A round takes about four seconds. Understanding what each control does before you touch it takes about four minutes, and is worth more.
Before the first drop
Look at the payout table. Every implementation shows the multiplier for each slot.
Read the centre value first — that is what most drops return, and on high risk it is usually
below your stake.
Choose the number of rows. Eight rows gives nine slots; sixteen gives seventeen.
More rows spreads outcomes further apart. Full comparison.
Choose the risk level. Low, medium, high. This is the single biggest decision,
and it does not affect your expected return — only the shape of the ride.
What each level does.
Set the stake. Decide this against a session budget, not against the last result.
The round itself
You release the ball. It strikes a pin on each row and moves left or right. After the last
row it settles into a slot, and the multiplier there is applied to your stake. A 0.5×
multiplier returns half your stake — that is a loss of half, not a win of half, and it is the
most common outcome on high risk settings.
Auto play
Most versions offer an automatic mode that drops a set number of balls. It changes nothing
about the odds. It does change how quickly you get through a bankroll, and it removes the
pause in which people usually decide to stop.
The one habit worth having. Decide the session budget and the number
of drops before the first ball, and treat both as fixed. Every system beyond that —
increasing after losses, switching risk levels, chasing an edge that "must be due" — is
described in detail on the strategies page, along with the reason
each one fails.