The Martingale betting system has always been subject to hot discussions and debates. Some people say that this is the most reliable and safe system, while others have some doubts about it. Who’s right? Is it the best betting strategy? And how does betting work in fact? In order to sort everything out, let’s take a closer look at this system first.
The Martingale strategy is very easy to remember, as it doesn’t require any special math skills or anything like that. The concept of the system sounds pretty simple - you double your bet every round until you hit a win. Each game round, the winning chances remain the same - 50/50. In order to make the system work, you should stick with a certain bet type. For example, only red or black. Yep, we are talking about Roulette, because it works best in this game. You can try it while playing Blackjack or Craps as well, but we’ll describe the system using the example of Roulette.
Breaking Down The Myths About How To Win A Bet Every Time
According to the gambling theory, the Martingale Roulette system is a perfect system that can never go wrong. You keep doubling your bet, and sooner or later you win, and make up for the whole non-winning streak. However, in practice, things are a bit different. Let’s imagine that your initial bet is €1. In this case, the progression of your bet will be the following: 1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128-256-512-1024-2048-4096-... As we said, the chances to win are the same during each game round, regardless of your bet size. The point is that if you hit a win only on the 10th step, where the bet size is €512, your net win will be €1, which is the size of your initial bet. Yep, you might bet too much in order to win your initial bet. And what if you do not win 10, or even 15 times in a row? The risks would get astronomical, and everything you get in the end would be that €1 win. Luck is an unpredictable thing.
You might think, why not start with a €100 bet? Okay, let’s do some simple math. The progression will be like this: 100-200-400-800-1600-3200-6400-12800-25600-51200-... Are you sure you will be able to go the distance? This confirms the fact that the Martingale system works well only if you have an infinite bankroll. If that was the case, you wouldn’t look for the Martingale strategy rules, would you?
Do you need some more reasons to avoid this roulette betting strategy? No problem! When you start using it, you should be ready to bet a lot, since you never know when you’ll hit a win. Here is one little problem: usually, there are bet limits on every Roulette or Blackjack table. If you reach this limit and do not win, say “goodbye” to Martingale, presumably the best roulette betting strategy. Even reliable casinos such as Trada, Rizk, or Betat, don't usually allow making bets higher than €5-10k on roulette, which means that if you're having an unlucky streak, you will hit that limit eventually.
All in all, the Martingale system is nothing more than self-deception. If you want to use it, you should start with the lowest bet (unless your bankroll is unlimited of course), and when you hit a win, you just get several cents or so above your initial bankroll. There are some other variations of the Martingale system, like the Anti Martingale, where you keep halving your bet after each loss and doubling it after each win, but this is even more ridiculous than the standard one. If you want to learn about these Roulette winning systems, check out our more detailed Martingale strategy guide.
