The Martingale System

The Martingale System | The Anti-Martingale System

The Martingale System
     The Martingale is usually the first choice of a novice gambler and is probably the oldest of betting progressions, many other systems are based on the basic theory of the Martingale, and so to evaluate most systems you need a full understanding of the Martingale.

General Concept
     The Martingale is a progression system played on the even chance bets on a roulette table although it can be used on even chance bets on other games.
As other progressions it's main purpose is to obtain profit even though they could be a series of losing spins, exponentially increasing your bets after every negative spin.
The basic idea is: if you bet on one of the even chance bets (e.g. Red) sooner or later it will outcome.
Till it doesn't happen, you must continue and increase your bets after each losing spin in order to win back all your losses plus one unit.
The bottom line is: in order to win all your previous losses back plus one unit, you simply need to double your bet each time.

Rule
     - Double your bet after a losing spin and if you win, you start again with one unit bet -

Follow these simple points:
1) fix the unit value (chip = $1, $5 or any other value)
2) start the session by placing one unit on one of the even chance bets (e.g. "Black")
3) after a losing bet you increase your next bet doubling your previous bet
4) after a winning bet you start again with one unit bet from point 1)

Pratical examples
     Let's follow this first example:

- Spin #1
place 1 unit on Black,
Red outcomes, you lose
the result of this spin is -1 unit
bankroll after the spin is -1 unit

- Spin #2
double your bet: place 2 units on Black
Red outcomes again, you lose
the result of this spin is -2 units
bankroll after this spin is -3 units

- Spin #3
double your bet: place 4 units on Black
Black outcomes, you win
result of this spin is +4 units
bankroll after this spin is 1

- Spin #4
start a new gaming session: place 1 unit on Black
Red outcomes, you lose
the result of this spin is -1 unit
bankroll after this spin is 0 units

- Spin #5
double your bet: place 2 units on Black
Red outcomes again, you lose
the result of this spin is -2 units
bankroll after this spin is -2 units

- Spin #6
double your bet: place 4 units on Black
Red outcomes again, you lose
the result of this spin is -4 units
bankroll after this spin is -6 units

- Spin #7
double your bet: place 8 units on Black
Black outcomes, you win
result of this spin is +8 units
bankroll after this spin is +2 units

and so on...
When the winning spin outcomes (spin#3,7,13,14) you can recover your previous losses back plus one winning unit, in other words you will win one unit for every win.
This example demonstrates that with this progression you can easily wager a huge amount of money in order to recover back your losses.
Every time you lose your spin, you must exponentially increase your bets but if a winning spin outcomes then your profit will be for one unit only.
Considering the previous example, you may notice that total units after 14 Spins are 4 units only, but in the meantime you have bet (in spin#13) 32 units and the bankroll hits negative figures of -29 units.

Conclusions
     Although infallible in theory, the Martingale system requires a large bankroll, has a very low return and is a very risky one because of the maximum bet limits imposed by the casinos. If you run out of money or reach the house limit, you can lose a lot with no chance to recover your losses. The physical limit for this progression lies on the huge amount of requested capital that reaches the house limit in a very short time. On the other hand, the concept limit lies on the opportunity to wager or not a huge amount of money just for a senseless winning: after 8 losing spins you must play 256 units to obtain just one(1) winning unit and a series of 8 negaive spins can occur very easily in the simple chance. The exponentialness for these bets is been presented in this chart:

A couple of years ago the most consecutive even chances spun was '42 Blacks', if you had started playing $1 on 'red' and there was no table limit then your bet on the 43rd spin would have been approx $4,398,046,511,000.
Bill Gates would have lost his fortune after about 37 spins.
Playing the Martingale system will probably (but not definitely) make win you a few dollars when you start using it, but eventually you will get stung badly.
There are many variations of Martingale system, and it can be used with other methods or in other more complicated systems but limited to two or three bets maximum, in this case the maximum exposure is 7 units for every gaming session.

The Anti-Martingale System
     Before reading this you should look at the Martingale system.
This system is designed for use on the even chance bets on a roulette table but can be used on any even chance bets.

General Concept
     Playing the Anti-Martingale is precisely what the name suggests, it's the Martingale in reverse.
Instead of doubling your bets after a losing spin you double your bet after a winning spin.
Basically you place a bet on an even chance and "let it ride" for a set number of spins.
Before starting the system you must decide how many spins you are going to play for, alternatively you may decide to remove your winnings when your nerve breaks or even remove part of the winnings after a number of spins and let the remaining bet continue for a little bit longer.

Rule
     - Double your bet after a winning spin, start again with one bet for one unit after a losing spin -

Follow these simple points:
1) fix the unit value (chip = $1, $5 or any other value)
2) decide how many spins you are going to play before removing your winnings, as an example 4 spins.
3) start the session by placing one unit on one of the even chance bets (e.g. "Black")
4) after a losing bet you start again with one unit bet
5) after a winning bet increase your next bet doubling your previous bet for a maximum, as an example, of 4 consecutive spins.

Pratical examples

- Spin #1
place 1 unit on Black,
Black outcomes, you win
the result of this spin is +1 unit
bankroll after the spin is +1 unit

- Spin #2
double your bet: place 2 units on Black
Red outcomes, you lose
the result of this spin is -2 units
bankroll after this spin is -1 unit

- Spin #3
start a new gaming session: place 1 unit on Black
Red outcomes again, you lose
result of this spin is -1 unit
bankroll after this spin is -2 units

- Spin #4
place 1 unit on Black again
Black outcomes, you win
the result of this spin is +1 unit
bankroll after this spin is -1 unit

- Spin #5
double your bet: place 2 units on Black
Red outcomes, you lose
the result of this spin is -2 units
bankroll after this spin is -3 units

- Spin #6
start a new gaming session: place 1 unit on Black
Black outcomes, you win
the result of this spin is 1 unit
bankroll after this spin is -2 units

- Spin #7
double your bet: place 2 units on Black
Black outcomes, you win
result of this spin is +2 units
bankroll after this spin is 0

- Spin #8
double your bet: place 4 units on Black
Black outcomes, you win
result of this spin is +4 units
bankroll after this spin is +4 units

- Spin #9
double your bet: place 8 units on Black
Black outcomes, you win
result of this spin is +8 units
bankroll after this spin is +12 units

- Spin #10
start a new gaming session: place 1 unit on Black
Red outcomes, you lose
result of this spin is -1 unit
bankroll after this spin is +12 units

At this point you can stop doubling your bets (as 4 consecutive positive spins have occurred) and you can start with a new gaming session wagering again one unit.
and so on...

Obviously this is just an example because it might happen to wait for long time period before getting a series of 4 consecutive winning spins.
You will go through long periods of time losing 1 unit per session, but when you win you will win big.

Conclusions
     The Anti-Martingale offers you the chance to win a lot of money from a small stake, but the price for these big payoffs are that you don't get any small payoffs to keep your bankroll intact.
If you're prepared to lose your bankroll slowly but steadily with the possibility that you will hit a big win occasionally then the Anti-Martingale may be worth a try.

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