THE MARTINGALE
More famous as a Roulette system the Martingale staking plan is theoretically and even mathematically infallible. But unfortunately, and many people have found this out the hard way, this doesn’t mean that it works. You can easily adapt the staking plan to horse-racing or any other gambling medium where your chances of success are even money i.e. flipping a coin and it works like this. (We’ll use roulette for this example as it’s easier to explain)
Very simply you just double your bet each time you lose.
You go into a casino and place your first bet on Red.
£1 at evens…Up comes Black, you lose. You are now -£1
Next bet, £2 on Red at evens.
If you win you get £4 back and win £1 (you have staked £3 up to this point). Your next bet is back to the start, £1, and you repeat the process.
If you lose you simply stake £4 on Red and carry on doubling your stake until Black comes up.
Simples! Amazing I hear you cry! Foolproof!
Well, before you go rushing down to the local casino armed with a fistful of cash, consider this.
If Black comes up 10 times in a row (and I’ve seen this many times in a casino) you will be staking £1024 on your next bet just to win £1 (you have staked £1023 up to this point). With casino’s insisting on a £5 minimum bet for Red/Black selections your next stake will actually be £5120 to win £5 profit after 10 losses. Oh dear!
For £1 bets if Black were to come up 15 times in a row you are now having to stake over £30,000 just to win £1. There aren’t too many casino I know of that allow you that kind of wager.
All of a sudden it doesn’t look quite so good and that is where this staking system ultimately fails. You will need unlimited funds to counter any variance or downswing and have nerves of steel to be placing those kind of bets just to win £1 or £5. We’ve all backed 10 losers or more on the trot and not many of us have the kind of resources available to withstand that kind of losing run.
Time to look elsewhere.
Benefits: Very easy to use
Downfalls: A long losing run will have you rushing to sign up for a Swiss suicide clinic
Requirements: Nerves of steel, Bill Gate’s bank balance
Probable Outcome of using this plan: Bankruptcy
Type of person this system suits (suited): Kerry Packer
Note: If you’ve ever been tempted by those adverts for the ‘Unbeatable Roulette System’ costing £1000’s then don’t bother. More often than not, all you’ll get is the above padded out to 20 pages. Please make your cheques payable to Gavin Priestley 