The Labouchere System

We have already discussed the Martingale system in our previous article. As we pointed out, it is an easy-to-understand game but it has its limits. You can only win 1 Unit per progression and you have to risk too much of your bankroll in case of long losing streaks. But can we do something similar, something simple with which we can win more money while risking less? The answer is yes!

The system what we are going to talk about is called many names: Cancellation System, the American Progression or Split Martingale. But let’s get a bit fancy and call it Labouchere now. What you’re about to read will be a little bit more complicated than the Double-Up, but as soon as you got used to you will realize that this is even more fun!

The essence of the Labouchere system is a given list of numbers. This list will determine how much you will win in one progression. Let’s say your list is 1,2,3,4 which means that you will win 10 Units every time you finish your progression.

This is how the system works:

For each round, you will bet the sum of the first and last numbers of your list. So in our case (1,2,3,4) this is 1+4=5. If we win, we cross out the actual first and last numbers, so we’ll be left with 2,3. Now we bet 2+3, so 5 again, and if we win, we will cross out these numbers, too. So we end up crossing out every numbers and 10 Units richer.

In case we don’t win, we have to write the given betting amount to the end of our list. So if it was 1,2,3,4 and we bet 5 and lost, we have to write 5 in the end, so our list will be 1,2,3,4,5. No matter how long our list will get, in the end we will always win our 10 Units.

The dynamic of the game depends on how aggressive your list is, or in other words, how many and how big numbers do you have. A 0,0,0,1 is a conservative approach, where you’re aiming for just 1 Unit win but your swings will be also minimalized, so you don’t need too much money to start with. A 2,4,6,8,10 is a much more aggressive strategy, where you can win quite big, but you will also need a considerably bigger bankroll to endure the variance.

Casino-Strategy.com has made a unique calculator for you to test every possible variations before jumping into the game with your own money. This can be really handy if you don’t know what to expect from a given series of numbers:

If we take into consideration how variance works, we have to accept that there will be really bad series. We are able to even win with a conservative Labrouchere list if only 1/3 of the outcomes are in our favor (!), but what can we do about really long losing streaks? Well, we can always define a stop loss limit before our session. This means that we start over from the beginning if we have too big numbers.

But if you don’t want to accept failure and still want your progression to go through you can still find a way to succeed! Just split the amount that you would have to write to the end into parts. Tried an aggressive progression and got to 100? No problem, just write down 50,50. Or 20,20,20,20,20. Yes, it will take longer to recuperate from the downswing, but eventually you’ll come to the bright side!

Here’s a short list of the reasons why we think this is the best roulette strategy for you:

• easy-to-use and adopt
• No maximum winnings, you can aim high if you feel lucky
• you can change to a defensive strategy if you’re in bad shape
• it’s fun – you’re always thinking about your next step while crossing out numbers like a pro!
• it works! See our calculations for yourself!

What do you think about the Labouchere system? What exact progression do you use? Share your thoughts and experience with us!