We had such a fun time developing our own gaming system and watching it yield results…and then somewhat less fun watching it unravel in a very short space of time.
In case you didn’t read the first item where we outlined this, please do so, we’re not just doing this for our health, but to help you!
If you did read it, you’ll remember the game in focus was?….
…That’s right, Baccarat. And we were using a ‘doubling up’ strategy (which incidentally is called the ‘Martingale’ system, at least when applied to Roulette)…
And we had been doing quite well, turning a relatively modest deposit of a couple of hundred Euros, into thousands…then this happened…
Streaks can be a killer
The strategy outlined in the previous item made the assumption that we get relatively short streaks of ‘player’ wins (we were always betting on the ‘banker’ remember); since it’s around 50:50 chance (actually slightly in the banker’s hand’s favour as noted) that seems likely.
However in reality, this is not always the case — there can be long, long streaks…
This is nice when the streak is in your favour, but can really bring everything crashing down in no time at all when it’s not.
For this reason you need a good bankroll to start off with — there’s no point opening an account with just 20 — starting from 1 bets you wouldn’t be able to double up more than about 4 times, which isn’t ‘enough’.
Again a little math(s). We’ll presuppose an initial deposit of 200.
Let’s say you start with just 1 stake, and double up each time; after a streak of 7 against you, you’ve already lost 127 (1+2+4+8+16+32+64)!
This means you don’t have enough to double up (which would require 128) so you’re already down the route of losing big sums…
What often happens here is players attempt to ‘chase their losses’ by betting the max they can — this is pretty much fatal.
And that’s not all — we’ve seen streaks of as many as 10 (or even more) go against the banker! Doesn’t happen very often, but then it only needs to happen just ONCE and you’re out!
A streak of 10 would lead to a loss of an incredible 1,023, just from an initial bet of 1, using the doubling-up method, so you’d have needed to have deposited a bankroll of over 1,000 … just for the privilege of losing it all!
And the speed at which this can happen, particularly when you’re impatient for a win, only serves to heighten tensions it — 10 hands could be dealt in the space of less than two minutes when playing online!!
The utter disbelief as you stare at the screen and see a once-healthy deposit disappear for ever is like — well what is it like — the end of a relationship? … the death of a pet?? … losing a limb??? … no, it’s far worse than any of those…
Of course we’re being facetious here, but only to help you, and to help make an important point.
The casinos have their limits…
It’s also worth noting that, in the example above beginning with 1 and doubling up; in most casinos you wouldn’t be able to go much beyond the 6th or 7th double-up anyway.
This is because they’ll put a limit to the maximum stake (say around 100) to protect both you and them from large losses.
There are high roller variants, where you can stake much more, but these tend towards a minimum stake of, say, 10 or 20 which would mean you couldn’t go beyond a few hands either (eg. Starting from 20, by the 7th hand you’re already at a stake of 2,540, a vast sum even if you’re able to find an online casino where you can play for that money)…
It has to be said that casinos don’t impose these and other limits to prevent you, the player, from using a system. The fact of the matter is they have a business to run and need to cover any potential losses.
’twas ever thus
But believe it or not, the casinos have already thought of any ‘system’ you may have heard about, or come up with yourself, no matter how inspired you may feel a system to be.
In a nutshell, each time you double-up, you are staking an exponential amount to recoup the same small, diminishing winnings (with the 5% vigorish taking its cut each time).
So you shouldn’t play games of chance?
Did we say that? We were pointing out the folly of a ‘fool proof system’, not playing the games themselves.
One good idea is to do what the casino does, as we’ve seen — if they limit the maximum and minimum amounts you can bet, why not do the same thing? After all it’s not fair they should take ALL of your money is it, they do well enough as it is.
That’s the key — quit while you’re ahead, and pre-commit to pulling out once your winnings have gone above/losses have gone below a certain, sensible level, and/or you’ve staked a set amount, then get out, and you may find you’ve had a fun and interesting time, and made a bit of money too, rather than the emotional roller coaster of overdoing it.
Perhaps even more important is to spend only a certain amount of time gaming (since you can at least in theory always recoup money, whereas time spent is gone forever of course).
So, there you go, we’ve saved you a bit of cash by advising against systems, particularly in games of chance like Baccarat and Roulette. Which is not to say that you can’t come away with an impressive win from either of those games — after all why do you think that playing table games never fulfils wagering requirements* with most casinos fully, usually only being a percentage of the total, and sometimes table games can’t count towards wagering requirement fulfillment at all.
For instance at the time of writing, with one casino (Spin Palace) most types of Roulette could only constitute 50% of a wagering requirement, and with some types of Blackjack that number fell to as low as 2%.
This suggests that casinos view them as a greater risk than slots when it comes to welcome bonuses and other types of bonus, in other words a better bet for you, the punter, at least over the short term and in the normal run of things.
*Don’t know what wagering requirements are? Don’t worry, we’re here to inform, educate and entertain! Put simply (which is the only way we know how in fact) when you get a bonus in the form of ‘free’ money, either when you join a casino, or at other times, the casino naturally isn’t going to let you simply withdraw that money immediately. Instead, you have to wager that amount of money a set number of times. 15, 20, 25, 30 times, these are figures within the usual scale of things. Usually the bonus matches a deposit you make (with a maximum ceiling of around 300 or so, often less) though there can be 2nd, 3rd and even more subsequent bonuses which will also have similar requirements.