The Martingale betting system is very easy to learn and to put into live play on any online or land-based casino game. The idea is that you start out by placing a wager on just one of the even-money betting propositions offered on games such as Roulette. Apr 13, 2015 Every live and online casino will have a maximum betting limit and this makes it impossible to correctly implement the Martingale system. Just because you can afford to constantly double your bet. What is the Martingale Betting System? The Martingale system emerges as one of the oldest betting systems that can be found in the canon of books dedicated to casino games and seems to date back to a time when casinos first became popular in gambling meccas across Europe during the 18th century. The Martingale betting system increases your chances of winning in the short term. The catch is that when you do lose, you lose big. For example, starting with $1000 and a starting bet of $5, you've got about an 80% chance of turning a profit after one hour at craps or roulette, with an average win of about $100.
It's this risk that keeps experienced roulette pros from using the Martingale system. Is It Allowed to Use the Martingale? A lot of roulette players that want to start playing strategically wonder if it is even allowed to make use of the Martingale in a real casino, or online at somewhere like 888 Casino legally? The answer to that is simple. The Martingale system is a progression betting system, where you start with a basic unit and double the bet from round to round, until a win recovers previous losses. The idea behind the Martingale is that since no cold streak runs forever, the player will eventually win the bet and recover previous losses.
Nearly every gambler will come across the Martingale System at some point in their lives. The premise is so simple that a large proportion of players will actually ‘invent’ this system themselves. But like most betting systems, the Martingale System is flawed at the most basic level.
What is the Martingale System?
The Martingale System can be used in many situations, but it is most often associated with roulette. The concept involves betting one outcome of red/black, odd/even or high/low and doubling the amount wagered every time the bet loses.
For example, a player places a bet of $1 on Black. If the outcome of the spin is Black, the player receives $2 – consisting of their $1 bet and a $1 profit. If the outcome of the spin is not Black, the player would lose their $1 stake. On the next spin they would double their bet to $2. Now if the outcome were Black they would win $4 – consisting of their $2 bet, $1 previous bet and $1 profit. If they lose the bet would double to $8, and so on.
As you may be able to see, the profit is limited to the value of the initial bet (in this case $1).
Does It Work?
Martingale System advocates will use the following logic to ‘prove’ the systems validity: The probability of a roulette wheel never coming up black is zero, assuming that the wheel has a fair and unbiased spin. Or to be more accurate, the probability of the result of a roulette wheel never being black approaches zero as the number of spins approaches infinity.
The problem with this logic is that an infinite number of spins requires an infinite amount of money, and a casino willing to take bets of an infinite value. Both of which do not exist.
Lets See The Numbers
To help you better understand the numbers involved, the table below shows the amount of money required to last for up to 10 spins, doubling each time. Notice that by spin number 10 your initial $1 bet has turned into a bet of $512, and you have racked up total bets of $1,023. Bear in mind that if your $512 bet wins, you still only come out $1 up overall.
Spin | Bet | Cumulative Bet | Profit |
---|---|---|---|
1 | $1 | $1 | $1 |
2 | $2 | $3 | $1 |
3 | $4 | $7 | $1 |
4 | $8 | $15 | $1 |
5 | $16 | $31 | $1 |
6 | $32 | $63 | $1 |
7 | $64 | $127 | $1 |
8 | $128 | $255 | $1 |
9 | $256 | $511 | $1 |
10 | $512 | $1,023 | $1 |
In the grand scheme of things, $1,023 isn’t a huge amount of money. And if you had $1,023 to ‘invest’ you may feel (or be conned into thinking) that the Martingale System could work for you. After all, what are the chances of a roulette wheel not coming up black 10 times in a row? Lets find out!
You Cannot Escape The House Edge
As you probably know, there are three colour outcomes on a roulette wheel – red, black and green. As you only win when the outcome is black and lose if it is red or green, your chances of winning are not 50-50. Taking the European ‘single zero’ roulette wheel as an example, your chances of winning are 18 (the number of black segments on a roulette wheel) in 37 (the total number of segments: 18 black, 18 red, 1 green). We can write this as:
P(win) = 18/37
P(win) = 0.486
Which makes the probability of you losing:
P(lose) = 1 – P(win)
P(lose) = 1 – 0.486
P(lose) = 0.514 (can be written as 1 in 1.95)
The probability of you losing two spins in a row can be worked out by taking the probability of one loss and multiplying it against it self, whilst three losses would be the probability of 2 losses multiplies by the probability of one loss, and so on. If we insert this information into the table above it looks like this:
Spin | Bet | Cumulative Bet | Profit | Chance of loss |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | $1 | $1 | $1 | 1 in 1.95 * |
2 | $2 | $3 | $1 | 1 in 3.79 * |
3 | $4 | $7 | $1 | 1 in 7.38 * |
4 | $8 | $15 | $1 | 1 in 14.4 * |
5 | $16 | $31 | $1 | 1 in 28.0 * |
6 | $32 | $63 | $1 | 1 in 54.5 * |
7 | $64 | $127 | $1 | 1 in 106 * |
8 | $128 | $255 | $1 | 1 in 207 * |
9 | $256 | $511 | $1 | 1 in 403 * |
10 | $512 | $1,023 | $1 | 1 in 784 * |
* To 3 significant figures. If you wish to do the calculations yourself, start from the first step and use the un-rounded values.
So as you can see, the chance of you losing 10 spins in a row is approximately 1 in 784. Therefore, for every 784 sets of spins you would expect a run of 10 loses once. Seeing as you make a profit of $1 for every win, and a 10 loss run would cost you $1,023, then in theory for every $783 you win, you would lose $1,023 – making a net loss of $240 (783 winning spin sets minus 1 losing spin set). This assumes that you run out of money after the 10th losing spin and revert back to your initial $1 bet.
But this number comes as no surprise, and is directly related to the house edge. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, the house edge is the way in which casino tips the tables in their favour – for roulette this is the zero on the wheel. The house edge of a roulette table with a single zero is 1/37 – approximately 2.7%.
The table below calculates the theoretical total wagers for the 784 roulette spins mentioned above, which comes to $8,868.97. As we know that the house edge for this particular game of roulette is 2.7% we can calculate the expected loss as approximately $240 (to the nearest dollar) – which is the same number that we have already come to.
Spin | Losses | Wins | Probability (as %) | Number of occurances | Total Stake |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 0 | 1 | 48.65% | 381.55 | 381.55 |
2 | 1 | 1 | 24.98% | 195.93 | 587.79 |
3 | 2 | 1 | 12.83% | 100.61 | 704.3 |
4 | 3 | 1 | 6.59% | 51.67 | 775 |
5 | 4 | 1 | 3.38% | 26.53 | 822.47 |
6 | 5 | 1 | 1.74% | 13.62 | 858.33 |
7 | 6 | 1 | 0.89% | 7 | 888.52 |
8 | 7 | 1 | 0.46% | 3.59 | 916.13 |
9 | 8 | 1 | 0.24% | 1.84 | 942.73 |
10 | 9 | 1 | 0.12% | 0.95 | 969.16 |
10 | 10 | 0 | 0.13% | 1 | 1023 |
Total: | 8,868.97 |
Bigger Number Mean Bigger Losses
The above examples all assume that you stop after a run of 10 losses. The table below shows the amounts required to be able to withstand a run of 20 losses.
Spin | Bet | Cumulative Bet | Profit | Chance of loss |
---|---|---|---|---|
11 | $1,024 | $2,047 | $1 | 1 in 1,527 * |
12 | $2,048 | $4,095 | $1 | 1 in 2,974 * |
13 | $4,096 | $8,191 | $1 | 1 in 5,792 * |
14 | $8,192 | $16,383 | $1 | 1 in 11,280 * |
15 | $16,384 | $32,767 | $1 | 1 in 21,965 * |
16 | $32,768 | $65,536 | $1 | 1 in 42,773 * |
17 | $65,536 | $131,072 | $1 | 1 in 83,295 * |
18 | $131,072 | $262,143 | $1 | 1 in 162,206 * |
19 | $262,144 | $524,287 | $1 | 1 in 315,874 * |
20 | $524,288 | $1,048,576 | $1 | 1 in 615,124* |
* To 0 decimal places.
By 20 losing spins, you have placed cumulative bets of over $1 million! Bear in mind, that all of this is to win $1. A streak of 20 losses should occur approximately once for every 615,124 spins, and for each one of these streaks you lose $1,048,576. Therefore in theory, for every $615,123 you win, you lose $1,048,576 resulting in a net loss of $433,453. Still tempted?
The Casino Has An Insurance Policy: Table Limits
All of the examples above assume a stopping point, such as running out of money – and that is where the Martingale System really falls down. The system only works if you can continue betting if you lose, and in theory if you had enough cash to keep going on forever eventually you would recover your money. But lets say Bill Gates wants to try his hand at the Martingale System and sits down with $50 billion. The casino has an insurance policy against this – table limits.
On most, if not all, roulette tables around the world there will be a table limit – a maximum bet that once reached you cannot increase your bets any further. The maximum bet varies, but it is generally in the region of 500 – 5000 times the minimum bet. This means that, even at the upper end of the lable timit scale, you cannot exceed 13 losing spins.
There really is no system that allows you to “beat” the roulette wheel – if there were, then the game of roulette would cease to exist. You can give yourself a better chance of winning by playing with a bonus – a bonus boosts the amount you have to wager with, allowing you to place more or bigger bets.
The Martingale system is one of the oldest and currently most-used betting strategies by players all over the world. The origin of the strategy is yet unknown, but it is named after Mr. Henry Martingale, who was an owner of one of the most famous gambling houses in Britain in the 18th century.
The system, which is a negative progression, has become one of the most-loved because it is relatively simple, since there are no complicated calculations involved. The simplicity of the Martingale is considered exactly what has made thousands of players to try it at one time or another.
The Martingale strategy's main idea originates from the theory that there is a low probability of hitting a large number of consecutive losing bets. Just like with any other negative progression, the system's logic means that the player increases their stakes when losing, and decreasing them when winning.
How Does the System Work?
The Martingale betting system can be used for a variety of casino games, but is probably most commonly used at the game of roulette. It is especially appropriate for games that offer even money bets, but a lot of players also use it on the pass or don't pass bets at the game of craps, at baccarat, blackjack, etc.
The truth is that there is nothing complicated about the system. It involves only doubling the player's wager in times of losing, and resetting it to one-base unit in times of winning. Players have the freedom of determining the amount of their stake, although it is a good idea to keep it small.
Most casino players are looking for a betting system that would provide them with the chance of beating the house edge. The Martingale system is considered exactly what players need, as it is based on the theory that no losing streak could go on forever, so the player will sooner or later have to win.
Advantages
Probably the best advantage of the Martingale betting system is that it can work in a short term. The strategy has also proven that it can even work for quite some time if the player does not enter a long-running losing streak.
Disadvantages
One of the largest setbacks of the system, and of the negative progression strategies as a whole, is the fact that there is absolutely no guarantee that the player will not enter a losing streak that will last for too long.
In fact, the odds of winning each bet in line are always exactly the same as the odds of losing. Still, the system may be considered as too risky when a comparison between the potential profits and losses is made.
Variations of the Martingale System
There are several variations of the Martingale strategy, which are all based on the same theory and rules.
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Mini Martingale
The Mini Martingale is associated with limiting the amount of double-up bets. This is considered a great advantage of the betting system type, as it prevents players from losing ridiculously large amounts of money. However, it could still end up in experiencing a longer losing streak without managing to generate a winning.
This variation of the original Martingale system works better in short-term, as it guarantees players that they will lose their money slowly.
Grand Martingale
The Grand Martingale variation of the original strategy has been created in order to help players overcome one of its main problems – the fact that in most cases the rewards are too low for the risk involved.
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Martingale Betting System
Parlay Betting System
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This is exactly why the Grand Martingale's betting rule is slightly different from the standard one. The player needs to double their stake and also add an extra unit instead of simply doubling up after they lose a bet. The principle is simple – when they finally get a win, they are supposed to win more than a single-base unit.
Anti-Martingale
The Anti-Martingale system is also known under the name Reverse Martingale, because what this variation does is actually turning the original system the other way round. So, instead of doubling up the bet after generating a loss, the player is supposed to double up after a win.
The main idea of the variation is that players can actually win pretty great amounts of money in case they enter a winning streak. Sensibility plays a key role here, as players need to know where to stop in order not to sacrifice their entire profits due to one loss only. The Anti-Martingale is considered a safer variation of the original system, but players must still remember it does not guarantee they will generate a win.
The Martingale Betting System in Blackjack
Martingale is one of the systems that is most-preferred in the game of blackjack, as it initially seems like a can't-lost strategy. If it is chosen by the player, the latter is required to double up their bet in case of losing, and to return to their initial bet in case of winning.
Advantages of Martingale Betting System in Blackjack
The main concept, which is also considered as the greatest advantage of the Martingale strategy is the fact that gains are slowly made and still can be enough in order to fight back a following loss. In addition, in case that the player manages to hit a massive gain, this can compensate for any previous losses they have suffered.
Disadvantages of Martingale Betting System in Blackjack
As the Martingale strategy is a negative progression, it is considered more risky by default. The thing that is believed to be the greatest disadvantage is the fact that there is no guarantee that the player will not enter a long-running losing streak.
The Martingale Betting System in Roulette
As mentioned earlier, the Martingale system is mostly used by roulette players. It is true that the system needs a fairly sizeable bankroll, but it can generate massive profits when it comes short-term gameplay.
The main principle stays the same – the bet is increased whenever the player strikes a loss, and respectively, decreased when a win is generated.
Advantages of Martingale Betting System in Roulette
Apart from the possibility of generating large profits, the Martingale system is designed in a way to allow players to accumulate a large number of small winnings that bear very little risk or losing their entire bankroll.
Disadvantages of Martingale Betting System in Roulette
There is several issues that players need to have in mind when it comes to using the Martingale system in the game of roulette. First, the house edge of roulette cannot be overcome thanks to the betting system. This is why players need to be careful when managing their bankroll and make smaller bets that can prolong the gameplay.
The Martingale Betting System in Baccarat
Baccarat is traditionally a game with a low house edge, which means that players are provided with the opportunity to win massive prizes a lot easier. However, the coin always has two sides, which means that the players can easily generate winnings, but they can also easily strike a long-running losing streak.
Advantages of Martingale Betting System in Baccarat
One of the advantages of the Martingale betting system while playing baccarat is the fact that players can limit their possible losses by carefully managing their bankroll, implementing a stop-loss and also making lower bets.
Disadvantages of Martingale Betting System in Baccarat
The major disadvantage of the Martingale in a game of baccarat is considered the fact that the strategy is not able to overcome the house edge and no one can guarantee that the player will not enter a long-lasting losing streak that could end up with massive losses.
The Martingale Betting System in Craps
Some experts believe that players are provided with the lowest house advantage when playing a game of craps by using the Martingale betting system. Of course, there is no bet that does not have a house edge, but the edge is greatly lowered by implementing the Martingale strategy.
In this case, the best bets to be made are the Pass and Don't Pass line bets, as well as the 6 and 8 place bets, the 4 and 10 buy bets, and of course, the Come and Don't Come bets.
Advantages of Martingale Betting System in Craps
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Apart from the lower house edge, the players are also provided with the opportunity to make lower bets and distribute them in time, so that they can play longer. In addition, the Martingale betting system offers the chance to make smaller bets in order to better control the bankroll.
Kitchen Martingale Betting System
Disadvantages of Martingale Betting System in Craps
Of course, there is no way of fully avoiding the house edge, but the Martingale system at least minimizes it. The odds of winning cannot be manipulated by using the strategy, so there are no guarantee that the player will manage to generate a winning after several unsuccessful bets.