As some of you may or may not know, I’m a bit of a gambler. I say “a bit” because I’m not really someone who claims to be able to beat the bank and make thousands or whatever, but I do sometimes hit up the casino (both the physical and online one) and generally tend to have a very good time. My favorite casino game of all time is roulette – I love that you can employ a strategy, but at the same time the result depends entirely on luck, which keeps things nice and fair. Still, I rarely have much of a strategy when playing – my go-to option is to bet on my lucky number, but also on a color, so that I can keep my wins more or less balanced while I wait for that lucky strike. This strategy rarely works out in my favor, though, as by the time I reach the point where my lucky number is drawn I’m pretty much back where I started.
So I began researching strategies. I read all of the best guide to live roulette I found online, but as good as they were, they weren’t enough to prepare me for the real deal. I mean, sure, they could give me general directions, but I knew I had to go all “Inception” on its backside and go deeper. So, what did I do? I turned to my old friends the books, of course! There were plenty of roulette books out there, more than enough for me to choose from, perhaps even too many. Ultimately, as you may have guessed from the title, I settled on “Get the Edge at Roulette”, which was recommended to me by several websites.
To say that the book contains all the answers would be an overstatement, because it does not, not by a long shot. It does, however, outline all of the basic things that someone who wants to be a roulette player would ever want. We’re talking do’s and don’ts, basic strategies, hints and tips, statistics, even a bit on the history of roulette which, while not always necessary, was very much interested. The book was written in a very easy to read style, allowing you to just flow through the pages without having to re-read a lot of information in order to understand it.
What I really loved about the book, though, was its sincerity. Right from the get-go it makes it very clear that this isn’t some kind of holy grail that’ll magically make you win at roulette. It explains that the casino will always have the upper hand due to the house edge, and that while you can improve your odds, all strategies will eventually fail, so you should quit while you’re ahead. I loved this kind of down to earth style and tone. At the end of the day, it’s the truth – no one book will ever make you a roulette expert… But still, I don’t plan to stop looking!