Martingale Strategy in Roulette
The Martingale strategy is one of the most famous, simplest but also the most tricky betting strategies not only in Roulette.
History of the Martingale Strategy
The strategy was named after John Henry Martindale, whose name was later mutilated to Martingale. J. H. Martindale was a casino owner in London. He was so convinced that the casino would always have to win, that he encouraged players to double their bets as long as his casino was in trouble.
A hundred years later in 1891 the Martingale strategy was succesfully used by legendary Charles Wells, who broke the bank 12times within 3 days in Monte Carlo! His succes was the occasion for a song „The man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo”.
He started playing with 4,000 francs, but he brought home 1,000,000 francs! He lived life in rich, but in the autumn of his life speculations on bursa become fatal to him and he lost his fortune.
The Principle of the Martingale Strategy
The principle of the Martingale system consists in doubling the bets after each lost spin. The players usually make bets on red or black numbers, but you can well bet on any other even odds, ie. on low (1-18) and high (19-36) numbers and on even and odd numbers.
You bet one unit (a dollar for example) on your even odd. If you lose, you repeat your odd, but bet a double amount, that is 2 × 1 = 2 units. If you lose now, you double you bet again, that is 2 × 2 = 4 units etc. If you kept losing, you would be betting 8, 16, 32, 64, 128... units in succesive steps. Whenever you win, you always gain one unit (see the table below).
| Spin | Your Bet in Units | Loss | Profit | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Next Bet | Loss in Units | Cumulated Loss in Units | |||
| 1. | 1 | ×2 | 1 | 1 | 2 × 1 - 1 = 1 |
| 2. | 2 | ×2 | 2 | 3 | 2 × 2 - 3 = 1 |
| 3. | 4 | ×2 | 4 | 7 | 2 × 4 - 7 = 1 |
| 4. | 8 | ×2 | 8 | 15 | 2 × 8 - 15 = 1 |
| 5. | 16 | ×2 | 16 | 31 | 2 × 16 - 31 = 1 |
| 6. | 32 | ×2 | 32 | 63 | 2 × 32 - 63 = 1 |
| 7. | 64 | ×2 | 64 | 127 | 2 × 64 - 127 = 1 |
| 8. | 128 | ×2 | 128 | 255 | 2 × 128 - 255 = 1 |
| etc. | Whenever you win you always gain one unit, the sequel ends and you start over with one unit. | ||||
The Drawbacks of the Martingale Strategy
There are several drawback of the Martingale system. Doubling the bets makes them grow in geometric progression. Therefore it is recommended to begin a small initial bet. Even though the bets can grow rapidly when having bad series (consequently lost spins).
Some players are convinced that when e.g. red colour came 3 times in a row, it would be more probable for black colour to come up. The answer is: No, not at all! A new spin is always a new event. That means you have got the same chance for black or red number to come up (18/37 in French roulette, 18/38 in American roulette). Roulette has no memory!
Moreover these days it would be hard to follow the succes of Charles Wells. Simply for the reason that all casinos set limits for the maximum bet. For instance, if the minimum bet would be 100$ and maximum 5,000$, then you can double your bet only 5times: 200, 400, 800, 1 600, 3 200. And it is not unsual when the same colour comes up 7- or 8times in a row!
If we abstracted from this and had unlimited capital and no limits for bets, then it would be really "probable" that you would finally win using the Martingale strategy.