There are many different strategies that can be employed when playing roulette. However, it is important to remember that these are betting strategies designed to help you to manage your bankroll effectively and to maximise your playing time.
Strategies are not intended as means of predicting which numbers will come up next, nor are they systems based strictly on the laws of probability. That is something roulette strategies can not do!
Three of the most enduring roulette strategies are the D’Alembert System, the Fibonacci System, and the Labouchére System, all designed to help players to approach wagering with clear goals.
The d’Alembert System was devised to be used solely on even money bets and is intended to prevent players from suffering sudden heavy losses. The system involves reducing or increasing the size of wagers in response to wins and losses. After a losing spin, the wager size is increased by 1 unit, while after a winning spin it is decreased by 1 unit.
The Labouchére System requires a player to establish a predetermined amount of profit that they are seeking to win. Wagers are then made systematically on even money outside bets so as to try to achieve this sum.
Using the Labouchére System, a player decides that he wants to make 20 units of profit over a session of play. He then writes down a sequence of numbers that total 20 e.g. 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5. The first bet would be the sum of the two numbers at either end of the sequence i.e. 1 + 5 = 6 units. If the wager wins, the player crosses these number off of his list. His next bet would be the sum of the two end numbers once more i.e. 2 + 4 = 6 units. Each subsequent winning bet sees two numbers crossed out, while each losing bet means a further number is added. This continues until all the numbers in the sequence have been crossed out or the player’s bankroll has gone.
The Fibonacci System takes as its basis the sequence of numbers of this name, where the next number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two i.e. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc. In this system, this sequence of numbers is used to determine the size of a player’s wagers; a losing bet sees the player’s bet increase in size by moving on to the next number in the sequence, while a winning spin sees his wager decrease as he move back along the sequence by two numbers.
There are also other roulette systems that are frequently used.
In the Martingale System, a player doubles his bet after a losing spin, and returns to his original size bet after each winning spin. Read more about this Martingale strategy on wikipedia.
The Inside Bet System focuses only on inside bets, not on single numbers, black/red, or odd/even. It uses multiple number bets, meaning that the chances of a winning spin are increased, although of course the odds are correspondingly lower.
The Parlay System requires a player to fix a predetermined sum that they are trying to win. It involves re-betting the total sum gained from any win in a sequence of wagers designed to reach the desired profit level in as few spins as possible.
The Adrenotrends System works by attempting to capitalise on runs of the same colour. This system involves a player wagering on the colour that won on the previous spin. Then, after this spin, he takes a turn out to observe which colour wins, and then bets on that on the following spin.
The Cancelling Bet System involves players attempting to win a set number of units in a session by adjusting the size of their bets according to a predetermined sequence of numbers. In the Cancelling Bet System, a player doesn’t have the same flexibility as in the Labouchére System, as all the values in the sequence of numbers are ones.
The Grind System involves a systematic accumulation of profit, one unit at a time. This progressive system is centred around cycles of spins—a cycle ends when 1 unit profit has been won. In this system, bet size is increased after a win and remains the same after a loss, but any increased bet size should not result in a profit of more than 1 unit; if this were to be the case, the bet size should not be raised.
These strategies, while being very different, are all designed to prevent a player from making impulse betting decisions by giving structure to their wagers. None are designed to guarantee profits at the roulette table, but rather they can help you to maintain a bankroll for longer.
