How to Practice Roulette Strategy

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Last Updated: November 6, 2023 References

If you plan on playing roulette, and want to look cool, then learn and practice the following strategies for best results. There are several strategies that people use for roulette, including the Martingale strategy, the James Bond strategy, and the D'Alembert strategy, among others. Although each of these strategies has its merits, none of them is guaranteed to make you money. In fact, all will lose money in the long run, so know when to quit. But read on to learn how!

Method 1

Method 1 of 5:

The Martingale Strategy

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1
Know a bit about the martingale strategy. Probably the most common roulette strategy out there, the martingale relies on doubling bets after a loss in a ~50/~50 chance game. This way, the first win recoups all the previous losses, along with a small profit for the gambler.
- The advantage of this strategy is intuitive. In basic roulette, you're playing a coin-flip game. You bet on a color, and your color either wins out or it doesn't. If you only bet on a single color, and you keep doubling your bet until you win. Provided you keep doubling losing bets, as soon as you win, you've recovered all your losses.
- The are a couple disadvantages to this strategy. First, keep in mind what is called the gambler's fallacy. Just because black has won 10, or even 100, times in a row does not mean that red is any more likely the next time around. The chance is 50% each spin. Actually, it is slightly less than 50/50 with the 0 and 00.
- Another disadvantage of this strategy is that, eventually, you may reach the maximum bet, or run out of money, after several consecutive losses. As soon as this happens, you're in the red, even if you win. You need to continue making larger bets — or winning out — in order to recoup your losses.
You want to start small and have the opportunity to double your losing bets almost ad infinitum. Hence, a small minimum bet and a high maximum bet.

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3
Bet a small amount on black or red, even or odd, 1-18 or 19-36. American roulette tables have 37 pockets, including the 0, meaning that the ball has an equal probability of landing in either the black and red pockets, even or odd, and the small digits (1-18) or the larger digits (19-36).^{[1]
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- For the sake of example, we'll assume that your bet is going to be red or black, even though you could easily bet even or odd, 1-18 or 19-36.
Alternately, you can leave the casino, although leaving with $2 instead of $1 isn't very satisfying. It does beat leaving with $0, however.
In other words, if your losing bet was $1, you should now bet $2. If you bet on black, you should bet on black again.
If you win, you've made just as much money by winning on your second bet as you would have had you won on your first.
Remember that this is not a sure-fire way to win money, it is just a way to maximize your odds at the table with the worst odds (for the gambler) in the casino.

Method 2

Method 2 of 5:

The Reverse Martingale Strategy

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The reverse martingale is increasing your bets when you win and decreasing your bets when you lose. The idea is that if you go on hot streaks, you'll increase your earnings, and if you hit a dry patch, you'll limit your losses.^{[2]
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Again, the strategy is basically the same as the martingale, except reversed.
For the sake of example, we'll assume you made a red or black bet.
If you keep losing, continue betting your very small amount.
6
If you win, continue doubling your bet. This is the amount that you might bet if you won 14 straight bets:
- 1 - 2 - 4 - 8 - 16 - 32 - 64 - 128 - 256 - 512 - 1024 - 2048 - 4096 - 8192
Using the reverse martingale can be risky if you lose. As soon as you lose, you've lost your entire earnings. To make the reverse martingale successful, then, you need to ride a streak of wins and quit before you lose.^{[3]
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Method 3

Method 3 of 5:

The D'Alembert Strategy

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A bit safer than the martingale and reverse martingale strategies, the D'Alembert strategy involves ramping up and down by arithmetic factors instead of geometric factors. That means, instead of doubling your bet when you lose (i.e. martingale), you increase your bet by 1 when you lose using the D'Alembert strategy.^{[4]
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Alternately, because the D'Alembert is an even chance betting system, you can also place a bet on even or odd number, as well as 1-18 or 19-36.
3
Increase your bets by one after a loss, and decrease them by one after a win. If you have as many wins as losses, using the D'Alembert will put you in the profit.^{[5]
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- For example, you started off with a bet of $5 on black. You lose, so you bet $6 on black. You lose again, so you bet $7 on black. You win, so you decrease your bet to $6. You win and you walk away.
- Using the above example, you won as many games as you lost and you came out with a profit: - 5 - 6 + 7 + 6 = +2.
If you're riding a losing streak, wait until your winning picks up and gets to your total number of losses. If you're riding a winning streak, keep playing until the total amount of wins equals your total amount of losses.

Method 4

Method 4 of 5:

The Fibonacci Strategy

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1
Know a bit about the Fibonacci strategy. Leonardo Pisano Bigollo, also known as Fibonacci, was a famous Italian mathematician who discovered an interesting sequence of numbers which are now named after him. The sequence goes as follows, with numbers generated by adding the last two digits together: 1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 13 - 21 - 34 - 55 - 89 - 144 - 233 - 377 - 610.^{[6]
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- The Fibonacci strategy involves betting by adding the last two bets together. One advantage of this is that you can come out with a profit by losing more games than you've won. But one serious disadvantage is that the further you go down the sequence, the more money you lose. In other words, strike quit or get out of the way.
Alternately, because the Fibonacci strategy is an even chance betting system, you can also place a bet on even or odd number, as well as 1-18 or 19-36.
If you started off with a bet of $1 and lose, bet another $1. If you lose that, bet $2 — $1 + $1 = $2.^{[7]
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4
When you win, move back two bets in the sequence and bet that amount. Here's an example of how you might bet — including winning and losing bets — using the Fibonacci strategy:
- Bet black, $3 — lose
- Bet black, $3 — lose
- Bet black, $6 — lose
- Bet black, $9 — lose
- Bet black, $15 — win
- Bet black, $6 — lose
- Bet black, $9 — win
- Bet black, $3 — win
- Bet black, $3 — win
  - - 3 - 3 - 6 - 9 + 15 - 6 + 9 + 3 +3 = +3
  - You lost five bet and only won four, but you're still ahead +3.

Method 5

Method 5 of 5:

The James Bond Strategy

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Ian Fleming, the famous author of the James Bond series, claimed that his "foolproof" system could get you the “price of a good dinner” if you used it every night. To use the James Bond strategy, you need at least $200. You're going to be making what's called a column bet.^{[8]
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5
Know the possible outcomes. If you're unlucky and any number between 1 and 12 pockets, you've lost your money and should begin employing the martingale strategy (see above). But otherwise, you've gained a handsome profit:^{[9]
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- If 19-36 pockets, you've won $80
- If 13-18 pockets, you've won $100
- If 0 pockets, you've won $160

Community Q&A

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Question

Theoretically, red or black can repeat indefinitely, but how many times has it actually been repeated in practice? Are there cases in which red or black have ever repeated 100 times in succession?

Community Answer

The longest recorded streak of one color in roulette in American casino history happened in 1943, when the color red won 32 consecutive times. This had a 0.000000023% chance of happening.

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Tips

This strategy is a short-term winning strategy only. It is like all systems still an act of gambling - you are gambling that you will win a small amount before you lose a huge amount. Get out with your winnings (or losses) before you regret it.

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Warnings

The Martingale System only works if there is no upper table limit. An upper table limit means that, in the long run, you WILL end up with less money than you started.

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Like all betting strategies, in the long run the math is against you. This way of playing (aka "Martingale") will be successful only in the short term. Yes, you will see it work say, 9 times out of 10, but the winnings from your 9 successful session will not cover your losings from the 1 losing session you are bound to come across sooner or later. Casinos always have the edge on your money rather than the other way around. Statistically, this is like selling a lottery ticket. You have a large chance of a small win (the selling price of a losing ticket), but a small chance of a big loss (owing the holder of a winning ticket).

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Even if there isn't a betting limit, and if you have an infinite credit limit, it still doesn't really work, it just doesn't really fail either. If the martingale strategy is continued indefinitely and without regard to betting limits, your bankroll will hit arbitrarily high positive and negative values. The expected value is still negative, but the variation is so high that it your bankroll won't stay either negative or positive.

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