The Exotic Side of French Roulette - Neighbours Of Zero, Orphans And Neighbours And Thirds Of The Wheel Of Tiers
Roulette 🧾 is, at heart, a simple game. So trust French casino-dwellers to develop some rather more intricate ways in which to 🧾 play. If you're given the chance to play a French-style roulette table, then you should, as this will probably give 🧾 you access to the punter-friendly En Prison/La Partage rules. Combine these with a single zero layout (unlike double-zero American-style tables), 🧾 and the house edge falls to around 1.4%. However, if you are taking a spin on a true French table, 🧾 you'll find much that's, erm, foreign. And most of this will be due to the existence of bet types like 🧾 Voisins du Zero, Tiers du Cylindre, and Orphelins.
Whereas most roulette tables (in land casinos) assign coloured chips to the players, 🧾 so that winning bets can be easily identified, the chips on French tables differ only in the numerical amounts they 🧾 have printed on them. With nothing to distinguish one player from another, it becomes important not to have too many 🧾 chips on the board at the same time. The need for space partly inspired the invention of an additional grid, 🧾 called the 'Racetrack'. This oval-shaped section sits to the side of the main play area. it features all of the 🧾 same numbers - 0 to 36 - but within a different layout. Its point is to act as an extension 🧾 to the main grid, and to encourage some of the players to switch to exotic 'French Bets'. These French bets 🧾 were traditionally referred to as 'Call Bets' or 'Announced Bets', as they were too specialist to be featured on the 🧾 main tables, and players had to call out when they wanted to play them.
So what exactly are these bets, and 🧾 what do they consist of?
The Ins and Outs of Call Bets
If you look at the main wheel for roulette, you'll 🧾 see that it can be broken down into two large slices, along with a couple of smaller segments sitting between 🧾 them in the middle. Each of these sections contains a set of numbers that make up one of the following 🧾 bets:
Voisins du Zero - Meaning 'neighbours of zero', this bet refers to the 17 numbers on the wheel that reach 🧾 from 22, right round to 25. Slap-bang in the middle of this grouping is the Zero. Hence, all of the 🧾 numbers around it are its 'neighbours'.
Tiers du Cylindre - Translating as 'thirds of the wheel', this bet-type corresponds to an 🧾 exact third of the wheel, specifically the third at the bottom of the wheel. Its numbers stretch from 33 right 🧾 round to 27.
Orphelins - These 'orphans' are two small segments that take in the eight numbers not associated with either 🧾 the Voisins du Zero or Tiers du Cylindre. The numbers covered by Orphelins are 9, 31, 14, 20 and 1 🧾 on one side of the table, and 17, 34 and 6 on the other.
When you place one of these bets, 🧾 you effectively cover all of the numbers in the sequence. Some of the numbers, though, will be covered more than 🧾 once, or will have a different payout. In the next section, we'll look at exactly which numbers are placed, and 🧾 how this affects the payouts in each case. Note, though, if you simply want to place the bet, you don't 🧾 really need to know exactly which numbers are involved - it'll simply be a matter of clicking on the relevant 🧾 option on the table. These exotic combinations may be found in a separate section, such as the 'Call Bets' menu. 🧾 If you're not interested in the exact details of the bets themselves, you might want to skip the next section.
The 🧾 Exact Numbers and Maths Involved in Each Bet
Tiers du Cylindre is the simplest in practice. You take six chips and 🧾 place each of them on a different number combination: 5/8, 10/11, 13/16, 23/24, 27/30, and 33/36. Each of the six 🧾 combinations gives you a 5.4% chance of success (2 out of 37), and you have a 32.4% chance of winning 🧾 overall. Each time you won with a combination, you would end up with a profit of 12 chips - 17 🧾 chips for the win, minus the five chips that you would have lost on the other combinations.
Orphelins are also fairly 🧾 straightforward. Here, you place a single chip on the number 1, and four further chips on the following number combinations 🧾 6/9, 14/17, 17/20, and 31/34. You obviously have only a 2.7% (1 out of 37) chance of winning with the 🧾 1, although you would scoop a profit of 31 chips when successful - 35 chips for the win, minus the 🧾 four chips lost on the other combinations. The four two-number combinations, on the other hand, would each give you a 🧾 profit of only 13 chips (17 chips for the win, minus the four losing chips), but would pay out 5.4% 🧾 of the time. This works out as a total win rate of 24.3%.
Most complex of all is Voisins du Zero. 🧾 This takes in 17 different numbers, and involves the placement of nine different bets. Five of those bets would involve 🧾 single chips being placed on five different number combinations: 4/7, 12/15, 18/21, 19/22, and 32/35. As before, these would each 🧾 carry a 5.4% chance of success, and would yield a 9 chip profit after deducting the eight chips lost on 🧾 other bets. However, Voisins du Zero also involves the placement of another four chips on slightly more elaborate combinations. Two 🧾 chips are used to cover 0, 2, and 3. If the ball lands on one of these numbers, you win 🧾 15 chips overall - the double-payout of 22 chips, minus the seven chips lost on the remaining combinations. The success 🧾 rate here is a healthy 8.11% (3 out of 37). You would also put two remaining chips on 25, 26, 🧾 28, and 29. These bets carry a win rate of 10.8% (4 out of 37). Voisins du Zero, then, has 🧾 wildly differing payouts accoridng to which of the number combinations comes good. Overall, though, it amounts to a 45.9% chance 🧾 of success.
Do the Bets Work?
So are any of these bets worth playing? Well, the success rate certainly differs, with Voisins 🧾 du Zero winning 45.9% of the time, Tiers du Cylindre 32.4% of the time, and the Orphelins just 24.3%. On 🧾 the other hand, the Voisins du Zero requires more chips (nine), and the Orphelins fewer(five). In fact, the house edge 🧾 for all three bets works out as exactly the same - 2.7%. The same as the standard house edge, then. 🧾 So, for all their fanciness, these elaborate bet types give you no more chance of success than a standard red/black 🧾 play.
That's not to say there aren't some advantages. If you suspect there may be some sort of defect (most likely 🧾 an imbalance) in the equipment, causing numbers in one section of the wheel to come up again and again, there's 🧾 a good chance that the affected numbers will be covered predominantly by one of the three French bets above. In 🧾 that case, playing one of these bets might be a good way to take advantage of the bias, but without 🧾 tipping off the dealer that a specific part of the wheel may be defective. All in all, though, we suspect 🧾 that most players will only want to use these strategies if they wish to show off their in-depth knowledge of 🧾 roulette bets.
The Details
Voisins du Zero - 45.9% success. 9 chips needed.
Tiers du Cylindre - 32.4% success. 6 chips needed.
Voisins du 🧾 Zero - 24.3% success. 5 chips needed.
Bet Placement
Voisins du Zero (nine chips):
One chip on: 4/7. 12/15, 18/21, 19/22, 32/35
Two chips 🧾 on 0, 2, 3
Two chips on 25, 26, 28, 29
Tiers du Cylindre (six chips):
One chip on: 5/8, 10/11, 13/16, 23/24, 🧾 27/30, 33/36
Orphelins (five chips):
One chip on: 1
One chip on: 6/9, 14/17, 17/20, 31/34
