Otherwise known as the Paroli system, the Reverse Martingale strategy is a very popular method used with roulette and other casino games. As the name suggests, this strategy comes from the classic Martingale system and works in a completely opposite way. However, records show that the reverse martingale was used hundreds of years before the regular Martingale system. There is evidence of a game called Basset, played during the 16th century in Italy where people used the Reverse Martingale strategy to increase their chances of winning. Of course, we can never confirm that but it’s something to think about. Keep reading to learn more about this strategy and how it works.
As we already said, the Paroli system has a positive progression. You increase your stakes every time you win, instead of increasing them when you lose. This is why it received the name Reverse Martingale because it’s the complete opposite of the Martingale strategy. Just like with every strategy, it doesn’t guarantee that you will win. Also, it can’t help you beat the house edge that every casino game has. However, it can help you increase your chances of getting a win while playing casino games. This strategy is mostly used for roulette but it has uses in other casino games as well. Basically, you can use it in every game that offers even odds. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about the Reverse Martingale strategy and how to use it properly.
How does the Reverse Martingale Strategy work?
Just like regular Martingale, the Reverse Martingale strategy is very simple and easy to learn. Beginners in the gambling world can use it right away. What makes it popular is that it’s less risky than the Martingale system. It can be used by people who don’t have a lot of money to spend. With regular Martingale, you need almost unlimited wealth to be able to make a profit from every scenario.
The Reverse Martingale strategy asks the player to double his bet every time he wins. When you lose, you restart the system. Additionally, this strategy has a couple of rules to prevent your bets from reaching the max betting limit. Players keep the progression of doubling their stakes until they get 3 wins. After that happens, you are supposed to restart the progression and start with the initial bet again. This is where the Paroli system does a better job than standard Martingale because it removes some of the risks.
Additionally, by stopping at 3 wins, players make a profit but also limit the losses. This strategy makes sure that you only risk the initial stake. The doubled bets the player makes are actually the casino’s money because those are the winnings from the previous bet they’ve won. The idea is to have a profit of 7x times the initial stake or lose only the amount of your initial stake. However, this is only if everything goes your way and you restart the progression at three wins.
The Reverse Martingale strategy is based on the idea that wins and losses come in sequences. So, if that’s true, you will surely end up with some profit if you double your bets during a winning streak.
Advantages of the Reverse Martingale Strategy
Every betting strategy in the world comes with certain advantages and disadvantages. So, let’s start with the advantages that we get with the Reverse Martingale strategy.
It doesn’t require you to have unlimited resources – The strategy is very easy to learn but also it doesn’t ask you to have unlimited wealth, unlike the regular Martingale system. When you win and you start doubling your stakes, you are essentially using the winnings and not your own money.
Can’t hit the table limit – The biggest problem with the classic Martingale strategy is that you can hit the maximum bet limit in a game which means you can’t keep doubling your stakes. With the Reverse Martingale system, you end the progression after three wins and you restart. By doing that it means you can never hit the table limit.
Low-risk strategy – We mentioned this several times and we will do it once again. When you start the progression, you risk only the initial bet. If things go bad at one point, you lose your initial bet and the winnings you got until that moment. However, those winnings were not part of your initial budget anyway. So, if you do lose at one point, you will only be losing your initial stakes.
Disadvantages of the Reverse Martingale Strategy
Putting advantages aside, there are some bad sides to this strategy as well. There is no perfect betting strategy out there which is why the Reverse Martingale strategy comes with some disadvantages.
The odds don’t favour you – Every casino game has a house edge. In the case of even odds in roulette, the house edge is the Zero slot which is one of the possible outcomes. Because of that, the odds of getting a win are less than 50% if you bet on red/black, odd/even, or high/low. For that reason, after a long session of playing, you always have more bets lost than bets won.
Lose all your winnings in one round – This is the main disadvantage of the Paroli system. You can go on a winning streak but if you lose even once, you lose all the winnings you made so far. This is why you are supposed to stop at three wins and restart the progression. If you go on a long winning run and don’t restart, the first time you lose will mean you lose all your winnings.
Reverse Martingale Strategy Variations
Just like every other betting strategy, there are different approaches that can improve the outcome. Players have modified strategies for years in order for that strategy to suit their needs in a better way. When it comes to the Reverse Martingale strategy, there are several different variations. Below, we will mention the two most popular variants.
3-Step Reverse Martingale
This is it the approach that we have been mentioning during the whole article. Instead of doubling your stake every time you win and risk losing it all, the 3-step reverse martingale tells you to stop at 3 wins and restart the progression. With this approach, you will always have a profit of 7 times the initial bet. This helps you limit your losses since the possibility of building a 3-win progression is much higher than waiting for 5 or 6 or 7 wins. Your winnings won’t be as high as with the standard strategy but you also protect yourself from losing all your winnings. The 3-step Reverse Martingale strategy gives you the biggest chance of leaving the table with some profits.
All Out Aggression
This is the basic version of the Reverse Martingale strategy. It’s an approach where players go on an all-or-nothing adventure. Basically, instead of restarting the progression after 3 wins, you just keep doubling until you reach the maximum betting limit. It’s a very risky approach because you can win 5 rounds in a row and then lose on the 6th. When you lose, you will lose all the winnings from the previous five wins. However, if you are lucky, you can keep winning until you reach the table limit. In most games, you will reach the table limit in 8 or 9 rounds.
Such an outcome is close to impossible; however, since casino games are games of chance, it is possible to get a favourable sequence where you win 8/9 times in a row. If that were to happen, you will walk away with massive winnings. You might lose a lot along the way, but in the end, that one win is definitely worth it.
Reverse Martingale in Roulette
Just like with the standard Martingale approach, the Reverse Martingale strategy is mostly used in roulette. The reason for that is that you need even odds to be able to use the strategy. Roulette is a game that offers three different even odds. You can bet on high/low, red/black, or even/odd. So, simply pick a Roulette game and start playing. We prefer European roulette because there is only one Zero slot which means the odds of winning will be higher, or rather the house edge is lower.
Once you picked the Roulette variant you love, you need to decide how many progressions you want to do before resetting. Our recommendation is to go for 3 wins and then restart. For instance, start with a $1 bet on red/black. If you win, double your bet to $2. If you win again, you place a $4 bet during the next round. Let’s imagine you win the third bet as well. In that case, you have $7 worth of winnings. At that point you restart the progression, pocket the winnings, and place a $1 bet once again. If you decide to keep up with the progression, you will end up betting $8 in hopes of doubling them. However, if you lose, you lose $8 which is all your winnings plus your initial bet.