Edit: The site at nolinks://nolinks.roulettephysics.com (nolinks://nolinks.roulettephysics.com) has great articles about memorizing the roulette wheel layout.
Unfortunately, the table layout has no relation to the actual layout of the wheel. Consecutive #s are on opposite sides of the Wheel except for #18 and 19. They are only 1 # apart on the double zero table.
Pairs of odd #'s alternate with pairs of even #s all around the wheel.
Look closely at the wheel and see where the #s are placed. Notice that the 0 is opposite the 00 and the 1 is on the opposite side of the wheel from the #2 and so on always around the wheel. You should also notice red alternates with black all the way around the wheel as does pairs of odd alternates with pairs of even. All AMERICAN WHEELS are made exactly the same. The European wheel has a completely
different lay out.
When deciding where the #s and colors were to be placed on the Wheel they took much more into consideration than just staggering the Red and Black. And much more than placing #s on opposite sides of the Wheel. Rather than placing #s in sequence it's much more complex, odd #s next to even #s. Bert Walker's book on Basic Roulette explains all the complexities in case you truly want to understand the wheel vs. the layout, which I might add is very interesting.
John Patrick wrote a great book on Advanced Roulette called "So you want to be a Gambler", it's a must for the serious ROULETTE player, as are his videotapes.
In his book he gives us a clever way of memorizing the Roulette wheels numbers. He points out the 0 is on one side of the wheel and the 00 is directly opposite on the other side of the wheel. He says all you have to do is memorize two numbers 2 and 19.
To the right of the 0 you will find all the even numbers from 2 through 18 and all the odd numbers from 19 through 35. The other half of the wheel has everything else, all the odd numbers from 1 to 17 and all the even numbers from 20 through 36. By the way, John's book is not only filled with great advice,
it's a lot of fun to read as well. It was John Patrick that first pointed me in the right direction with his Action # Systems and where you bet on groups of #s...
Richard.