Hot Number at Roulette

A roulette player e-mailed to say he likes to stay with a hot number — if a number is on the board three or more times in recent spins, he’ll keep betting it.

“I’ll bet the surrounding numbers, too,” he said. “If my number is 17, I’ll also bet 16 and 18.”

I like to bet surrounding numbers, too. I’ll often play No. 29, a family birthday number, and then make corner bets on the numbers surrounding 29 on the layout — four-number corners on 25-26-28-29; 26-27-29-30; 28-29-21-32; and 29-30-32-33. One of the best roulette sessions I’ve ever had came when I hit a few corners, then 29 came up, meaning I won 35-1 on the single number, 29, and 8-1 on all four corner bets. Then on the next spin, 29 came up again.

But that’s just a matter of playing family birthdays, not trying to run with hot numbers. The problem for players trying to go with hot areas — picking not only numbers that have hit a couple of times recently but also neighboring numbers — is that wheel neighbors and layout neighbors aren’t the same numbers. The reader thinking the area surrounding 17 might be hot should recognize that the numbers on either side of 17 on a double-zero wheel are 32 and 5, not 16 and 18. In fact, 17 and 18 are almost directly opposite each other on an American roulette wheel.

If the wheel is properly balanced, there is no tendency for hot numbers to stay hot. Playing hot numbers neither helps nor hurts you. But if you want to give hot numbers and neighboring near misses a go, look to the wheel, not the table felt.

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