The roulette wheel is a masterfully laid out, and most often, a beautifully engineered piece of equipment. A perfect balance in design is needed so that the wheel does not have, or will not develop, any inconsistencies or biases. Many a hearty gambler has tried to seek out a 'biased wheel' in their day in an attempt to gain an advantage. Since roulette wheels like all well used pieces of equipment show some wear and tear after a while, it's possible to conceive of a wheel where the wear and tear produces certain number hits more often than chance would allow. If you find one of these you could easily exploit it and make some free money. Casinos know this of course, which is why it's next to impossible to find a biased roulette wheel. In fact, it's next to impossible to even test for one. In order to determine if a wheel has a bias you would need to have a computer watching it for a little while, and casinos don't take kindly to any computer mechanisms on the gaming floor. It's even rumored that casinos constantly scan the casino floor and their security systems pick up any digital device emitting a signal. I wouldn't put it past them. Our roulette wheel diagram clearly shows the distribution of numbers around the wheel.

An Ace can count as either 1 or 11, as demonstrated below.
The cards from 2 through 9 are valued as indicated.
The 10, Jack, Queen, and King are all valued at 10.

The suits of the cards do not have any meaning in the game.The value of a hand is simply the sum of the point counts of each card in the hand. For example, a hand containing (5,7,9) has the value of 21. The Ace can be counted as either 1 or 11. You need not specify which value the Ace has. It's assumed to always have the value that makes the best hand. An example will illustrate: Suppose that you have the beginning hand (Ace, 6) This hand can be either 7 or 17. If you stop there, it will be 17. Let's assume that you draw another card to the hand and now have (Ace, 6, 3) Your total hand is now 20, counting the Ace as 11. Let's backtrack and assume that you had instead drawn a third card which was an 8. The hand is now (Ace, 6, 8) which totals 15. Notice that now the Ace must be counted as only 1 to avoid going over 21.

A hand that contains an Ace is called a "soft" total if the Ace can be counted as either 1 or 11 without the total going over 21. For example (Ace, 6) is a soft 17. The description stems from the fact that the player can always draw another card to a soft total with no danger of "busting" by going over 21. The hand (Ace,6,10) on the other hand is a "hard" 17, since now the Ace must be counted as only 1, again because counting it as 11 would make the hand go over 21.

Some people think the object of the game is to get 21, or to get closer to 21 than the dealer without "busting," which means going over 21. This is incorrect! The real objective of the game is to beat the dealer. There are 3 ways in which a player can beat the dealer:

1. The player receives an ace and a 10-value card for blackjack.
2. The player gets closer to 21 than the dealer.
3. The dealer goes over 21 and the player, regardless of what the total is in his hand, does not.

The game starts with every player making their opening bets. Make sure to read the sign next to the dealer which indicates the minimum and maximum table limit. Most online casinos have table limits from as low as $1 up to $100. After all the players placed their bets the dealer will start dealing the cards. Starting with the player to his left he gives every player one card, face down, including himself. This is the dealers down card. Then he deals a second round of cards, face down but this time the card he deals himself will be face up. This is the dealers up card. You now can look at both of your cards and find your total by simply adding the values of your cards.

Gambler's Survival Guide
Source : Max Drayman (www.winneronline.com)

Top tips that will help you walk away from casinos with more money in your pocket:Know Your Game Not all games are created equally. There is a wealth of information both on the net and in print to inform you of the odds you face in any given game and the strategies that will help shave the house edge to a minimum. Spend a little time reading and you'll spend a lot less time wondering what happened to your bankroll.Play To A Budget Let's say you've got $600 and you expect to gamble three times a week for the next couple weeks. That's $100 per session and that's your budget for any given session. Put the rest away, forget about it and enjoy the money you've got in front of you. DO NOT under any circumstances touch another day's bankroll. If you tap out, walk away and come back another day. This is how you remain a happy gambler and not a whining loser. Don't Gamble With Scared Money.We've all heard and said it before: only gamble money that you can afford to lose. Anything you can't afford to lose like the rent money is called "scared money" because that's what you'll be if you even get close to betting with it. And scared gamblers are losers-in-training. If you play this way you may well need professional counselling.