• Play Carefully - Take your time and make wise decisions. It's you against the machine and there is no need to rush things.
  
  
• Know the Paytables - This is one of, if not the most important keys to success in video poker. You need to understand the paytables for each machine - understanding these will potentially allow you to maximize your winnings.
  
  
• Play each hand like a new game - Since you are playing a machine try and forget about the last hand played. The machine has no memory of the last hand - the random number generator assures this, so don't fret over what happened last hand - focus on the next.
  
  
• Practice makes perfect - the more you play the better you will be. Learning which cards to keep and which cards to discard is very important if you are to take full advantage of the payout tables. If you use your knowledge consistently i.e. utilize a strategy, it will help assure that you will meet the payout percentages of a particular machine.
  
  
• Never keep a kicker with any pair. Holding a kicker to any pair reduces your return by 5%.
  
  
• Never draw four cards if you can draw three to a royal flush.
  
  
• Always keep five card winning pat hands with one exception: if you can, draw one card to a royal.
  
  
• Don't break a flush even if you can draw one to a straight flush, but always break a flush to draw to a royal.
  
  
• Never break a straight to draw to a straight flush.
  
  
• Never draw five if you have a jack or better.
  
  
• Don't keep a ten for a four card draw.
  
  

Outside bets
The outside bets on a roulette table are the bets that reside 'outside' of the main playing area of 37 numbers. There are no winning outside bets for 0 results. Let's have a look at the different types of outside bets: Color bets: Red bet or Black bet
You can choose to bet on the outcome either being a red number, or a black number. Place this bet right in the diamond shaped areas on the front of the board, filled in with a red or black color. This is a very common roulette bet, as it is easy to understand that you have almost half a chance of winning. People often place the bet making the incorrect assumption that if 5 blacks were spun, there is a better than 50% chance the sixth spin will be red. This is not logical, as the roulette wheel cannot 'remember' what it spun last, and each spin is independent of all previous spins. This bet is paid even money. Odd bet or Even bet
Similar to the red black bet, this even money bet is based on whether the number will be odd or even. Since 0 does not count as either, there are 36 numbers, an even count between odd and even. Place this bet by putting your chips in the middle of the square marked 'even' or the square marked 'odd', which reside on either side of the black / red betting area. Low bet or high bet
Roulette rules allow ranges of numbers to be bet on. The low/high bet lets you predict whether you think the next number to come up will be part of the range from 1 to 18, or part of the range from 19 to 36. This is an even money bet. To place this bet put your chips in the boxes with the associated number range printed in them. Column bet
At one end of the set of 37 numbers are boxes with the words '2 to 1' written in them. Each box is part of a column of numbers if you extend a line up the body of the inside of the betting area. If a number from within the column you are betting on comes up you win, and are paid 2 to 1. Although not grouped with the others, this is still considered an outside bet. Dozen or section bet
A bet very similar to the columns bet, dozens lets you place a bet on either the first dozen numbers (1-12), the second dozen (13-24), or the third dozen (25-36) To place this bet find the rectangular areas located in between the outside bets and the inside board spread. These will usually be labelled with the words 1st 12, 2nd 12, and 3rd 12. The bet pays 2 to 1. The inside bets
The inside bets are made up of specific numbers or combinations of numbers within the number layout, or along the border of it. Remember, the total of all of your bets must add up to at least the table minimum. Straight-up bet
This is the simple roulette bet. Choosing any one of the 37 numbers and putting your chips down on that number will give you a chance to win back at 35 to 1. Split bet
Roulette rules allow you to place a single bet on two different numbers if those numbers are beside each other on the table layout. To do so put your chips down on the line between them. This bet pays 17 to 1 if either number comes up. Street bet
This is a bet not unlike the split. It allows you to bet on three different numbers with the same bet. You can do this by placing chips on the outside of the row of numbers you want to bet on. So if you want to bet on the numbers 1, 2, and 3 all at once, put your chips down on the line that is the outside edge of the 3. This bet pays 11 to 1. Corner or square bet
Roulette rules also allow for other combinations. Another combination wager, the corner bet, lets you bet on four adjoining numbers. Placing your chips at the point where four numbers meet will indicate you want a corner bet. This is sometimes referred to as a square bet. If any of the four numbers come up, you're paid 8 to 1. Five number bet
To make this bet place your chips at the intersection of 0 and 3 on the corner. You can win if any of 0, 00, 1, 2, or 3 are hit. You are paid 8 to 1.

Roulette Tables:
There are two standard styles of roulette tables found in American casinos. One is the standard table, which has one betting layout with the roulette wheel at one end; the other, called the double-end table, has two layouts with the wheel in the center between them. Roulette Layout:
The layout is a multicolored design printed on green baize that covers the players' side of the table and forms the betting section. The main section of the design is comprised of 36 numbered rectangular spaces arranged in three long columns of 12 spaces each. The spaces at the head of the columns are numbered 1, 2, 3 and are nearest the wheel. The numbering continues in sequence across the columns, ending with 34, 35 and 36 at the foot columns farthest from the wheel. Directly below these numbers are three blank spaces. A chip placed on one of these indicates that the player is betting on the 12 numbers on the long column directly above the space on which the chip rests. Roulette Balls:
The balls used are made of ivory or synthetic plastic. They vary in size from ½ inch to ¾ inch in diameter. Wheel checks or chips:
The standard roulette table employs 5, 6 or 7 sets of wheel checks (usually called chips) Each set is differently colored, each consists of 300 chips and there is one set for each player. The color of the chips indicates the player, not the value of the chips. For larger valued chips, in some instances they will actually have a color that indicates value. Roulette Wheels:
Read more about the history of the roulette wheel in our roulette history section. There are two styles of roulette wheels. The American wheel has 36 numbers and the signs 0 and 00. The French or European wheel, which has 36 numbers and only the single 0, is found mostly in European and South American casinos. The American wheels used in the United States and the Caribbean islands are, except for the double 00, similar in construction to the French wheels. The actual roulette wheels are made up of two separate parts - the table, which is stationary, and the wheel itself, which is movable and manually rotated by the croupier.