Roulette is, at heart, a simple game. So trust French casino-dwellers to develop some rather more intricate ways in which 鈾ｏ笍 to play. If you're given the chance to play a French-style roulette table, then you should, as this will probably 鈾ｏ笍 give you access to the punter-friendly En Prison/La Partage rules. Combine these with a single zero layout (unlike double-zero American-style 鈾ｏ笍 tables), and the house edge falls to around 1.4%. However, if you are taking a spin on a true French 鈾ｏ笍 table, you'll find much that's, erm, foreign. And most of this will be due to the existence of bet types 鈾ｏ笍 like Voisins du Zero, Tiers du Cylindre, and Orphelins.
Whereas most roulette tables (in land casinos) assign coloured chips to the 鈾ｏ笍 players, so that winning bets can be easily identified, the chips on French tables differ only in the numerical amounts 鈾ｏ笍 they have printed on them. With nothing to distinguish one player from another, it becomes important not to have too 鈾ｏ笍 many chips on the board at the same time. The need for space partly inspired the invention of an additional 鈾ｏ笍 grid, called the 'Racetrack'. This oval-shaped section sits to the side of the main play area. it features all of 鈾ｏ笍 the same numbers - 0 to 36 - but within a different layout. Its point is to act as an 鈾ｏ笍 extension to the main grid, and to encourage some of the players to switch to exotic 'French Bets'. These French 鈾ｏ笍 bets were traditionally referred to as 'Call Bets' or 'Announced Bets', as they were too specialist to be featured on 鈾ｏ笍 the main tables, and players had to call out when they wanted to play them.
So what exactly are these bets, 鈾ｏ笍 and what do they consist of?
The Ins and Outs of Call Bets
If you look at the main wheel for roulette, 鈾ｏ笍 you'll see that it can be broken down into two large slices, along with a couple of smaller segments sitting 鈾ｏ笍 between them in the middle. Each of these sections contains a set of numbers that make up one of the 鈾ｏ笍 following bets:
