The world of online gambling is simple and complex at the same time; you can start out placing bets without any specific strategy, but many gamblers eventually start strategizing to increase their chances of winning. In Roulette, one of the most popular winning strategies is the Martingale strategy. If you’ve never heard of it or don’t fully know how it works, this is your chance to catch up and hopefully walk home with a win.
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Introducing the Martingale Strategy
The Martingale strategy is mostly associated with online Roulette games, but an adapted version can be used for numerous different casino games and gambling types. Before we dive into how the Martingale strategy works and who can benefit from using it, we’ll start with a quick introduction to give you an idea of what it is.
What you do when using the Martingale strategy is to start by placing a small bet, and then whenever you lose, you increase your bet. This might seem backward at first, but by raising your bet when you lose a bet, you’re statistically more likely to win the next time with a higher bet. If it works out, you should theoretically win back your losses when using the Martingale strategy.
How Martingale Works
When applying this strategy as a Roulette gambler, there are a few different ways to do it. One of the most popular ones is when you bet only on even-money outside bets. What this means is that you bet on numbers 1 to 18, as well as on numbers 19 to 36. This also includes Odd, Even, Black and Red. A strategy like this gives you the best possible odds to win a spin, but the payout is going to be low (1:1).
For this strategy to work, the smartest thing you can do is to start out with a very low bet, and preferably as low as you can. If you win, then you continue betting the same amount in every round until you eventually (and inevitably) lose. When that first loss comes, you’ll go on and double your bet, and every time you lose going forward, you will double your bet again.
The purpose of this is that when you win, you’ll win back the amount you lost in the previous round as well as an additional percentage, which theoretically means you’ll never run out of money to play if everything goes as planned. However, you still run the risk of losing more money than you bet, but the risk is supposedly reduced.
Keep in mind that for this to work, you should always reset your bet whenever you win again, and start over with the lowest bet. In theory, this is a perfect strategy that should allow you to continue playing for as long as you want, but in reality, there are a few things that could interrupt your game plan when using the martingale strategy.
If you use the Martingale strategy as described in this article, then you have a roughly 50% chance to win, but the truth is that this estimate isn’t exact. Your real winning chance is 48.6%, and the other 1.4% is essentially the green pocket on the Roulette wheel, which works as an ideal representative for the casino house edge.
No matter how well you do when you play or how long you continue to break even thanks to the Martingale strategy, the house edge is always going to be there ready to cash in on your placed bets. It is essential to understand that this isn’t specific to the Martingale strategy, as any Roulette strategy is going to have the same outcome.
Martingale Strategy Downsides
It is not a very popular strategy among experienced Roulette players, and one of the reasons for this is that it’s considered a strategy that is efficient short-term, and not when going after the big wins. You are likely to win repeatedly and to win back the money you lost on losing rounds, but many experienced players argue that you’ll likely go +/- 0 in the end, with no significant increase (or decrease) of your original amount.
There is also a significantly bigger risk to lose more than you win, considering how small the wins are likely to be even if you win on many of your spins. What it comes down to is how you prefer to win and if you value frequent wins over large amounts. Overall, this is a strategy that seems to work in its own way, so it is up to you to make the decision of whether it could benefit your Roulette gambling.
Another issue with the Martingale strategy is that you need sufficient funds for it to work, There is a very high risk of you having to be out a significant amount of money until you eventually win it back, and if your budget doesn’t allow for this type of risk-taking, then you could end up losing all your money before you get a chance to win it back.
When you are a beginner, it is so easy to get swept away when you hear things like “perfect strategy,” but there is a lot more to it. You need a substantial amount of money to successfully apply the Martingale Method, or you’ll have to stop halfway through before you’ve managed to win back your losses.
What this means for you as a player is that you can’t gamble with this strategy, so to speak, and it’s a bad idea to use it unless you have enough funds to go full circle. This strategy is not a quick way to big bucks, but more of a way to prolong your gambling without losing any significant amounts of money. Patience is required, as well as a substantial budget.
When you first start using the Martingale strategy when gambling online, it can seem like it works seamlessly as you don’t seem to be losing. Mathematically, this is what is bound to happen, but many advise against it as a long-term strategy due to the large amounts of money you could end up losing before you get the sought-after chance to win it back.
If it gets to a point where you’re no longer able to keep it up due to your finances, then you will have lost any money you previously gambled with which can quickly reach quite hefty amounts if you’re not careful. It is easy to get carried away thinking you’ll eventually win, and you will, but will your acquired winnings make your time and money spent worthwhile?
The Outcomes of the Martingale Strategy
For a beginner, this can seem like a lot of confusing information, but the Martingale strategy is, in fact, one of the easiest winning strategies out there. This doesn’t mean it is right for everyone or that anyone should use it, but it is based on very simple assumptions which we are going to demonstrate below.
With Martingale, we assume that one out of two outcomes is going to happen. When you spin the Roulette wheel, you will either win or lose, which equals to outcome #1 and outcome #2. There is no other way the game can go. You win, or you lose.
If you start out by placing a $10 bet and outcome #1 occurs—you win, then you keep betting $10 until outcome #2 occurs. There is a 50/50 chance of winning and losing, and when you lose, instead of betting the same amount you go ahead and double your bet. You are now betting $20 instead of $10. If you win in this round, then you win back the $10 you lost in the previous round and you’ll then start over with the minimum bet again.
However, it is likely that you will continue losing for a few rounds, and every time you lose, you double your previous bet. If you have the funds to do this, then you will eventually win a high bet that’ll cover all your previous losses. In theory, this strategy is bulletproof, but it won’t work unless you gamble with a large budget.
Martingale Strategy and Roulette
In the gambling industry, the Martingale strategy is strongly associated with Roulette, but the truth is that this is a principle that can be applied to other games, the stock market and much more. The key is that there can only be two potential outcomes or the strategy won’t work, and if the minimum stakes are higher, then you’ll naturally need a very large budget As a result, it is not as commonly used for stock market purchases as it is when gambling small-scale roulette, as the amounts you could end up losing before you win it back are drastically different. The Martingale strategy is also commonly used in Blackjack, but it becomes a bit more complex since you can apply different Blackjack strategies in addition to the Martingale strategy, and it requires more knowledge and preparation.
The Financial Risk with the Martingale Strategy
Believe it or not, but it is not unheard of to lose 10 times in a row in Roulette. It might not be too common or statistically probable, but it does happen and it is something those using the Martingale strategy need to prepare themselves for. Let’s take a moment to explore what happens if you start out with a $2 bet and lose 10 consecutive times.
You might win back your money a lot faster than what we see here in this example, but if not, can you afford to be out $1024 before winning it all back? If the answer is anything other than yes, then you might be taking a big risk by using the Martingale strategy when gambling on the internet.
It is true that you won’t always end up reaching these high betting amounts, but it is important to understand that it can and does happen, and it is something gamblers need to be prepared for to be successful when applying the Martingale strategy.
FAQ
Yes, Roulette is the casino game most people associate with the Martingale strategy, and it is very easy to use thanks to the simple 50/50 outcome of the game. You either win or lose, and it makes the game ideal for the Martingale strategy.
Yes, you can also use the Martingale strategy when playing Blackjack. However, Blackjack is a more complex game than Roulette, and how you play as well as how you apply other strategies could affect the outcome and success rate of the Martingale.
In theory, yes, it always works, as it is based on simple mathematics. However, for the strategy to work, you need to have enough money and time to play until you eventually win again, as you end up losing everything if you quit before winning your money back.
Yes, a large budget is needed to play safely with the Martingale strategy. In most cases, you do tend to win on a regular basis which allows you to start betting with the lowest amount again, but you need to be prepared for the odd chance of this not happening, where you could end up losing over 10 times in a row. In such a scenario, you need a big enough budget to be able to continue playing and raising your bets until you win.
The simplicity of the strategy makes it a good one for beginners, but the downside is that some beginners may not understand the risks. It is essential to do your research so that you know what you’re getting into before using the Martingale strategy.
The Martingale strategy is popular in a sense that it is used frequently by many players. However, experienced Roulette players are usually not too fond of it, as the payout tends to be low once you’ve covered your losses.
This is an incredibly simple strategy to use. You start with the lowest possible bet, and if you win, you bet the same amount one more time. If you lose, you double your previous bet, and continue doubling it for every round until you eventually win. The purpose is to cover your losses automatically over a period of time.
Yes, you can legally use the Martingale strategy when gambling at both online casinos and land-based casinos.
Comparing Budget for the Martingale Strategy
| Round | Bet | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2 | Loss |
| 2 | $4 | Loss |
| 3 | $8 | Loss |
| 4 | $16 | Loss |
| 5 | $32 | Loss |
| 6 | $64 | Loss |
| 7 | $128 | Loss |
| 8 | $256 | Loss |
| 9 | 512 | Loss |
| 10 | 1024 | Win |
Trying the Martingale Strategy for Free
If you are interested in testing out the Martingale strategy in Roulette or Blackjack without the risk, then you can try a demo version of one of these games! Live casino games are not available for demo play due to the live features, but you can play regular RNG table games for free by clicking on the demo option. This is available at most casinos.
While playing demo Roulette or Blackjack, you won’t be betting or winning any real money, but it can help you determine whether the Martingale strategy is something that would work for you, while also seeing first-hand how it works when you double your bet every time you lose.
Final Say on the Martingale Strategy
No winning strategy in casino gambling is perfect, but the Martingale strategy is one that works as expected when you use it the right way. Ask yourself if you have the time, patience and money to continue playing until you win your money back, even in a worst-case scenario where it might take 10+ rounds for you to score a win.
It tends to be fun and exciting as long as you win from time to time, but once the size of your bets and losses start adding up, it is common to start experiencing stress and even despair. If this is the case, then the Martingale strategy probably wasn’t right for you. It is not the kind of strategy you want to dive into head-first, despite its simplistic nature, and we advise you to do your research and to test it out in a casino demo game first before placing any real bets.
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