You’ve probably heard that “everyone has their own system.” This statement may be true, but the fact is that – whether they realize it or not – many people actually use exactly the same system. In the so-called roulette strategy, by far the most popular betting system is Martingale – a system based on playing even money bets and doubling down after losses.
For new players, Martingale can be a good introduction to both the positives and limitations of betting systems. More experienced players are certainly right to point out the drawbacks of this system, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a time and place (and a player) for whom Martingale is the ideal betting method.
How the Martingale system works
In order to use the Martingale system on a roulette table you will need a fairly substantial bankroll and the ability to do some basic math. In Martingale, you’ll only make bets on even money bets (such as red/black or odd/even) and double the bet after each loss.
Here’s how it works. You’ll want to start with a table minimum, and for the purposes of this example we’ll say it’s $5. If you win a bet at any time during the system it will always revert to that $5 level.
However, when you lose a bet, it will be time to double your bet on the next spin. For example, if you lose a $5 bet your next bet will be $10. Lose that bet and you will go to the $20 level, and so on. Remember, however, that if you win at any time your next bet is back to just $5 again.
The Martingale system is designed to allow you to accumulate many small wins with very little risk of losing your entire bankroll. Since you always double your bet, the bottom line of any winning bet is a $5 profit, whether you win at the $5 level or at any other bet level after that. On the contrary, a system like Guetting is designed to win a sizable amount of chips at the end of a winning streak or coupon.
That’s Martingale in a nutshell. It usually helps to have an end point in mind when using this system. You can choose to play until you win a certain amount of money or until a certain amount of time has passed.
Problems with the Martingale system
There are several issues to remember when it comes to using the Martingale system in roulette. The first issue is the hard reality that the Martingale system will not allow you to overcome the house edge in roulette. Every bet you make still has an edge for the casino and, while the times you lose your entire bankroll will be rare, they will happen frequently to cause you to eventually lose money at the expected rate (at least in the long run).
This is not always true if you have a literally infinite bankroll, because then you could play for as long as necessary until you finally get a win and still be ahead by $5 at that point. But unfortunately, even for those with very large bankrolls, there is a different emphasis on the system. This is the maximum bet at your table.
Imagine that your roulette table has a minimum of $5 and a maximum of $500. That means you can make seven bets – bets of $5, $10, $20, $40, $80, $160 and $320 – before you are no longer allowed to double your bet.
This means that if you should lose seven consecutive bets, you will end up going “bust” for this cycle, and you will lose a total of $635. That would be fine if you only lost seven times in a row once every 128 cycles, because that would be enough to break even. However, on an American roulette wheel this will happen about once every 90 cycles – too often to show a profit.
The numbers are better on the European roulette wheel, as it only happens once every 106 cycles or so – but that’s still not good enough to beat the house and take advantage of the biased wheel.
It’s also worth noting that you’ll need a fairly large bankroll compared to your initial bet to use this system. In the example above, the $5 initial bet requires a bankroll of $635 in order to play the system for at least seven consecutive spins.
Advantages of the Martingale system
Despite the limitations outlined above, that doesn’t mean you can’t, or even shouldn’t, use Martingale. That is as long as you understand what you are going to get out of the system.
Martingale is ideal for players who are willing to take the risk of losing a lot of money on certain occasions in exchange for frequent small wins. If you use Martingale in a casino, chances are that you will end most nights with small winnings.
There will be times when things go wrong and you lose a large sum, but on any trip to the casino you are more likely to come out on the plus side – something that is sure to appeal to many players.