Martingale System

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 27th, 2010

Pick up any Roulette book and you're bound to read about the Martingale system. It's a simple system that's been in use for eons. In fact, many other games besides Roulette use this system as well.

For the most part, the Martingale system was designed for even-money bets, but the premise can be applied to just about anything. Today, we'll look at the Martingale betting system from an even-money Roulette perspective.

Technically, this system, which is a series of bet progressions, can go on forever, but that would be foolish. Normally, system bettors will limit their progressions to eight or fewer. And when we go over the progressions, you'll see why.

Is betting the Martingale way foolish? Some say so. That's something you'll have to decide for yourself. I've seen it work and I've seen it fail. But heck, everything fails. The ticket is to win more than you lose. And that's why so many try the Martingale way. It's not a way to quick riches, but it sure can be hard to lose it all sometimes.

I told you we'd look at this from a Roulette pair of eyes, so let's imagine that you've just walked up to the Roulette table or loading one up online. We'll keep this simple. You're a $1 bettor. Easy enough right? Now, we're going to play Red.

Your first wager on Red would be $1. If you win, your next wager on Red is also $1. In other words, you never bet more than a buck after a win. Now, when you lose, that's another story.

In essence, you'll be doubling your wager after every loss. For instance, let's say you wagered $1 and lost. Your next wager on Red would be $2. Lose that and you'll bet $4 next time. It's an easy system to play, but you need to be careful. If you use a large progression chain and lose it all, you'll be playing for ages to recoup the cash.

Here's an example of an 8-step ladder.

Bet One: $1
Bet Two: $2
Bet Three: $4
Bet Four: $8
Bet Five: $16
Bet Six: $32
Bet Seven: $64
Bet Eight: $128

As you can see, when bet eight is on the table, there's $128 in action. If bet eight loses, you're out just over $250-all to win $1. And that's why some think this is a foolish system.

However, let's play the odds. The probability of getting 8 losses in a row on a close to 50/50 bet is very low. Still, it does happen.

Want to boost your odds? Wait for the other side to come out 2-3 times in a row then bet the opposite. It would then take 10-11 losers in a row to clean out the system.