There are scores of online casinos strategy websites, all peddling some form of betting system that supposedly “beats the house” every time. If you’re susceptible to such promises, you are visiting the wrong websites: even blackjack expert card counters, and top baccarat players freely admit that they’ve been wiped out by the house a few times in their careers. Therefore, anyone promising the moon and stars for $19.99 and your email address is probably up to no good. The availability and convenience of the internet makes online gaming easy for most people to enjoy, but always remember that you can only improve your odds, NOT change the odds.
This brings us to one of the most time honored betting systems of all time, “The Martingale Strategy”. We’re sure that those of you who frequent gaming sites have seen this ubiquitous strategy, which started long before online casinos opened for business.
The crux of the Martingale Strategy is simple: If you lose a wager, double the amount of your next wager in an attempt to recover the losses you suffered plus wind up ahead of the house by the amount of your original wager. If you lose this second bet, double your bet amount AGAIN and attempt to break even for all the past losing bets you’ve made, plus end up ahead of the house. Here’s a numerical example:
- Biff has a $100 bankroll
- Biff bets $10 on blackjack and loses, now he’s down to $90 bankroll.
- Biff now employs Martingale system: he multiplies the amount of his prior losing bet by 2, to get $20, and now bets $20 on the next hand of blackjack
- Biff now has $70 bankroll, since $90-$20 second bet = $70.
- Biff wins his $20 hand of blackjack, being paid out 1:1, getting his original bet back plus $20.
- Biff now has a $110 bankroll: $70 + $20 wagered that was returned for $90, then an additional $20 in winnings, $90 + $20 = $110.
- Biff continues to play in this fashion: any time he loses, he doubles his prior bet each successive hand in order to get back ahead of house, or until he’s out of money.
- Continuing to double bet could exhaust your entire bank roll – Essentially, you can’t continue to double your bet indefinitely, because you are limited by the amount of money you have. Returning to Biff our player, if he loses 3 hands in a row, he ends up with $30 bankroll, which would be insufficient, because he would need $80 for his fourth hand:
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$100 bankroll – $10 losing bet = $90 bankroll after first hand
then $90 bankroll – $20 losing bet = $70 bankroll after second hand
then $70 bankroll – $40 losing bet = $30 bankroll after third hand
then $80 would be required for a fourth hand, but Biff only has $30
Biff is now out of luck, because he can’t muster the required $80 to get back ahead of the house plus $10 in winnings. He now must only bet with what he has, and find some other way to get back above water.
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- Even if you had an infinite amount of money, table betting limits will eventually constrain you from making a winning wager – Table limits are in place for a reason, which is in part to discourage people from attempting to double up infinitely until they end up ahead of the house. Suppose now that Biff has $200 bankroll, but there is a $50 betting limit at Biff’s blackjack table. We end up with this scenario:
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$200 bankroll – $10 losing bet = $190 bankroll after first hand
then $190 bankroll – $20 losing bet = $170 bankroll after second hand
then $170 bankroll – $40 losing bet = $130 bankroll after third hand
then $80 would be required for a fourth hand, but Biff can only wager $50 because the house table limit will not permit a larger bet.
As a result, Biff is out of luck again. Even if he wins his next bet in the amount of $50, the table limit, he is still “down” from his other losing wagers.
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On the surface this Martingale betting strategy looks like it makes sense: you almost can’t lose, because even if you suffer multiple losing hands, the very next hand that is a win will return all your losses plus the value of your very first bet. In essence the casino would have to be “rigged” if you lost several hands in a row, which even under the most cantankerous gaming rules generally does not happen.
Digging deeper, there are a couple of problems here, one of which was alluded to in our example with Biff the Blackjack player:
So, as we can see from Biff’s two cases; limited bankroll, or limited table stakes, that he can’t employ the Martingale strategy forever. The “physics” and limitations of his own wallet and the casino’s betting limits constrain him from constantly doubling up.
This is why we titled this article “Martingale or Bust”. The Martingale betting strategy only gets you so far with online casinos before you will eventually get way behind and will have to tap out, with a substantially diminished bankroll, or more likely, no bankroll left at all.
Remember, as with any betting “system”, there are catches. There’s no fool proof way to beat the house, simply because the odds and game rules are in their favor. You can improve your chances, but you cannot eliminate the house’s edge.
Our advice: the Martingale strategy is fun for small stakes, like $1 bets, but if you’re a serious online casinos player, this is a rather foolhardy to try and make any sort of win.
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