What Are the Best Betting Strategies?

Short Answer: The best betting strategies do not react to winning or losing a previous hand; instead, they are focused on the long-term averages and variance. Remember, even with a good strategy, you are only marking the risk you are willing to take with randomness ... it has no bearing on the house edge. Many bad strategies exist because of faulty understandings of statistics and randomness.

Unless you have unlimited funds and unlimited table limits, every betting strategy you can design is a short-term strategy ... and short-term strategies cannot beat a long-term statitistic. Furthermore, your betting strategy only shows how you want to deal with the risks of randomness ... it has no bearing on the house edge.

What About Betting Strategies?

One thing to understand about betting strategies is that every single strategy you can think of is a short-term strategy. And a short-term strategy will not beat a long-term statistic.

Many strategies base their next wager on what occurred in the previous wager. If the quarter landed heads, the the next bet will be ______ whatever their strategy says. However, what the quarter does in the next flip has nothing to do with what happened in the last flip. You might want to tell yourself (fool yourself) by think the quarter has landed heads four times and the odds of it landing 5 heads in a row is unlikely … but, guess what, it has already made that 1 in 16 chance and you are now in a 50/50 chance away from making it that 1 in 32 occurance.

It should be of no surprise that when a casino gives you information [like listing what numbers have just played on a roulette table] it is to their advantage. When they started posting these numbers, their profits went up noticeably. People try to find a pattern, they think a streak cannot continue, they bet more and more … and they end up losing.

Not all games and betting strategies work the same way. On many table games, you have almost 50/50 odds and as you play will win some and lose some. Your bankroll can hover near the amount you started with and, if the casino is winning, the bankroll slowly goes down. If a series of losses occurs (which it on occasion can), then a bigger loss occurs.

Slots, on the other hand, are horrible. It is loss after loss after loss (often dozens or hundreds) until finally getting a win and hoping that win is enough to cover the many losses – but usually not. And if that win does not happen, then it is a big sudden loss. This is part of how they became known as the one-armed bandits. Generally slots do not require skill … it is based on chance or luck so many people are attracted to them.

Flat betting systems tend to not deviate very far from where the bankroll started and either slowly move up or down. Progressive betting systems become high risk betting very quickly and can be a huge loss if a win does not appear.

The Better and Worse Betting Strategies

A betting strategy is a system to try and beat the statistical odds. It either aims for huge wins at high risk, or minimizes losses by being cautious. Some of them can work in the short term, but when they fail, it is a huge failure.

It is surprising how many 'bad' betting systems exist and are widespread. It is surprising how much confusion and blindness exists based on faulty understandings of the game, the statistics, or how cheating can occur.

One of the golden rules of gambling is 'do not chase lost money' because you will typically end up losing more. Yet one of the most common systems picked up by gamblers are variations of the Martingale System [where you double each bet until you win]. This is a horrible system as you place large amounts of money at high risk of loss to win back the initial small loss. The Martingale strategy only works if you have a huge bankroll and the casino essentially has no table limits. Without those conditions, large losses are certain in the long run.

Side bets can be profitable, but only if you have an advantage. They often have large payouts to a small bet because they are not expected to occur often. If by card counting or dice control you can minimize the number of times you need to be but still hit win those occurrences happen, then it can be profitable.

Twenty Bets System: It does not react to winning or losing nor does it focus on individual hands. It is a long terms strategy. (for example, expect 40 spins at the roulette table if you go play there). It looks at the longer term variance and statistics, limits the loss, and leaves a good opening for modest winning through a slightly progressive system.

This page is under construction. My apologies for any misspellings, repeated text, missing references, etc. Please visit again later for a more complete treatment of this topic.