Will The Martingale System Make You Win?

By Author: Will Win
Total Articles: 162
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All casino games need a strategy which will shave the house edge and give the players a better chance of winning. However, not just any old strategy will do. Firstly, it needs to make sense for it to work. Secondly, it needs to suit the playing style of the user. And thirdly, it needs to reap financial returns. With this in mind, just how successful is the Martingale system?

For Martingale newbies this system is well known system both online and offline. It's been gracing the felts at major casinos worldwide, and some players swear by it where as others chastise its unreliability. The system is based on the money that is bet and the possibility of winning back losses by upping stakes.

How it works is as follows: you select a table with the minimum stake that suits your pocket. You play your hand, betting the minimum stake only. If your hand wins then you bet the same amount again. If you lose you double the stake. This continues until you hit a win. Simple hey?

Now let's look at the realities. The law of averages says that there in any gambling scenario involving two people (the player and the dealer), ...
... there is a 50/50 chance of winning. But the law of the casino knows better; the house always has the advantage. Therefore the house will win more hands than the player in an average scenario. This suggests the player will inevitably lose in the end.

Yet the doubling of the stake each time means that the returns are doubled also. The entire strategy is based upon this fact. Therefore, the doubling continues until a win is hit. When this happens, all the previous losses will be recuperated. The stake then returns to the original low amount and the player has a bigger bankroll. The player is ahead. Sounds like genius, correct?

Well, almost; spot the deliberate mistake yet? What the Martingale system does not account for is a complete loss of funds. The system requires a player to have a sturdy bankroll for it to work. Doubling after losses may make sense, but it is not necessarily as viable an option as you would expect. What happens if the player runs out of money before a win is hit? There will have been minimal time at the tables and you are out of the game.

The Martingale system has proved successful for many a player, but these players have a big balance initially to be able to make it work. The alternative for players with a shorter stack is to play at micro tables online. The downfall of this is that it is not going to win you big bucksand assuming you're in it for the money.