An Expert Strategy for French Roulette

How to Start Playing French Roulette

All roulette is played with a spinning wheel. The wheel is divided by frets, into 37 segments that are numbered from 0 to 36, with all numbers coloured red or black apart from the 0, which is green. You place your bets in the designated area and then the wheel is spun and a ball is released, this ball will spin round the wheel come to rest on one of the numbered segments.

There are a number of bets you can make, these can be on single numbers, on red or black, odds or evens or on groups of numbers. These sets are laid out on a betting area, and there are straightforward bets such as columns or rows or ranges of numbers.

The betting area in French roulette consists of a grid of 3 columns with 12 rows, all filled with red and black numbers. There is an additional row with the number 0 above the grid and an additional row below the grid that is split into 3 segments of arrows that point upwards across the 12 rows.

There are many different types of bets that you can make, these are split into two different categories, the Inside Bets and the Outside Bets.

Inside Bets

Straight bet

A straight bet is when you put your money on a single number from the 36 available to win 35:1.

Split bet

If a straight bet seems too risky, you can place your money between two numbers that are next to each other on the betting area, this means that you are betting on either number, with a payout at 17:1.

Street bet

Placing your money on a row of three will mean that if the ball lands on any of the three numbers, you receive a payout at 11:1.

Corner bet

You can place a bet on four numbers, whose four corners form a square on the betting area, this will pay at 8:1.

Line bet

You can bet on two streets that are next to each other in the betting area, this will pay at 5:1.

Both the street bets and corner bets may include the number 0.

Outside Bets

Column bet

This bet is on one of the three columns, you place this bet at the bottom of the grid, where there is the additional row with the arrows that point upwards, this bet pays at 2:1.

Douzaine bet

This translates to English as "dozen bet", you are betting on exactly 12 numbers. These groups are split in the Premier, Moyenne and Dernière, or the first, middle and last in English. The numbers in these groups are 1-12, 13-24 and 25-36, respectively. On the betting area you will see that these groupings are often coded 12P, 12M and 12D, and they each pay out at 2:1.

Rouge/Noir bet

The red/black bet is a straight bet on whether the ball will land on a red or black coloured segment, this pays at 1:1.

Pair/Impair bet

This is a bet on even or odds, and it pays at 1:1

Manque/Passe bet

This translates into English as the Miss/Pass bet, basically the numbers are split into two groups of low and high, with the Manque consisting of the number 1-18 and the Passe of the numbers 19-36. This bet pays at 1:1.

You can place as many bets as you want during the betting period, but once the dealer announces no more bets, then you cannot place any more bets. The ball will be released into the wheel and all successful bets are paid once it stops. One difference between French roulette and other variants is the special rule about the number 0 known as the La Partage rule. If the ball lands on 0, then you will receive half of any even money bets back. For example if you placed €4 on Manque and €2 on Noir, as both are even money bets, you will receive €2 and €1 back.

In some variations of the game there is an alternative rule about the 0 called En Prison. When the ball lands on 0 in these games, then all bets remain on the table and the wheel will spin again.

Advance French Roulette bets

Next to the main betting area you will find a second betting area known as the racetrack and it allows you to place complicated betting patterns with ease.

Voisins du Zéro

"The neighbours of 0", this bet covers 17 numbers that are located around the 0 on the spinning wheel. You can place bets of nine chips or multiples of nine. The chips are placed in a mixture of straights, splits, threesomes and corners.

Le Tiers du Cylindre

Translating to "Thirds of the Wheel" in English, this bet covers all the numbers that are located on the other side of the 0. These 12 numbers are between the 27 and the 33, including both those numbers. The bet can be made with six chips or with multiples of six, with the bet using six splits on the 12 numbers.

Jue Zero

The "Zero Game" is a bet on the 6 numbers that include the 0 and the six numbers that are around 0 on the wheel. The bet can be made with four chips or multiples of four, with three split bets and one straight bet.

Orphelins

There are two types of the "Orphans" bet, they both consist of eight numbers. The Orphelins En Plein uses eight straight bets on each of the numbers, whilst the Orphelins En Cheval uses five chips placed as four split bets and a straight bet on one of the numbers.

Finales

These bets are on numbers that end with the same digit, such as 2, 12, 22 and 32. These can also be played as straight bets (Finales En Plein) or as split bets (Finales A Cheval), the number of chips depending on which numbers you choose.

French Roulette Strategy

French Roulette is not a game of skill, and it is quite easy to start playing, but that does not mean that there are no tactics that you can use to give yourself a better chance of winning.

A common way of trying to win is by using the Martingale system. The system is as simple as it gets, you play an even money bet and increase your bet every time after a loss until you win, then you reset your bet to the original stake. For example, you pick one of the even money bets and you decide to start with €1, always doubling up after a loss. If you win then you stay with your €1 bet, but as soon as you lose, you bet €2. If you lose again you increase the bet to €4 and so on. If you lose two times but win the third, by that time you will have lost €1+2, but placed €4 on your third bet and won €8, making an overall profit of €1. You can choose to be more aggressive with this strategy, not doubling but tripling after each loss and even start higher than €1, but the only problem about that is you will need to have a far larger budget to keep doubling or tripling, and once the stake is beyond your budget you will be at a huge loss. This is why it is good to start this strategy with a lower stake and with only doubling.

Hedging bets is also a good way of mixing and matching your bets to get the most out of the money you put on the table. For example, instead of placing €10 on reds, you can choose to put €5 on reds, and then use the remaining €5 on 5 black straight bets. If you land a red you will have broken even, but if the ball lands on 5/18 of the black segments then you will win at 35:1, giving you a profit of €26 (winning €35 and getting back your €1 but subtracting the €9 you lost).

There are many strategies you can use, and after playing some roulette you may even make up some of your own.