Roulette is a game that is often referred to using superlatives. I’ve seen it called the oldest casino game or the best-loved casino game. I’ve also seen it called the game with the most betting strategies aimed at it.

• Roulette Wheel Numbers Layout
• Roulette Wheel Numbers And Colors Worksheets
• Roulette Wheel Numbers And Colors Schemes
• Roulette Wheel Numbers And Colors Chart

Some of those superlatives are deserved, while others are less deserved. I doubt that roulette is really the oldest casino game being played. Craps seems like it has a claim to that, too, even though historically, it didn’t get played the same way.

Blackjack has a long and storied history, too. The way blackjack is played also changed over the decades and centuries, though.

But roulette is no different. Even though it’s an old game, the way it is played has changed over the years.

This post offers you an up to date explanation and description of how roulette is played in modern casinos.

• Roulette is a casino game named after a French diminutive for little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place roulette bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even. The roulette odds are based on probability.
• Red and black colors alternate each other. The placement of high and low numbers through a roulette wheel is dependent on a wheel type. In the European roulette, they have the next but one arrangement. Only such numbers as 5 and 10 are an exception from the rule. In the American wheel.
• The American roulette wheel has 38 divisions including numbers from 1 to 36, 0 and 00. Numbers from 1 to 36 are alternately colored red and black, while the single zero and the double zero are marked in green. The main objective, which any player pursues, is to predict which numbered pocket the roulette ball is going to settle into.

Number 1-10 and 19-28 are red if odd and black if even. For 11-18 and 29-36 the opposite applies, meaning that red numbers are even and black numbers are odd. The zero (0) is green. On a traditional French roulette table, the numbers are only red and black on the wheel, not on the table.

The title of the post, “How to Play Roulette Like a Pro,” is more than a little tongue-in-cheek. No one plays roulette as a pro, because it’s a negative expectation game. If you really want to play roulette “as a pro,” your best bet is to operate your own casino.

The best you can hope for, really, is to play roulette like an educated gambler. This post will enable you to do that.

You Can’t Beat Roulette in the Long Run

Before I even get into the details of how to actually play the game, I want to make sure you understand that you cannot beat roulette in the long run. You’ll find plenty of gambling gurus who want to tell you otherwise. They either have betting systems for sale, or they want to teach you how to spot a biased wheel and take advantage of that.

I’ll explain why later in this post, but don’t expect to find any betting systems in this post which will help you beat the game in the long run.

A biased wheel is a roulette wheel where the balance is off or where there’s some kind of imperfection in the mechanism of the game. At one time, you could probably find such games with regularity. In 21^st century American casinos, though, the equipment is well-made, to begin with. It’s also regularly replaced, so it rarely has a chance to wear out.

I’ll have more to say about the futility of trying to find a biased roulette wheel later in this post, too.

But first I want to talk about the game of roulette and how to play.

The Chips, the Roulette Table Layout, and the Roulette Wheel

Besides the croupier (the dealer) and the players, you have 3 aspects of a roulette game to consider:

• The chips
• The table layout
• The wheel

The chips, of course, are what you use to place your bets. You’ll exchange cash for the chips at the roulette table, not the cage, and the chips used at the roulette table are different from the chips used at the other games. That’s because each roulette player is assigned her own color of chips. That way the casino can easily track who won which bets. You can’t use the roulette chips at other table games, so don’t even try.

The layout is the area on the table where you place your bets. It’s arranged in numerical order from left to right and from top to bottom, in 3 columns. The columns look like this:

1	2	3
4	5	6
7	8	9
10	11	12
13	14	15
16	16	18
19	20	21
22	23	24
25	26	27
28	29	30
31	32	33
34	35	36

At the top of these columns, you’ll also have a 0 and a 00 on an American roulette game. (If it’s a European style roulette game, there will only be a 0.) You’ll sometimes see these variations referred to as double-zero roulette and single-zero roulette. I’ll have more to say about the difference in the 2 versions later in this post.

Also, even though the above table is in black and white, on an actual roulette table, the numbers will be in white on a red or black background. (The 0 and/or the 00 are green rather than red or black.) These colors correspond to the colors of the numbers on the roulette wheel, too.

Half of these 36 numbers are black; the other half are red, as follows:

Red Numbers:	Black Numbers:
1	2
3	4
5	6
7	8
9	10
12	11
14	13
16	15
18	17
19	20
21	22
23	24
25	26
27	28
30	29
32	31
34	33
36	35

If you place a bet on any of the specific numbers, or on any of the lines between the numbers, you’re placing an “inside bet.”

If you place a bet on any of the boxes or columns outside of that grid (which aren’t pictured above), you’re placing an “outside bet.”

The outside bets are clearly labeled, too. You’ll have the following outside bets to choose from:

1-18	1st Dozen
19-36	2nd Dozen
Red	3rd Dozen
Black	1st Column
Even	2nd Column
Odd	3rd Column

The wheel has all the right numbers and colors on it, but not organized in a way that correlates with the layout at all. The wheel is basically a bowl-shaped wheel with pockets on the outside. The croupier spins a ball on the lip above the wheel as it spins, and when the ball lands, the winners of the bets are determined.

If you start with the 0 and go clockwise around the wheel, the wheel is laid out as follows:

0, 2, 14, 35, 23, 4, 16, 33, 21, 6, 18, 31, 19, 8, 12, 29, 25, 10, 27, 00, 1, 13, 36, 24, 3, 15, 34, 22, 5, 17, 32, 20, 7, 11, 30, 26, 9, 28

This is based on the standard American roulette wheel, which is the one most of my readers will encounter most of the time at the casino.

You should understand a couple of things about the numbers and colors on the roulette wheel:

• You have 38 possible outcomes—numbered 0, 00, and 1 through 36.
• 18 of these numbers are black, 18 of them are red, and the other 2 are green. (The 0 and the 00 are green; half the other numbers are black, and the other half are red.)

How the House Gets Its Edge in Roulette

If you want to play roulette “like a pro,” you must understand the percentages and probabilities behind the game. The first thing to understand is the fundamental formula for probability:

Therefore, a probability is always a fraction—a number between 0 and 1. It can be expressed as a fraction, a decimal, or a percentage, uou can also express a probability in odds terms.

With roulette, a bet on the ball landing on the 1 has a probability of 1/38. You have 1 possible outcome that wins, but you have 38 possible outcomes.

That 1/38 can be expressed as a fraction, as I’ve just done. Or it can be expressed as a decimal or a percentage, which would be 0.0263 or 2.63%.

If you wanted to express it as odds, you’d express that as the number of ways you can lose versus the number of ways you can win—in this case, 37 to 1.

If you compare the odds of winning to the payout odds for the bets, you’ll find a discrepancy.

A bet on a single number (like the bet on 1) pays off at 35 to 1. Since the odds of winning are 37 to 1, there’s a clear difference. That difference can be quantified as a percentage—an average amount the casino expects you to lose per bet mathematically.

To find that average, you just assume 38 theoretically perfect spins and calculate how much you’ll win or lose on them. Since you’ll lose 37 times, and once for 35 units, you have a difference of 2—average that out over 38 spins, and you get an average of 5.26% lost per spin.

That’s the house edge.

It’s a long term expectation, and in the short run, it doesn’t matter much.

But the casino is playing in the long run, and if you think long term, you will be, too—eventually. The lower that house edge is, the less money you’ll lose over time.

On a European or single-zero wheel, the house edge is significantly lower—2.70%.

If you spent a week playing an American roulette game and a week playing a European roulette game, you’d lose less money during your week playing European roulette (probably).

As it turns out, the payoff odds versus the odds of winning on almost all the bets available at the roulette table gives the same edge—5.26% or 2.70%. There’s only one exception, and I’ll cover it in the next section on roulette bets.

The Variety of Roulette Bets, Their Names, and the Odds Associated with Each of Them

As we already discussed, you have inside bets and outside bets. When I was a younger gambler, I preferred the outside bets, as they won more often. They had lower-sized payouts, though.

As an older gambler, I prefer to win more money less often if I have to choose. Your approach can vary based on which you prefer.

In the long run, there’s no mathematical advantage over the inside bets or over the outside bets. They all have the same house edge.

Inside Bets

The En Plein Bet – This is also called a “straight up” bet. You bet on a single number, which pays off at 35 to 1 if it hits. The odds of winning are 37 to 1.

The Cheval Bet – This is also called a “split bet.” You place your chip on the line between 2 numbers, and you win if either of those numbers hit. You can even use this bet on the 0 and the 00. The odds of winning this bet are 2/38, or 19 to 1. The bet pays off at 18 to 1.

The Transversale Bet – This is a 3-number, which is also sometimes called a “street” or “trio” bet. You place your chip on the outside border of the 3 numbers you want to wager on. The odds of winning this bet are 3/38, and the bet pays off at 11 to 1.

The Carre Bet – You might have noticed a pattern here, and if so, good for you—this is a 4-number bet. It’s also called a “corner bet.” You can only place this bet on 4 numbers that form a square on the layout, and you place your chips on the intersection of the 4 lines in the middle of that square. This one wins 4/38 of the time, and it pays off at 8 to 1.

The 5 Number Bet – This is an important bet to remember, because it has a higher house edge than the other bets on the table. It’s also called the “basket” bet, and you can only bet on one set of numbers—the 0, 00, 1, 2, and 3. The odds of winning are 5/38, but the payoff is 6 to 1. The house edge on this bet is 7.89%, as opposed to the 5.26% house edge you’ll see on all the other bets.

The Sixain Bet – This is also called the “line bet.” You place your wager on the outside intersection of 2 rows of 3 numbers, which makes it a 6-number bet. The odds of winning, of course, are 6/38, and the payoff is 5 to 1. This is the inside bet with the best odds of winning, but the payoff is such that the house still has the same edge.

Outside Bets

The Colonne Bet – This is also called a “column bet.” You bet on all 12 of the numbers in one of the 3 columns on the layout. The odds of winning are 12/38, and the bet pays off at 2 to 1.

The Douzaine Bet – This is also called a “dozens bet.” You’re betting on 12 numbers again, but this time the numbers are based on their numeric value rather than which column they’re in. You can bet on the 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd dozen, which is the 1-12, 13-24, or 25-36. This has the same odds of winning and the same payout as the Colonne bet.

The Impair Bet (or the Pair Bet) – This is a bet on odd or even. The 0 and the 00 count as neither odd nor even. This bet pays off at even money.

The Passe Bet (or the Manque Bet) – This is a bet on high or low. The low would be the numbers 1 through 18, while the high would be 19 through 36. 0 and 00 count as neither high nor low. This also pays off at even money.

The Rouge Bet (or the Noir Bet) – This is a bet on red or black. 0 and 00 are green, so would lose for either bet. This also pays off at even money.

These would be bets where neither side had an edge IF the 0, and the 00 weren’t on the wheel. In fact, all the bets on the roulette table would be break-even propositions in the long run if it weren’t for the 0 and the 00.

Understanding the importance of the 0 and the 00 is the beginning of roulette wisdom.

Trying to Beat the Wheel

The so-called roulette experts have 2 ways of trying to beat the wheel:

• Betting systems
• Biased wheels

Let’s talk about roulette betting systems first. A betting system is a strategy for raising and lowering the size of your bets based on what happened on previous spins. The most common of these is the Martingale System.

I don’t have space to cover every possible betting system, but the Martingale System is as good an example of why these betting systems don’t work as I could imagine.

Here’s how the Martingale works:

After every losing bet, you double the size of your wager until you win. You do this repeatedly until you win. The idea is that long losing streaks are unlikely, so you’ll consistently see a one-unit profit at the end of a streak.

You bet $10 on black and lose. You bet $20 on black and lose again. You bet $40 on black and lose a 3^rd time in a row. You bet $80 on black, and now you win, which leaves you with a net profit of $10 for the 4 bets. (You lose $70 on the 1^st 3 bets, which you won back—plus $10—on that 4^th bet.

This seems like a foolproof system, and if you had an unlimited bankroll and no maximum betting limit, it would be a foolproof system.

But you don’t have an unlimited bankroll. And even if you did, you’d still face a maximum bet.

When you’re doubling the bet after every loss, the size of the bets get big faster than you could expect. If you lose that 4^th bet in a row in the example above, you would need to bet $160 on the next spin, then $320, then $640, then $1280, and then $2560.

That’s only 9 losses in a row.

You might think it’s practically impossible to lose an even money bet 9 times in a row, but it happens several times a day at any casino with a couple of roulette wheels.

And most casinos have a maximum bet of $500, which means if you lose 6 times in a row, the casino won’t let you place the next bet in your progression.

The best case scenario for the Martingale is that you’ll see a lot of small winning sessions, and you’ll see an occasional huge loss that will compensate for it and then some.

Now let’s consider the possibility of finding a biased wheel. This is a roulette wheel where certain numbers come up more often than they should statistically. A slight variation in probability is all it would take to make bets on certain numbers profitable.

You’d only need to clock the results at a roulette wheel for a few thousand spins to be sure you’ve actually found a roulette wheel with a bias toward certain numbers. Then you’d need to make sure you continued to play at that casino and on that wheel.

Of course, it’s possible you’d spend hours clocking a wheel only to find that it isn’t biased, or that it doesn’t have enough of a bias to get you an edge over the casino.

Worse, you might think you’ve found a biased wheel, but the casino might move that roulette wheel or replace it between shifts when you’re not there. Casinos don’t leave roulette wheels in the same place 24X7, 365 a year.

Betting systems and biased wheels are not realistic ways to beat roulette

Conclusion

You’re thinking that I promised you a post about how to play roulette like a pro, but I haven’t given you a way to win.

That’s because there is no way to win at roulette in the long run.

If you want to gamble professionally, find a game where you can get a mathematical edge—like blackjack or poker.

Your best hope with roulette is to get lucky and have some fun while you’re at it. Professional gamblers do play roulette, but they don’t play roulette professionally or for a living.

They play for fun.

If you REALLY want to play roulette like a pro, play for fun.

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Except for the zero (single and double) which has the color green, the numbers in roulette are basically divided into two types – those that are colored red and those that are black. In roulette, you can make bets based on these colors. This kind of bet is called the Color Bet. In this bet, the players would only have to predict whether the next spin will result to a Red or Black number.

The Color Bet field in the roulette betting layout can be found labelled in its respective color. Just like in this image below:

Since this is an outside bet, the payoff for a Color Bet is 1 to 1. This means that, for example, your £1 will win another £1. Depending on the casino, the zeros are not oftentimes not included in the colored bet.

What makes this bet quite popular, especially among beginners, is that it’s so easy to carry out and there’s no need to think that much. A player only has to choose between red or black.

Furthermore, you don’t have to bother yourself as to what number came up. In an online roulette casino, you just have to look at the color of the pocket to where the ball lands.

Chances of Winning

Roulette Wheel Numbers Layout

Betting in Red or Black is a great way to play and win in roulette. In this setup, the player’s chance of winning a spin is almost 50/50. Note: it is said “almost” because we cannot discount the casino advantage (which is the single and double zero). This means that if the ball falls on either of the zeros, you would lose no matter which color you chose.

For exact figures, the odds of winning in a European roulette when betting on colors are 48.64%. In the American roulette, the player’s chance is smalle at 47.36%. Still, both figures are quite impressive.

How to Bet in Colors

As already stated, Betting in Colors is very easy. Perhaps this is as simple as betting on Odd or Even. All of you have to do is device which color you would like to put your chips. Here’s the breakdown of the numbers:

• There are 8 even and 10 odd numbers in Red
• There are also 8 even and 10 odd numbers in Black
• 0 and 00 are green

Roulette Wheel Numbers And Colors Worksheets

Strategies to Pair With

Betting in Colors is by itself, quite effective. However, if you want to maximize further your profits, you can use even money bet systems like this or this.

Successful Color Bets in History

Roulette Wheel Numbers And Colors Schemes

One of the most famous color bets made in the history of the game was done by Ashley Revell. In 2004, he left London and flew to Vegas with everything he has worth £135,000. To say that this is a high-risk gambling journey would be an understatement. It’s a one-way trip because he already got no place to return to should he lose.

Roulette Wheel Numbers And Colors Chart

The whole world held its breath (the game was televised) as he put all that he had on black. In a sudden change of heart, he pushed his chips to Red. The ball landed on 7, which is a red. All of a sudden, Mr. Revell doubled everything he has and went home a happy man.