The first thing you should know before you learn anything about the bets you
can make, is when and how you can make those bets. Each roulette table moves in
sessions, each session is associated with a spin of the wheel and that spin's
result. Each player plays with their own color chips. Most roulette sessions move at a fairly slow pace, to accommodate the number of
people betting, and the variety on which they can bet. There aren't many specific things that can be
considered roulette rules at the table, but here's one you shouldn't forget. At this point, as you intuition may have mentioned
to you, you can't place any more bets. Split bet - you
can place a single bet on two individual numbers if those numbers are beside
each other on the table layout. There are no winning outside bets for 0 or 00 results. When you place an outside
bet your bet must meet the table minimum. This is different than inside bets,
where the total of all of your inside bets must meet the table minimum.
You should always calculate your expected
loss and how long you can play on a given bankroll before playing any game, but
with roulette it's especially important. For most bets it's fairly obvious - you can't miss the
Red diamond for Red bets, and things like Even, 1-18, and 1st 12 are written out
in plain English. Here are the
different bets you can make. When the ball falls into a slot, the dealer will announce the
number and the color, and place a marker on the layout where the winning number
is. New players often have to be
told this repeatedly the first time they play because they kept forgetting and
because they're excited about collecting their winnings. Each player's chips are a different color. Sometimes the dealer
will ask you "Inside or Outside? There's no advantage to
limiting yourself to inside or outside. Black and Red still have equal chances of hitting. Here's another example: Since there are 38 slots on the wheel,
we expect any given number to hit 1 out of 38 spins on average. Now let's say
you've been playing Roulette for a few hours, betting on Red every time, and
you've been keeping track of what numbers have hit. The
chances of #27 coming up on a given spin are the same, whether it just come up
on the last spin or not - 1 in 38. if you win, the
casino doesn't pay you 37 to 1, they pay you less - 35 to 1. The difference
between the true odds and what they actually pay you is 2/38, or 5.26%. European games have an option called en prison which reduces the house edge
to 1.35%, but it's generally not available in the U.S., even in casinos that use
the European wheel. If
you win the second spin, your bet is "released from prison" and you
get it back. You don't get paid for the win, though, but it's better than losing
it outright.