Learning the Roulette Bets

It’s not hard to learn roulette, even if it seems confusing at first!

Learn About the Roulette Table

When you go to a roulette table, you’ll see two main parts. One part is the wheel, and the other part is called the layout. The wheel is comprised of thirty-seven or thirty-eight shallow pockets, with thirty-six numbers marked in red and black and either one or two pockets marked in green. There is a small ball which is kept with the wheel. When it’s time to spin, you’ll see the dealer gently push or toss the ball in one direction while spinning the wheel in the opposite direction.

The table layout seems complex at first, but after a while, you’ll understand it. The layout represents all of the numbers on the roulette wheel, and allows a variety of bets. To place a bet, you place your chips on the desired part of the layout before the spin. Some casinos will allow you to place your chips on the layout after the spin has begun, but the dealer will announce “no more bets” shortly after the spin, and then it is too late to place a bet.

Learning Roulette Even-Money Bets

There are a very large number of different roulette bets. The first and most basic type of bet that most people play is referred to as an even-money bet. There are several types of even-money bets. Basically, an even-money bet can be placed on half of the numbers (1-36) in any of the main ways in which they divide. That is, you can place a bet on the first half or the second half of the numbers. You can also place a bet on black or red. The final type of even-money bet is evens or odds. If you place one of these bets, and the wheel lands on a number included in your bet, you get the same amount of money that you placed as a bet back. Meaning that if you wagered one dollar on red and the ball landed on a red number, you’ll get two dollars – the one you initially wagered, plus one dollar of winnings. If the ball lands on the other half of the numbers, your bet is lost. If the ball lands on a green number, there are a few possibilities as to what can happen next.

Learning the En Prison Rule in Roulette

If you are playing standard American roulette, there is no en prison rule, meaning that if the ball lands on a green number; zero or double-zero, you simply lose your bet. In European roulette, though, you either get half of your bet back, or your bet remains on the table for another spin of the wheel to see if you win or not.

Learning Other Bets in Roulette

There are many other bets in roulette. You can bet on a column or a row. There is a bet called ‘thirds’ which allows you to bet on the first, second, or third third of the numbers. You can bet on a single number by placing the chip directly on the number. You can bet on two numbers by putting a chip between the two. If you want to bet on four numbers, you can place a chip on the corner that touches all four.

As you can see, there are many different bets, but most are so easy to understand that learning roulette is easy!