In 18th century France, the Martingale betting system was introduced by its namesake. The betting system was designed specifically for the benefit of Roulette players who were willing to focus on bets that had approximately a 50% chance of winning. This would include red/black, odd/even and 1-18/19-36. The house’s advantage on Roulette is derived from existence of the green single zero or both a green single and double zero.
The Martingale betting system can also be applied to the game of blackjack. Before we get into the details, it’s important for you to remember no betting system is going to affect the house’s advantage. Those are set in stone by math. What betting systems are designed to do is to give players a disciplined way of wagering. They are also designed to help players minimize losses during bad streaks and maximize winnings during hot streaks.
The Martingale betting system falls into the class of “doubling up” systems. The player is required to bet double the amount of their prior wager if it is a loss. Uniquely, the Martingale system dictates that the player returns to their base bet after a win. Effectively, they will continue doubling up on each losing bet until the win comes and they claim net winnings equal to the base bet amount. Running out this permutation, one will quickly realize they stand a chance of running out of money if they hit a bad streak. Prior to using the Martingale system, the player needs to establish the maximum bankroll they can afford to lose without adversely affecting their financial standing. After doing that, they must exhibit the discipline to abide by their limits. The site Slotsino advocates for responsible gambling.
Using a base bet of $1, let’s take a look at how the Martingale betting system is employed.
The first bet is $1. If the player loses, the next bet will be $2. If they win, they will have a $1 profit for the sequence and the next bet will also be $1. If the player bets $2 after a losing bet and loses again, the next bet will be $4. If they win the $2 bet, they will have a net profit of $1 for the sequence (wagered a total of $3, got a return of $4). Taking it one more step, if the player loses the $4 bet, they will wager $8 on the next hand. They now will have invested a total of $15 for the sequence. If they win the $8 hand, they will get a return of $16 for the usual $1 profit and return to a $1 wager. The process continues until the player can no longer sustain the system or wins their target amount.
If you are wondering how many losses it would take to exhaust a $100 bankroll, here’s the betting sequences that would be used with a $1 base bet: $1 + $2 + $4 + $8 + $16 +32 = $63 and you can no longer bet the next level of $64. It is important to note that it’s not hard to lose six hands in a row with random outcomes on each event.
