This is one of the most basic and more widely spread money management system. Unfortunately it can rarely be used in Black Jack anymore; however it is still worth exploring since it best illustrates the idea behind money management.

It works as the following:

You double your stake, when you lose, and start all over again, when you win. Quite simple actually. This means that you will be ensured a profit, when you win.

Let's make an example: (odds 3) (betting on sports)

You bet 100$ on a home victory at odds 3, but you lose. Next time, you bet 200$ on another game at odds 3. Here you win, meaning a profit of 200$ x 3 - 200$ - 100$ = 300$. If you had lost, you should have increased the stake to 400$, then 800$ etc. No matter when you win, you will win back what you have lost plus a lot more in profit.

As can be seen from the graph below, having strong monetary backup is crucial. Most sources agree that in Black Jack, when using basic strategy, the odds stacked against you are of 50.25% This means that 11 consecutive losses will happen once every 2047 hands you play. If this is an acceptable risk to you, it means that you will need 2047 times your standard bet as funds ready to back up a loosing streak.

The main problem is that the stakes grow very big very fast, when losing several times in a row, i.e. you need a very large betting fund or "bankroll". Another problem is the fact that the bookies and casinos operate with maximum bet limits.

To put a stop on the use of this very simple system, casinos instated minimums and limits on black jack and roulette tables and therefor, unless you can find a black jack table with a very wide limit range, you will not be able to apply this system.

Originally Martingale was used on Red/Black when playing Roulette (odds 2.00). This means that the risk is minimized, but also that the profit at each progression end will be only the starting-stake.

A Martingale II Variation

It is easy to see how the Martingale grows faster and faster as you keep loosing and why you require so much money to support yourself through loosing streaks.

The main problem with the Martingale is that it seeks to earn you money even when you are loosing. Though not a bad idea, this is unnecessary and greatly affects the amount you need as back up.

The MII only seeks to make you make money on the second hand after a loss.

The MII simply seeks to have you regain the money lost without attempting to gain money even when you loose. You only double after the first loss, and after that you simply bet the amount that you have lost so far.

This means that the first win after a loosing streak of more then 2 losses will not earn you anything but only cover what you have lost so far. This is based on the fact that long loosing streaks are statistically less probable and therefor on the second hand you bet 10 rather then only 5. All subsequent hands, you will bet the total that you have lost so far, which comes down to doubling.

Making money when you loose is the catch phrase that draws people to the Martingale, but the essential here is not to make money when you lose, but to be able to afford a losing streak.

A dose of realism

As stated above, the Martingale can rarely be used in casino situations because of table limits. Although promising, the Martingale technique will eventually fail. What you have to hope is that the money earned will compensate for that loosing streak. We defined an arbitrarily insurmountable loosing streak probability we are willing to accept being of 1 in 2000, in our case it is actually 1 in 2047 on the 11th loss, because the 10th loss did not meat our criteria, being only 1 in 1024. Should you survive all losses and play 2046 hands before facing a bad streak of 11 consecutive losses, you would earn $10,235. Every Martingale winning hand earns you your minimum bet, every time, even after a losing streak. With the Martingale there is no loss, except the maximum losing streak you are willing to accept as risk. Unfortunately, the cost of the fatal losing streak is also of $10,235. In our case. Mathematically, this will balance out, always.

You can use this system and try to beat the 1 in 2000 odds, but this is not what this system is for. This system is meant to stretch your game time without any loss, so that you can turn the odds in your favor, through card counting and basic strategy. There is a high risk of loosing much. The idea is that if you need 50 hands before getting what we call a "rich deck", then for 50 hands, your risk of loosing everything is of 2.44260%. This means that the more there are people at the table, the faster you will get to a rich deck, if there is a rich deck to be had, because every turn the number of cards spent will be much more, lowering the number of turns and there for, your risk factor.