What is the Reverse Martingale System & How Does it Work?

When it comes to roulette strategies, one of the most popular and commonly used ones — at least when it comes to short-term betting — is the Martingale system or Martingale strategy, however, you wish to call it. This strategy was designed to allow the player to make small profits while focusing primarily on completely recovering losses of previous spins.

However, there is another strategy that is based on the Martingale system, which works the other way around, which is why it is popularly known as the Reverse Martingale System. So, if you are planning a trip to a casino for a game of roulette, or if you intend to start playing the game online, we recommend familiarizing yourself with his strategy also, as it might come in handy.

What is the Reverse Martingale System?

The Reverse Martingale betting system, which is also known as Paroli, is one of the oldest gambling strategies in the world. In fact, there are records of its use in Italy, dating back to the 16th century. Whether it was used before that is unknown, but in 16th century Italy, this was a very popular system commonly used for a game called Basset.

In modern-day gambling, the strategy is most commonly used for roulette and baccarat. However, it is worth noting that it can be used for pretty much any game that includes bets and has a 50% chance of winning. In other words, apart from roulette and baccarat, it will also work quite nicely for craps, sic bo, and if you introduce some slight modifications, you can easily apply it to blackjack, as well.

To put it simply, Reverse Martingale System is pretty much the closest you can get to a universal gambling strategy for even bets. If you happen to use it for roulette betting, it is recommended to use it for wagers on Red, Black, Odd, Even, as well as 1-18/19-36. It is also worth noting that this is a progressive system, so you can increase the bet after certain conditions are met. As for what conditions that includes, we will cover that in the next segments.

How does the Reverse Martingale System work?

As mentioned before, the strategy is called the Reverse Martingale System for a reason, the reason being the fact that it works the opposite way of the Martingale system. Martingale advises the player to double their bet whenever they lose a spin, and to return to the original bet when they win.

So, Reverse Martingale will have you do the opposite. In other words, you will double your bet whenever you win and revert to the original bet when you experience losses. You will start the game in the same way with both systems, betting the absolute minimum that the roulette table allows. Let’s assume that this will be $1. Then, if you win, you will increase the bet to $2. If you win again, you double it again to $4, and so on, so your bet should be growing and making the following pattern: $1, $2, $4, $8, $16, $32, $64, $128, $256, $512, $1024, $2048, and so on.

Of course, it will only look like this, assuming that you go on a winning streak and that luck is on your side. If at any point you lose a spin, you should immediately go back to the minimum bet, which is $1 in our example. If you lose again, you stick with $1. If you win, you restart the system and double your bet to $2 again.

The idea behind the system is that your wins and losses will come in streaks and that they will not come one after the other. With that assumption in place, betting more when you are winning and less when you are losing will result in you winning significant amounts in the long run. Unlike the Martingale system, which is best used for short-term betting only, the Reverse Martingale is a good system for long-term betting. In fact, it is considered to be among the safest and most stable strategies for roulette and other mentioned games.

Of course, no strategy is without a flaw, and while it does have its advantages, it also has certain cons that you should keep in mind.

Pros & Cons of Reverse Martingale System

Reverse Martingale: Pros

Let’s start by talking about the benefits of this system. One of the biggest advantages that it gives you is the fact that you will not lose all of your money at once. If you happen to hit a losing streak, you will only be losing $1 at the time, or whatever the minimum bet at the roulette table is. Meanwhile, when you double up, your money will quickly return to the starting amount, and it will remain more or less the same until the big win.

If you happen to see a winning streak with multiple consecutive wins, the wins will quickly start growing, and your profits will drastically increase as the win streak continues.

We also consider the simplicity of this strategy to be its huge advantage, as this means that it can be used by novice gamblers. Finally, it is also extremely safe, so you don’t have to be an expert to use it, and to know how to take advantage of it.

Reverse Martingale: Cons

Now, let’s take a look at the other side of the coin — the disadvantages of Reverse Martingale. The first thing to note here is that you should prepare to see losses. This is not due to a flaw in the strategy itself but rather because of the fact that the odds are against you. The reason for this is the green 0 pocket. If it didn’t exist, your odds would be 50:50.

However, with it there, the odds are ever so slightly against you, and you have a 48.6% chance of winning the spin. And that’s only if you play European roulette. If you happen to play the American version of the game, there are two green pockets, one with 0, and another with 00. In this scenario, your chance of winning gets even lower.

So, while you won’t lose huge amounts, as you will be betting the minimum amount after each loss, so even if you see consecutive losses, that is only $1 lost per spin — you will still see losses fairly often.

Another problem with the strategy is the fact that it only takes one loss to get you right back to the beginning and wipe away your profits. In other words, with this strategy, it is extremely important to know when to stop.

How to get the most out of Reverse Martingale System?

The strategy seems fairly simple at its core, and for the most part, it is. However, you have to figure out a way to play it right, in order to get the most out of it, and win maximum value that it can offer. To do this, we propose the following methods:

High risk, high reward

As is always the case, by taking high risks, you can get the highest reward. While this is generally not recommended to novices, some players tend to go for an all-or-nothing approach. In other words, they keep doubling their bet during the winning streak and hope that it will continue until they are satisfied with their winnings enough to walk away. Players are always warned that there is a chance that they will see a long and brutal losing streak that will cost them all of their money, but there is just as big a chance that they will see a prolonged winning streak that will earn them a fortune.

With 8 or 9 consecutive wins, the player can turn $1 into a small fortune, cash in, and go home with significantly more money than they had when they first approached the table. Of course, there is no guarantee here, and the probability is fairly low. There is only a 0.38% probability that you will hit 8 consecutive wins and a 0.19% probability of seeing 9 of them. After that, the chances of seeing additional wins border are extremely slim, but it can still happen. So, once you get to this point, you are risking it all, assuming that you will see another win, and that is usually when most players lose everything. So, once again, it pays to know when to stop and walk away.

A 3-step Reverse Martingale

Of course, not all players get drawn into the game as strongly, and some are quite capable of keeping themselves under strict control. These players tend to come up with a strategy and stick to it. One such approach is known as 3-Step Reverse Martingale, which means that the player limits the progression of the bet to 3 consecutive games. Then, even if they didn’t see a loss, they still revert to the minimum bet, and start from scratch. That way, they make small winnings, but they don’t lose a lot if their luck turns.

Modified Reverse Martingale

Finally, there is a third approach which is for players who view doubling their bets as a bit too aggressive. This is especially true when they come to larger bets after a string of wins. These players may switch to a Fibonacci sequence, which is safer, although it won’t bring as much money as a pure Reverse Martingale.