keep betting only 1 unit until you win. When you win, you add 1 unit to the initial betting unit. Follow this strategy until you're up 1 unit. I know this sounds kind of confusing, but it's actually really simple. This chart will better explain:
1) Bet 1 unit and lose - down 1 unit
2) Bet 1 unit and lose - down 2 units
3) Bet 1 unit and lose - down 3 units
4) Bet 1 unit and win - down 2 units
5) Bet 2 units and win - break even 6) Bet 1 unit and lose - down 1 unit
7) Bet 1 unit and win - break even
8) Bet 1 unit and win - up 1 unit / the sequence is finished, start over
The French Bets
The French bets are based on the way certain numbers lie next to each other on the roulette wheel.
1. Voisins du zero ("neighbors of zero")
This is a bet on the numbers of the wheel that are between and include 22 and 25. (22,18,29,7,28,12,35,3,26,0,32,15,19,4,21,2,25)
2. Jeu zero ("zero game")
Also known as zero spiel or the German bet, this is a bet on the numbers closest to zero on the wheel. (12, 35, 3, 26, 0, 32, 15)
3. La tier du cylindre ("one third of the wheel")
Most commonly known as simply tier, ("the third") this is a bet on the numbers that are between and include 27 and 33. (27,13,36,11,30,8,23,10,5,24,16,33)
4. Orphelins ("orphans")
This is a bet on the numbers that are on the two opposite sides of the wheel between the voisins du zero, and tier bets. (17,34,6 and 1,20,14,31,9)
