Marcus Ellery, Author | How to Play Roulette

Marcus Ellery: Odds & checks

Marcus Ellery checks the numbers on this site: every payout, chance per spin and house edge, and the simulations on the strategy pages. When a guide says a corner pays 8 to 1 or that the double zero costs 5.26 percent, that figure was computed from one set of tested payout rules rather than copied from another site.

Marcus writes under a pen name. The method is the credential here, so it is described in full on the about page and repeated on every page Marcus wrote: numbers come from the rules, the rules are tested pocket by pocket, and a simulation is only quoted with the settings it ran on, so you can repeat it yourself.

What Marcus works on

The payout rules cover the American double-zero wheel, the single-zero European wheel and the French table with La Partage. For every bet on every table the expected return is summed over each pocket of the wheel, which is how the 5.26, 2.70 and 1.35 percent figures on these pages are produced and why they agree everywhere.

Marcus writes the guides where numbers carry the argument: payouts and odds, betting on green, the comparison of American and European roulette, triple zero wheels and the strategy pages. A recurring theme is that no betting system changes the house edge. The simulations exist so you can watch that happen instead of taking the claim on trust.

The doubling-system simulation runs a thousand players at once, each with the bankroll, base stake and table maximum you choose. It counts who went bust, who hit the table limit and who finished ahead. The counts move a little between runs because the spins are random, while the average cost per dollar staked stays put.

Where a page touches the real world, such as how casinos inspect wheels or who regulates table games, Marcus keeps to general statements that can be checked, and leaves out table minimums or house rules that differ from casino to casino. Questions or corrections reach the team through the contact address at the foot of every page.

Before a page goes out, Marcus reruns every figure it quotes against the payout rules for the wheel the page discusses, from a single straight-up bet to a full session of a doubling system. If a sentence describes what a simulation shows, the sentence must match what the simulation does with its default settings, or it is rewritten.

Pages by Marcus Ellery

American vs European: One extra green pocket nearly doubles the house edge. Here is what 0 and 00 cost you per $100.
Betting on green: What 0 and 00 pay, how often green lands, and what it does to every outside bet on the table.
French roulette: La Partage, En Prison and the racetrack call bets, and why French rules cost the least on even money.
Is roulette rigged?: How wheels are leveled, logged and audited, what wheel bias means, and who tests electronic roulette.
Martingale: The doubling ladder, the odds of a losing streak, and why the table limit always arrives first.
Payout calculator: Place chips on the American table and see the win, the stake returned and the cost of each spin.
Payouts & odds: Every bet on the cloth, what it pays, how often it hits, and the 38-pocket math behind the edge.
Strategy: Martingale, Fibonacci, James Bond and flat betting, measured against the 5.26% edge.
Triple zero: Add a 000, keep the payouts, and the edge jumps to 7.69%. The arithmetic behind the three-zero wheel.

Marcus Ellery: questions people ask

What does Marcus Ellery check on this site?

Marcus checks every payout, chance per spin and house edge quoted on the site, and runs the simulations behind the strategy pages. The figures come from one set of tested payout rules for the American, European and French tables, which is why the same number appears identically on every page that uses it.

Is Marcus Ellery a real name?

No. Marcus writes under a pen name, and the site states it plainly. The method is meant to carry the weight instead: each figure can be reproduced from the number of pockets on the wheel, and the calculator and simulator on the site let you rerun the arithmetic with your own stakes and settings.

Where do the house edge figures come from?

For every bet on every table, the expected return is added up across each pocket of the wheel. A straight-up bet on the American wheel returns 36 units for every 38 staked, which gives 5.26 percent. The same sum on a single-zero wheel gives 2.70 percent, and La Partage halves the even-money edge.

Can I rerun the strategy simulations myself?

Yes. The doubling-system simulator on the strategy pages runs a thousand players with the bankroll, base stake, number of spins and table maximum you choose, on the wheel you pick. Each run uses fresh random spins, so the counts move a little, while the average cost per dollar staked stays the same.