In this guide:
- James Bond strategy
- The Martingale
- The Fibonacci
- The Labouchere
- The D’Alembert
- Playing the numbers
Picture a casino in your mind’s eye and probably one of the first games that you imagine being played is roulette. It really is the quintessential casino game – a table surrounded by glamorous players, with fortunes being won and lost on the spin of wheel and the random falling of the ball in any number between 0 and 36.
As a game, it’s one that people have been trying to devise winning strategies to use for over 200 years now ever since it first began appearing in French gaming salons. Of all of the casino games, it’s arguably the one that relies most closely to understanding the law of probability to win – but these are notoriously unreliable. One only has to look at the incredible event that came early in the acting career of Sean Connery, for many the quintessential James Bond, in an Italian casino in 1963.
According to the story, Connery decided that 17 was going to be his number for the night. Twice he put money on it, twice he lost. Undeterred, he went for 17 again and it came up not just once, but three times in a row. The chance of this happening was 1 in 50,653. As a reward for beating the laws of probability so convincingly, he walked away from the table with a very appropriate 17 million lire, or £160,000 at today’s value.
While you’re unlikely to ever enjoy a run of luck like this, there are some strategies designed to help you make the biggest return on the spin of a wheel. Let’s take a look at six of the best.
The James Bond strategy
As you might expect from a strategy with this name, it is going to rely on you having a fairly large bankroll, ideally of £200. But, providing you do, it could well pay off. No, it doesn’t rely on putting everything on 17. But it does mean that you split your £200 into £140 to put on high numbers 19-36, £50 to go on the 13-18 line and £10 on the number zero as an insurance bet.
You’ll notice that this misses out on a third of the numbers, namely 1-12, but that’s the risk you need to take. It’s a calculated one that should pay off at least 66% of the time. This strategy is best employed online due to how much you need to spread your chips around the table, it could soon get complex and irritating if you’re trying this strategy more than once at a crowded table. So, if you’re planning on giving this one a go, visit a trusted operator offering the best online roulette.
The Martingale
If simplicity’s your thing, and you have deep pockets, then the Martingale system could be the one for you. The logic behind it is flawless, but the practicalities do make it a little more complex. You bet on odds or evens, red or black, it’s just a case of doubling your stake after each losing bet.
As long as your luck turns soon enough, you’ll end up ahead – but if it doesn’t it could mean you soon reach the table limit, or run out of money. For example, if you start with a £5 bet and lose five time in a row you’ll be having to bet £160 per spin just to win back your original £5. So, considering that it’s such a well-known strategy, there’s a good chance it will backfire on you.
The Fibonacci
Maths fans will already know about the Fibonacci sequence, named after the Italian mathematician. For the uninitiated, it’s a series of numbers created by the sum of the two numbers that have gone before. For example, 1+1=2, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, 8+5=13.
Like the Martingale, it’s used on even money bets and follows the same basic principle that when you lose you should then bet the sum of the two stakes that have gone before.
If you win, you can go back two steps, which builds in an extra safety net in terms of using your bankroll. The nature of the strategy means that it is a slower and more progressive method than the Martingale, but still not without considerable risks.
The Labouchere
Sometimes also known as “the labby”, this is a system for players who are a little more goal orientated. Invented by the diplomat Henry du Pré Labouchere in the 19th century, it involves deciding, in advance, how much you want to win and splitting it into separate amounts.
Say, for example, your target was to win £40. You then divide it into individual targets of, say, 4-4-8-4-8-8-4, which you write down as a list. Add together the two numbers from either end of your list, then place this amount on an even money bet. If the bet is won, cross the numbers off your list. If the bet is lost, add the two numbers to the right side of the list as you’ll need to win that bet back to reach your goal. Continue until all the numbers are crossed out.
The D’Alembert
According to Casino Rank it’s a good system for those who believe that slow progress is better than no progress, the D’Alembert operates on a simple principle of marginally increasing or decreasing your stake depending on the outcome of the previous bet.
Say you start with a £5 stake. If you win, your next one should be £6, if you lose, it should be £4. By continuing in this way, you may be able to gradually accrue winnings and – unlike other systems that rely on you upping the stake to chase losses – this works in the opposite way entirely.
Playing the numbers
Unlike the previous strategies that have relied on manipulating betting amounts, our final example goes back to the law of probability. Best used as a side bet rather than as a single technique, it’s a question of observing which numbers have not come up for a while and putting single bets on them. Statistically sound, the reality might not be quite so straightforward. But if it does come off the thrill of the big win will more than make up for it, as Sean Connery would no doubt be able to tell you.
