The Martingale System and Its Derivatives

The Hunch and the System

A bias-free roulette wheel can be played in two ways, on a "hunch", or using a definite "system".

The hunch system may include the numbers in the player's birth date of one of his/her relatives, his/her lucky numbers, recent winning lottery draws, etc. No mathematical reason is used here. The majority of American players trust this system when playing roulette.

But that is not the case in Europe. The majority of players there consider the hunch method pure stupidity, which naturally leads to losing money.
European players do not employ a hunch but a system based on mathematics, as they believe that roulette has to be played systematically with the help of some logical or numerical basis.

Fact is that most average players have lost money attempting to gamble roulette with mathematical betting systems. The reality, though, of such results is that most average players have failed to study or become proficient in the nuances of system play. Casinos will continue to perpetuate myth that a mathematical betting system will not provide a player with consistent winnings, when in fact these establishments fear system players who know what they're doing.

All of the most common betting systems handle the six even-money outside bets (red, black, odd, even, low, high), which we have now discussed. As all of these bets are statistically and financially similar when bet on a fair wheel, from the standpoint of systems it doesn't matter which of them a player will employ.

Now, let's take a look at several of the traditional playing systems at https://norskcasino.pro/ more in depth.

The Martingale System

The Martingale betting scheme and its variations, popularly known as doubling-up or progression systems, are the most common among roulette players globally. Its original Martingale concept, applicable to any repeating even-money wager, was invented over three centuries ago, while its popularity has been on the rise since then. The systems have enriched some players, but inflicted monumental losses on others as well.

• The Martingale system, in its most basic form, assumes that the initial bet size would be doubled after each successive loss.
• After each successive win, the bet is reduced to its original size and is retained in such a state until the player suffers a loss.
• Eventually, each loss will be balanced out by a net gain of the size of the original bet.

If a player is betting 4 units to begin with and it loses, the next bet will be 8 units. If the second bet loses also, then the third one will be 16 units. If the third bet loses too, the fourth one will be 32 units. If the fourth wager is a winner, the sum of the initial three wagers (4 + 8 + 16 = 28) shall be paid out and there shall be a net gain of 4 units. Whenever any wager is a winner, the size of the next wager shall be reduced to half of the original size of 4 units.

4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512

When, following the eighth consecutive loss, the player doubles his/her subsequent bet, the table limit will be reached. It is not so rare an event that a player can incur eight consecutive losses on even-money bets. Experts indicate the event can occur once in every 170 ball spins. In United States' casinos, 80 to 100 ball spins can occur in one hour. Thus, for every even-money wager a player can anticipate this series of losses to occur at least each two hours.

Casinos have been urged by gambling experts to protect themselves against system players by maintaining tight table limits. Such is the reason why they have all maintained the minimum-to-maximum bet ratio on roulette tables at their establishments to no greater than 100 to 1 or even to no more than 200 to 1. In this way, system players can double bets a total of six or seven times.

Reverse Martingale

There are people who do not prefer to chase their losses, as is generally the case when employing the traditional Martingale system, but instead look to take advantage of a winning streak. As far as the Reverse Martingale strategy is concerned, a player will typically double his/her bet following each win, whereas the bet will be reset to its initial value following each loss.

A player will usually rely on his/her good sense to determine how long a winning streak should continue. He/she ought not to let such a streak hit the table limit because an eight-ball winning streak can occur every 395 ball spins, experts advise. And because the first loss will inevitably "absorb" all the potential winnings from the series, it needs to be kept at a minimum (reduced to the initial bet value), so that any gain is kept.

In short, a player has to be very cautious using this Martingale variation.