Get the Edge at Roulette [Paperback]

He is faithful to the scientific principle of theory and verification. He delves in a fair bit of statistics to develop expectation values for winnings and confidence levels for a given strategy. With all theory, his text is not a theoretical one, he gives very practical advice. He's not trying to play psychological games with the reader, but is honest in explaining the skill level required for the various strategies he presents. As any well researched, scientific text, he cites relevant literature and gives references.

The author understands the kinematics of the game of roulette, although readers with a college-level background of mechanics may notice the author's imprecise use of terminology. That does not deter from the author's argument though.

The book starts off with a review of the historical origins of roulette and goes quickly into the wheel layout and betting baize. He teaches how to find your way around the wheel and how to cover sectors with a minimum number of chips, "sector slicing." He picks up this topic again later in connection with dealer signatures and presents an easy-to-learn but powerful way to cover quickly every quadrant of the wheel.

His discussion on "mathematical" playing systems and why they fail is elucidating yet not really novel as the fact that the house enjoys a negative edge when the player bets on random outcomes is common knowledge.

The guts of Pawlicki's book center on "physical" aspects of the game--a variety of factors that can produce non-random outcomes or give a predictive edge to the player. The power of its message lies not in any single technique but in a toolbox of strategies that each can apply to different conditions, such as wheel watching, biased wheel play, or dealer signatures. He carefully gauges each technique by the skill level required to apply it, by the edge it provides to the player and by the assumptions underlying it. A little bit of player and casino psychology will come handy in the heat of the battle.

This book has something for everyone: the aspiring professional player, the occasional system player or the recreational player.

My first reading on roulette was a chapter in Jerry Patterson's "Casino Gambling." While interesting and a useful overview of strategies in various casino games, Patterson frequently baits the reader with information that is consistent but incomplete and then refers to his (probably expensive) gambling classes. In this, Patterson's book remains ultimately dissatisfying. If your interest is in roulette, buy Pawlicki's book. You get much more information and without the rhetoric.

The book then goes on to explain the real methods of winning including things like biased wheel detection, visual prediction, and dealer bias (a.k.a. dealer signature). It closes out with a guaranteed way to win with online casinos.

I've done extensive research on roulette, and this is one of the first that gives a very clear, well defined way of performing visual wheel tracking - and who better to explain it than the "spin doctor". I won't say that it is easy to master, but at least definitively shows how it can be done.

I do wish that he would have also explained more of his experiences with and/or knowledge of "illegal" methods, like electronic prediction. Those are always fascinating to read about.

If you are looking for real ways to win at roulette, or to at least play without losing so quickly, this book is definitely worth the reading.