The Martingale Betting System
The Martingale Betting System is, as its name suggests, a betting system that was devised in France over 250 years ago. It is intended to be used on 50-50 propositions, but it can be used in other ways. Due to the fact that it’s best used on 50-50 bets, it’s an ideal betting system to use when playing roulette, if you are looking for a betting system to use when playing the game. The idea is you double your stake every time your bet loses, and you bank your winning and start from scratch when your bet wins. You’ll have used the Martingale Betting System without knowing if when having a wager with friends; every time you say “double or nothing”, that’s using the Martingale Betting System without you even knowing it.
It should be noted that not betting system is going to guarantee you success over a prolonged period, but that can be used to help maximise your wins and limit your loses. In theory, the Martingale Betting System should help maximise wins, but if you’re not careful, it can lead to big loses due to its extreme style, and the fact that the amount you end up wagering can get out of hand quite quickly if you don’t have the bankroll to support it.
When utlising the Martingale Betting System when playing roulette, it’s best to bet on either red or black as there is as close to a 50-50 chance of winning as you can get when playing the game. Having the 0 and 00 on the wheel does make it slightly less than a 50-50 proposition, but it’s about as close as you’ll get in a casino game that doesn’t involve skill (games such as blackjack and video poker, where you can influence the odds slightly in your favour), and definitely as close as you’ll get in the game of roulette.
I should also note that the Martingale system doesn’t need to be applied to just roulette. You can still use it at the likes of Blackjack, Video Poker, or some good old-fashioned online New Zealand pokies if you want.
So, now you’ve got the basic idea of the system, and what you’re going to be betting on, let’s look at it in action on a fictional casino’s roulette wheel, with the standard 0 and 00 in play.
We’ll take a trip to the casino with $1,000 and we’re going to bet on black. The Martingale Betting System says to start with 1 unit bets, so we’ll start with $1. Let’s say it comes up black. Great, we won $1! So we’ll bank that, and we now have $1,001. While we won’t break the bank just yet, a win’s a win.
For our next spin of the roulette wheel, we’ll stick with black. Another $1 bet on black, but this time it comes up red. So, now we’re back to our initial $1,000. But the Martingale Betting System tells you to double your bet. So we’re going to 2 units, which, in this case is $2, and we’ll put it on red, just to change things up a bit. It comes up… black. Typical! So now we’re down to $998. We’ve lost, so we have to double our bet again. Our next bet is $4 and we stick with red. And, lo and behold, we win. So we win $4. The $4 takes our betting bank to $1,002, and we’re back to winning ways.
The benefit of the Martingale Betting System when playing roulette is that unless you are exceptionally unlucky, gains can be made over the short term, and since it’s 50-50 bets, you have a 50% chance of winning every time. The gains will not be big, as you only ever double your stake, but it’s still a gain.
However, the disadvantage to the Martingale Betting System is only a long-term winning strategy if you have unlimited funds and a casino will lay you any bet you want. Let’s say you start with a $1 bet, it doubles to $2, then $4, $8, $16, $32, $64, $128, $256, and then $512. And if you take our imaginary $1,000, we’ve now wagered it (and more) in the space of 10 bets. And if that $512 bet wins, you’ve wagered a total of $1,023, and you end up winning $1,024. So for that large outlay, you end up with a profit of $1. If your units are $10, you end up wagering $5,120 just to win $10. So you can have a devastating loss or a paltry game.
The idea of the Martingale Betting System is based around Gambler’s Fallacy, in that you have to get a win on a 50-50 chance eventually. However, that is not true. Each spin of the roulette wheel is an independent event, the previous spins have no effect on the current one. So, even though it may have landed on red 10 times in a row, there’s still a 50-50 chance that it comes up red again. And it’s a 50-50 chance that it comes up red the next time, and the next time, and so on.
So, you have to decide if the Martingale Betting System is for you. If you want to have a bit of recreational fun betting on red or black when playing roulette, the Martingale Betting System is for you, especially if you’re not in it to break the bank. However, if you start using the Martingale Betting Sytstem thinking you’ll make your fortune, then it’s not really the system for you, and you might end up on the road to ruin, and there are better betting systems out there that will make the most out of your bankroll. Or if you do want to make big gains playing roulette with a limited bankroll, there are bets that pay far greater returns, not least betting on one number.
If you’re looking to wager small and win big, put your money down on one number, and use a version of the Martingale that way – double your bet every time your number doesn’t come in. While it’s not true Martingale, 35:1 with $32 on it pays out a much nicer return after losing $30 previously!
Just be careful when using the Martingale Betting System, and if you use it carefully it can be a fun way of spending some time at the roulette table.
The Martingale Betting System Summarized:
There is no betting system more famous than the Martingale betting system, and the Martingale betting system is one of the most popular betting systems when it comes to Roulette.
The Martingale Betting System is the classic “double or nothing” betting system.
Every time you lose, you double your stake until you win again. While this sort of betting system can be applied for most other games, Roulette is the best game to handle the Martingale Betting System. We also recommend that if you want to test out the Martingale System, you test it out at High Noon Casino. High Noon Casino offers $60 free so you can test it out at the real money tables, and offer the best choices when it comes to roulette betting limits.
The reason that Roulette is the best game to use the Martingale system on is due to the even money bets that you can place, like betting on red or black, or even or odd. While technically you could use the Martingale Betting System on other types of bets at different odds, it becomes a mess and your risk of ruin is a lot greater.
How the Martingale Betting System works:
Let’s say you sit at a Roulette table and put $10 on Black. If you win then you continue to bet $10 on Black, much like the Flat Betting System.
The difference in the Flat Betting System and the Martingale Betting System is when you lose.
When you lose with the Flat Betting System, you continue to bet $10. However with the Martingale Betting System if you lose at Roulette, you then double your stake. So your next bet will be $20.
If you win that bet then you go back to $10. If you lose, you then bet $40. If you lose again then you bet $80 and $160 and so on, until you eventually win one, then you go back to $10.
The Martingale Betting System aims to chase your losses via the method of double or nothing, and if you’re looking for action and excitement in a betting system then look no further: betting $2560 to win $10 will have your heart pounding like no other game.
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Practically every player who is new to Roulette will come up with their very own betting system. 