Martingale is hand-down the most commonly used roulette strategy both at land-based and at online casinos. Funny thing about it is that in theory it’s infallible while in practice it’s disastrous for the player. Let’s find out why.
What’s the Martingale System?
Martingale’s system is a roulette strategy which can be used for even money bets such as red/black or odd/even. It states that after a loss you have to double your bet and start over with the initial bet amount after a win. This way, in theory, you would always after each win, you end up with a win of one unit. For example, if your initial bet is £1 and you lose 4 consecutive times then you would have lost £1+£2+£4+£8, i.e. £15. Then, according to the strategy, in the next round you should bet 16 and if you win you’ll end up with £1 of a total win (as you would’ve lost £15 and then won £16). Another important part of the strategy is that you should always place the same bet, for example, only black or only even.
Similar Strategies
Martingale’s system is one of the so called progressive betting strategies, i.e. strategies that involve increasing of the bet size in certain situation. Another very famous progressive betting strategy is Fibonacci’s. In that strategy, instead of doubling your bet after each loss, you use Fibonacci’s progression: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and so on. In this progression, every number is equal to the sum of the two numbers that precede it. After each loss you move one number to the right in the progression, while after each win you move to numbers to the left. There are, of course, many other progressive betting systems such as the reversed Martingale’s, the Paroli System, The Labouchere system and so on.
Why Progressive Betting Does Not Work?
The reason why progressive betting systems including Martingale’s don’t work is because they entail that the player has an infinite bankroll and that there are no table limits, both of which are conditions that are impossible to fulfill. While to a certain point these systems might be very successful, especially if the allowed bet range at the table is wider and your bankroll is bigger, they pay out very slowly and bring a very high risk of busting. Even the highest table limits cannot guarantee that you’ll have a successful playing session, as if you have several consecutive losses, you’ll most likely bust, especially if you’re using the Martingale system. This is due to the fact that when you’re playing using Martingale’s, the bet amount is rapidly increasing with every single round. Just consider the fact that if you start from £1, after 8 consecutive losses (a case that sounds unlikely with even-money bets, but actually happens more often than anticipated), you’ll have to bet £254 in order to cover the past losses and all of that to end up with an overall win of only £1.
Nevertheless, if you would still like to try a progressive betting system, then I would advise you to give Fibonacci‘s a try. This system is slower to pay out compared to the Martingale one, but is much less risky as the bet amount increases at smaller steps. For comparison, as we already mentioned, after 8 consecutive losses, using Martingale’s system you’ll have to bet £254 while with Fibonacci’s you’ll have to bet only £34. That’s definitely way more affordable and this is why using Fibonacci’s strategy you are way less likely to bust.