The Martingale betting system represents a class of betting strategies that originated in France in the 18th Century. These strategies were designed to ensure that the game created wins back their stake if the tossed coin came up heads and one loses if the coin comes back tails. Under this strategy, gamblers could double their bets after every loss, and in their first win, they would recover all their losses and win a stake the equals their original stake.
In this article, we give you the lowdown on Martingale, one of the oldest betting strategies applied in roulette and now common in Bitcoin dice among other games. This strategy is easy to use, and it makes complete sense hence its use by beginners. It does not require a great deal of mathematical or strategic understanding, and so, anyone can use it.
But, despite the ease of understanding as well as application, you need to understand that this is a high-risk strategy – it is not written anywhere that you will earn back your winnings after a losing streak! If you have infinite wealth, you will most certainly flip heads after some losses. But, doing that all the time easily takes you down the bankruptcy path especially because you will eventually run out of money.
However, if you are smart enough and if you understand everything about the game, you will win using this strategy.
Placing Bets According to the Martingale strategy
This strategy works best on outside bets which have maximum winning odds of about 50 percent and also small payout compared to the inside bets.
The Martingale betting system is based on the Gambler’s Fallacy which assumes that an event is likely to occur since it hasn’t occurred in some time. So, since you have not won in your past bets, this strategy predicts that your bad luck will break and even after a long losing streak, you will win big, winning back all your losses. It is based on the negative progression betting system and not the positive.
Using the Martingale system
As mentioned above, the use of this strategy is based on a negative progressive betting system, and you need to increase your bets with every loss. Eventually, you will win and recoup all your losses giving you the profit you had projected.
Rule 1 – You need to double up your bets every time you lose. The problem with the losing streak is that you may run out of funds to bet, and that means losing everything you have to your name. So, the only way of making this system work for you is to ensure that you set a budget cap and set limits that you must stick to.
Rule 2 – You have to stick to your baseline stake once you win. What this means is that every time you lose, you win when using this system, you will have to bet your original stake.
Here is an example of what happens if you lose severally while using the strategy: if you start with $10, and you lose four consecutive times, but you win on the fourth game, then you will earn $150 and $160 on your fifth game.
Note that Martingale works well in theory and it hardly works well in real life because tolerating even 3 consecutive losses is something you wouldn’t want to do.
Besides, your bets could also hit the table limit too fast especially if you lose too many times in a row.
So, when should you apply the Martingale strategy?
Use it if you are looking for short-term rather than long-term profits. But, don’t forget to count your losses before it’s too late.