There are plenty of casino tournaments around nowadays—tournaments for poker, slots, blackjack, and now even Roulette. What they all have in common is that players compete against each other, not just the House, and those who reach the top of the leader board are rewarded with huge prizes, often much more than could be won by spending the same amount of time at the tables in the pit area.

One of the major attractions of tournament play is the relatively low cost of buying in relative to the winnings that are possible. For just $10, $20, or $50, a player may be able to land a podium finish and thousands of dollars to celebrate with. Even those who fall short of the top spots may be rewarded with $100 or more for winning a preliminary qualifying round. Tournaments tend to be social affairs, too, with lots of food and drink between rounds and served at after parties.

Roulette Tournament Formats

Casino Roulette tournaments are played on the same types of tables that are used in standard play, so unlike slot tournaments, no special adjustment of equipment is required. A single table can accommodate from five to seven players, much like Blackjack, so the number of entries is limited only by the number of tables available for tournament use and the number of qualifying rounds scheduled. For example, a typical ten-table tournament with three preliminaries may accommodate 200 or more players in total.

Roulette tournaments are not offered on a sit-and-go basis. They follow a schedule, with specific starting times. Players must buy-in to be assigned a random table and seating position prior to the beginning of play. For the wagering, every player receives the same number of non-redeemable tournament chips, customarily 500 or 1,000. The rules of play are identical to the standard game, including minimum and maximum betting limits.

There are two basic ways of conducting the tournament rounds. The preferred one is to have a fixed number of spins at each table; the other is to have a specified period of time to play. In either case, the players at any given table have the same number of opportunities to bet, and since they are playing against each other, not the entire room of entrants, the only objective is to end the round with more chips than anyone else at the table.

The top chip winner at each table, and sometimes the second place finisher, moves on to the next round. Chips are not carried from table to table or round to round, so every player gets a fresh start when moving up to the next level. Several rounds may be needed to whittle the number of competitors down to seven or fewer for the final table of play. Those who make the finals compete for cash prizes from the pool of entry fees.

Winning Strategies

Luck plays a major role in Roulette tournaments, but players have developed some strategic approaches to play that are somewhat similar to those used in Blackjack tournaments. These include “wait-and-see,” which means betting small and watching for others to lose all their chips quickly; “high rolling,” making huge bets initially and hoping to pull so far ahead that others cannot catch up; and “systematic,” using a betting system without much regard to how others play.

Of the three styles, the latter almost always fails. That’s because tournaments are not about winning chips; they are about winning more chips than one’s competitors. For this reason, contestants are well advised to keep a close eye on their opponents chip totals and bet accordingly—enough to keep pace and have a shot to finish on top when the last ball is spun.

One interesting difference between Roulette tournaments and those for other casino games is the ability for players to refrain from betting. Should a player establish a substantial lead early in a round, he/she can simply stop betting and wait to see how the others at the table do. With seven players, two or three can be expected to finish a round with more chips than they started out with. Knowing this, it is possible to make a final surge of big bets at the very end to win the round, if one has not squandered them betting too heavily early on.