When it comes to playing casino games using a system, the martingale strategy is the most popular one.
Many people have tried to develop numerous methods to try to beat the casino. However, no approach can ensure 100% success. This is due to the fact that many of the games are based on chance, hence the name games of chance. Regardless of how much you lean on mathematics or statistics, “luck” is an uncontrollable factor. What you can do, though, is stick to a strategy that will help you increase your chances of winning this game. The Martingale system is one of the strategies.
What is the Martingale system?
The Martingale strategy is one of the most used betting strategies. It all began hundreds of years ago when a French mathematician introduced it. Despite the fact that it wasn’t created with the intention of optimizing betting money management, it immediately gained a name in that industry. The concept is now used in practically every casino on the planet. The Martingale strategy is popular among recreational gamblers because it is simple to apply. Plus, does not need intricate arithmetic between each spin of the roulette wheel or hand of blackjack.
When using the Martingale betting strategy, you double your losing bets until you win. That’s all there is to it. So, if you win a $10 bet on your first bet, you put that money aside and bet another $10. If you lose your first bet of $10, you’ll bet $20 on the next bet. If that bet loses, you’ll bet $40 on the following bet, and so on, until you’ve potentially recovered all of your losses while keeping the $10 profit. Then you do it all over again with a new $10 original bet.
The Martingale is a risky approach that improves your chances of winning only temporarily. To put it another way, you’re betting big to win small. There’s a good chance you’ll win more spins than normal. The quantities you win, on the other hand, will be tiny, whilst the amounts you lose could be large.
How to play roulette with Martingale strategy?
In the casino world, the Martingale strategy was initially used in roulette. It only works on even bets where the possibility is 50:50. You can use it to place a bet on colour (red/black), even/odd, or high/low, as these are the even bets in roulette. These bets pay out the least (1:1) but have the highest winning odds (48.60% in European Roulette). More importantly, you are not limited to betting on just one of these wagers during the game. For example, you may begin by betting on colour and then go on to high/low betting. It makes no difference as long as you bet on even bet.
It is recommended to start with the smallest amount possible when using the Martingale system in roulette. Also, we advise you to stay away from tables with large minimums.
- You start the first bet with a bet of $10 and you lose, so you have to double your bet.
- Your second bet is $20 and you lose again, so you double the bet again.
- Your third bet is $40, and you lost again. At this point, you have lost $70 in total. Your next bet is double the last one.
- The fourth bet is $80 and you win, which means you get $80 since you are playing on even bets. This way, you have recovered the loss of the previous bets, and made a profit of $10, which is the amount of your original bet.
- After the win, you restart the process and start betting with your initial bet.
In principle, you might keep betting indefinitely, doubling your money after each loss and earning a little profit after each win. Still, the unpleasant reality is that there are numerous elements that might ruin your ideal system and cause you to lose a significant amount of money.
Disadvantages of the Martingale strategy
There are favourable aspects to this method, as there are to any other, but there are also some drawbacks. The martingale technique does not guarantee that you will win every time you play roulette in a casino. That, however, is something that no strategy or betting system can provide. The best you can aim for is to use the approach to its greatest potential in order to increase your winnings.
Martingale can’t beat the house edge
We believe that the principle is great, but the truth is that the house will always win. The green zero that represents the house edge is the main villain in this case. The green zero, which doesn’t fit into any category but its own, lowers the probability of winning from 50% to 48.6%. Because of this, regardless of how you bet, the odds will always be stacked against you. As you can see, the chances are stacked against you, and the Martingale system can’t help you.
Running out of money
One of the disadvantages of the Martingale system is that you might run out of money very quickly. If you hit a streak of losing rounds, you will have to keep doubling the bets. For players with a limited bankroll that is not a good thing. In this case, you will run out of money and won’t be able to double on the next bet, thus you won’t be able to recover the losses eventually. This is the reason, as we mentioned, that the Martingale strategy is mainly for players with an unlimited bankroll.
Reach maximum bet limit
Even if you have an unlimited bankroll, there is a possibility that you will reach the table’s maximum bet limit. If this happens, you won’t be able to recover your losses. If you’ve lost too many rounds in a row, you’ll have to double your bets over and over again until you’ve reached the table’s maximum wager limit. You won’t be able to cover your losses if you hit the maximum limit because you won’t be able to double again.
Advantage of the Martingale strategy
Despite the constraints listed above, the Martingale is a strategy we recommend. As long as you know what you’re getting out of it.
The Martingale is ideal for players who are ready to risk losing a significant amount of money in exchange for repeated little winnings. If you apply the Martingale in a casino, you’ll probably end up with minor wins most nights.
There can be occasions when everything goes wrong and you lose a lot of money, but you’re much more likely to come out ahead – something that many gamblers will appreciate.
Variations
Grand Martingale strategy
The Grand Martingale Strategy is one of the variants of the Martingale system. The difference here is that, although using the identical principles as the Martingale Strategy, you add an extra bet unit after each loss. This means that if you lose four consecutive hands, winning the fifth will net you more money than the original Martingale. You’ll get back all of your lost wagers plus an additional unit on the winning wager.
All of the disadvantages of the Martingale system now apply to the variation. Since you’re betting more after a loss, there’s a chance that you’ll run out of money much faster than if you’re using the traditional Martingale. On the other hand, if you’re not worried about that and you have an unlimited bankroll, there is a chance that you’ll reach the maximum bet limit considerably faster if you are on a losing streak. Due to this, you won’t be able to recover your prior losses.
Triple Martingale strategy
This is the riskiest of all the variations, so we don’t recommend i. That is unless you really can afford to lose a ton of money. So, instead of placing a double bet after a loss, with this variation, you need to triple the bet. So, if you place a $1 bet and lose, the next bet you need to place should be $3, and so on. If you’re having bad luck and lost 6 rounds, that is already €243. If luck isn’t on your side, you could quickly surpass the table limit or lose all of your money in a few rounds.
Reverse Martingale strategy
The Reverse Martingale strategy requires doubling the bet after a win rather than doubling after a loss. This also avoids a large loss and can be profitable, if you know when to stop since any loss means you lose all of your earnings earned by doubling down on winnings. When you start a progression, you are only risking the initial stake. When you double your stake after winning a round, you are actually using the profits from the previous round. Since this is one of the most used strategies in roulette, we have a separate page explaining the use of the reverse Martingale strategy.
Conclusion
The Martingale strategy can assist gamblers in winning, especially when wagering little amounts. For all of the reasons described above, it’s tough to get rich with the Martingale system, but in the right circumstances, it’s a successful technique. On a limited scale, it can undoubtedly pay off. However, it must be done precisely inside those structures, and players must not lose sight of their bankroll as losses mount.
Try it out the next time you’re at a casino or sportsbook to see whether it works. It may not be the win-win situation that one may expect, but it can certainly be beneficial and profitable in some circumstances.