Jul 19, 2010
Blackjack is not only one of the most popular casino games of all time but one of the most researched. There are a variety of blackjack betting systems and strategies being played in casinos including the parole, parlay, Martingale, LaBouchere and D’Alembert betting system. All play on the mathematical odds of blackjack and are progressive betting systems meaning that you either lower or increase your bets depending upon whether you won or lost the previous hand.
Putting aside betting systems for just a minute, one of the best ways to decrease the house edge in blackjack is to simply learn simple blackjack strategy and the rules. If played properly, blackjack has one of the best odds of winning in the casino of all games.
The LaBouchere system is a negative progressive betting system and also goes by the name of Cancellation, Crossout, Split Martingale and Labby. The system is based on a sequence of numbers that you, as the player, writes down on a piece of paper. The numbers need not be in order and each number represents the amount that you will bet. Let’s use 1 1 4 5 5 as our working example.
According to this system, you add the first and the last numbers in the series to calculate the amount that you will bet. In our example you would bet 6 which means, if you were playing $10 blackjack hands, you would need to bet $60. As you win, you cross out the numbers (here 1 and 5) until the series is complete. If you lose the bet, you add the number that you were betting (the total of the first and last number in the series) to end of the series of numbers. In our example, your new string of numbers would be 1 1 4 5 5 6. The catch with this betting system is that if you keep losing, you will need to make bigger and bigger bets to keep playing and this is only sustainable for those players will large bankrolls.