Taking Your Roulette Game to the Next Level with Call Bets

Tiers du Cylinder

Tiers du Cylindre means “one-third of the wheel,” an apt name for this call bet. It covers 12 of the 37 numbers – 27, 13, 36, 11, 30, 8, 23, 10, 5, 24, 16, and 33. These numbers occupy the side of the wheel opposite the Voisins du Zero section.

You need 6 chips or multiples of 6 chips to place this bet. The chips are set on the following splits: 5/8, 11/10, 13/16, 23/24, 27/30, and 33/36. If any of the 12 numbers appears on the next spin, the player receives 17 units for the winning split but loses the five units staked on the remaining splits.

The probability of winning with Tiers du Cylindre is a respectable 32.43%. This combination bet is not always referred to by its French name; in South African casinos you may hear it called Series 8/5. At some roulette tables it is also known as the Small Series bet.

Voisins du Zero

The Voisins du Zero (or “Neighbors of Zero” in French) is popular with seasoned roulette players – and for good reason. It covers nearly half of the single-zero wheel, specifically the 17 numbers situated opposite the Tiers numbers: 22, 18, 29, 7, 28, 12, 35, 3, 26, 0, 32, 15, 19, 4, 21, 2, and 25.

A quick glance at the wheel shows why it is named this way: nine numbers lie to the left of zero, seven to its right, plus the zero itself. This is easily the most famous call bet because it offers a solid probability of 45.94%.

The bet requires at least 9 chips – 1 unit on each of the five splits 4/7, 12/15, 18/21, 19/22, and 32/35; 2 units on the corner 25/26/28/29; and 2 units on the trio 0/2/3. The payout depends on which component wins: Voisins pays 17 to 1 for a winning split, 11 to 1 for the trio, and 8 to 1 for the corner.

Orphelins

You have probably noticed that the Voisins and Tiers sections nearly split the wheel in half. The two smaller sections that remain consist of the so-called “orphan” numbers, or Orphelins in French. One section includes numbers 17, 34, and 6, while the other comprises 1, 20, 14, 31, and 9 – eight numbers in total.

There are two variations of this bet. The more common, Orphelins en Cheval, requires 5 chips: 4 units on the splits 6/9, 14/17, 17/20, and 31/34, and 1 unit straight up on number 1. If you are wondering, Cheval is the French term for split bets. Provided that any orphaned number shows, you win at odds of 17 to 1 for the splits and 35 to 1 for the straight-up bet.

The alternative is Orphelins en Plein, where you bet straight up on each orphaned number. You need 8 chips – or multiples of 8 chips – for Orphelins en Plein. Because it covers only eight numbers, the wager is less likely to win than Tiers or Voisins, resulting in a probability of 21.62%.

Jeu Zero or Zero Spiel

For the sake of accuracy, we should note that Jeu Zero is not strictly a French bet. The wager originated in German casinos, where it was called Zero Spiel, meaning “zero game” or “zero play.” As the name suggests, the bet revolves around the zero.

Jeu Zero is a miniature version of Voisins du Zero; it targets pockets close to zero but covers fewer numbers: 15, 32, 0, 26, 3, 12, and 35. The player needs 4 chips to place the bet.

The chips are distributed on the splits 0/3, 12/15, and 32/35, plus 1 chip straight up on number 26. A hit on 26 pays 35 to 1, while any of the splits pays 17 to 1. The probability of Jeu Zero is 18.92%.

The Neighbors

Neighbor bets should not be confused with Neighbors of Zero (Voisins); they form an entirely different category of wagers. The classic Neighbor bet centers on any chosen number plus the two adjacent numbers on each side of it on the wheel.

Essentially, you place a straight-up bet on each of the five numbers, aiming for a payout of 35 to 1. For example, a bet on 13 and its neighbors covers 11, 36, 13, 27, and 6. Some online roulette variants (such as those by NetEnt and Microgaming) let players adjust the number of neighbors, offering a choice of 1 to 8.

Suppose you select number 9 and eight neighbors on either side, covering a large portion of the wheel (5, 24, 16, 33, 1, 20, 14, 31, 9, 22, 18, 29, 7, 28, 12, 3, and 35). In this case, you risk a total of 17 chips for the chance to win 35 chips, with a probability of 45.94% – the same as Voisins.

By default these are 5-chip wagers, so be sure to specify the number of neighbors if you intend to cover more than two adjacent pockets on either side of your chosen number. The probability of winning with the default 5-chip Neighbor bet is lower, at 13.51%.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can combine several Neighbor bets on the same spin. One example is a bet on 8, 11, and 13 plus their neighbors: you risk 15 chips, covering numbers 6, 10, 23, and 27 with 1 chip each; numbers 8, 13, 30, and 36 with 2 chips each; and number 11 with 3 chips.

Final Bets

The name of this call bet is self-explanatory. A Final bet includes every number on the layout that ends with the same digit – for example, 5, 15, 25, and 35. The number of chips you must stake depends on the digit you choose: you need 4 chips for digits 0 through 6 and 3 chips for digits 7, 8, or 9, as the wheel stops at 36.

There are several ways to place this wager, the most common being Finale en Plein. Here you bet straight up on each selected number and collect 35 units for every unit wagered when you win. Finale en Plein 8, for instance, consists of three straight-up bets on 8, 18, and 28, while Finale en Plein 3 requires four chips on 3, 13, 23, and 33.

Finale en Cheval differs in that some numbers are covered with split bets. Again, the exact chip count depends on the final digit. For example, Finales Cheval/Plein on 6 and 9 is a 4-chip wager that places chips on the splits 6/9, 16/19, and 26/29, plus a straight-up bet on 36.

Another example is Finales en Cheval on 7 and 10, which requires one chip on each of these splits: 7/10, 17/20, and 27/30. Finale Cheval/Plein 2 and 1 calls for five chips: splits 2/1, 12/11, and 32/31, plus straight-up bets on 21 and 22 because they are not adjacent on the layout.

The probability of winning with a Final bet depends on its coverage. It is 10.81% and 8.11% when you bet the numbers straight up; 18.92% for Cheval/Plein with 7 numbers; 16.22% for Finale en Cheval with 6 numbers; and 21.62% for Cheval/Plein with 8 numbers.

Full Completes

This wager is favored mostly by high rollers because it calls for a large number of chips. It is also known as a Maximum bet, as players typically stake the table maximum on straight-up, split, corner, street, and double-street bets.

It is a complex wager that can require up to 40 chips. The structure consists of 1 straight-up bet on the base number, 4 split bets, 1 street bet, 4 corner bets, and 2 double-street bets. The example below illustrates a bet on 20 at the maximum, with a $100 ceiling for inside bets. If you are playing online, you can usually make the same wager for less than the maximum.

• 1 chip on number 20 (to a maximum of $100)
• 2 chips on the 17/20 split (to a maximum of $200)
• 2 chips on the 20/21 split ($200 maximum)
• 2 chips on the 19/20 split ($200 maximum)
• 2 chips on the 20/23 split ($200 maximum)
• 3 chips on the 19/20/21 street ($300 maximum)
• 4 chips on the 17/18/20/21 corner ($400 maximum)
• 4 chips on the 16/17/19/20 corner ($400 maximum)
• 4 chips on the 19/22/23/20 corner ($400 maximum)
• 4 chips on the 21/20/23/24 corner ($400 maximum)
• 6 chips on the 16/17/18/19/20/21 double street ($600 maximum)
• 6 chips on the 19/20/21/22/23/24 double street ($600 maximum)

There you have it – 40 chips on the layout and a total of $4,000 in action. If the inside-bet maximum at your table is higher, say $1,000, you would need to risk a staggering sum on a single spin.

The Full Complete bet in this example covers nine numbers, so its chances are lower than those of broader call bets like Voisins. Its probability is 24.32%.

If you do win, the number of chips you collect depends on the base number. In the 40-chip example above, you would receive 392 chips. Certain numbers require fewer chips to complete and therefore return smaller payouts, as shown below:

• 0 requires 17 chips and pays 235 chips
• 1 and 3 require 27 chips and return 297 chips
• 2 costs 36 chips and pays 396 chips
• Numbers from the first column (4 to 31) and third column (6 to 33) require 30 chips and pay 294 chips
• Full Completes on 34 and 36 are 18-chip bets and return 198 chips
• 35 requires 24 chips and pays 264 chips

You may wonder how the payouts are settled when the winning number is adjacent to your base number – for instance, when you wager 40 chips on 20 to the maximum and 23 appears.

Croupiers usually apply the station method, which involves counting the ways the winning number connects to the complete wager. In our example, 23 does so in four ways (or stations): two corners (20/23/21/24 and 19/20/23/22), one double street (19/20/21/22/23/24), and one split (20/23).

The croupier multiplies the number of stations by 30 and then adds the remaining stations – 8 in this case – like so: (4 x 30) + 8 = 128. Thus, the player should be paid 128 chips for a Full Complete on 20 when 23 hits.

We can hardly understand why anyone would attempt this bet unless they are as wealthy as Mike Ashley, the billionaire owner of Newcastle United, who famously won £1.3 million with a bet on 17 to the maximum in 2008 at London’s Mayfair.