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Understanding the Grand Martingale System | LeoVegas

Grand Martingale Strategy Guide

The Martingale betting system is one of the best-known strategies deployed by bettors aiming to organise their wagers in casino games. The aim is to make a profit by banking wins and recovering from losses.

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The Grand Martingale betting system ups the ante, taking the standard Martingale system of doubling up after each loss and then adding a unit after the doubling. Here’s a deeper look at how the Grand Martingale strategy works.

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What is the Grand Martingale Strategy?

Historical Background of the Martingale System

The Martingale system is said to date back to the 18th-century gambling houses of France, and possibly before, as it was at this time that the strategy became popular. Who first established the method isn’t known, but the theory states that you can potentially recover from a loss on an even-money bet by doubling your next bet.

Evolution to the Grand Martingale Strategy

While at times effective, one of the drawbacks of the Martingale system is that you only win on single-unit winning bets and only get back to your pre-loss bankroll having won after a loss or series of losses. The Grand Martingale strategy builds on this by offering a profit on the loss recovery as well.

Purpose and Popularity in Gambling

The purpose of the Grand Martingale strategy is to make a profit on any win while also offering a standardized course for recouping losses. Its popularity in gambling is certainly lesser than the standard Martingale system simply because it’s far riskier and more demanding on the bankroll.

Core Concepts of the Grand Martingale Strategy

The core concepts of the Grand Martingale strategy are to double after a loss and add one unit. As well as this, after a win, you stick to your set bet size for the subsequent round.

Definition and Basic Principles

The Grand Martingale strategy is defined as a gambling method of increasing your wager to recover from a loss. It’s a negative progression system as it sees you increase your bet after a loss rather than after a win. You’re looking to recoup a loss and make a profit on an eventual win rather than make the most of a winning streak.

Comparison with the Classic Martingale Strategy

Mathematical Foundation of the Strategy

You play the Martingale Strategy on even-money odds. Whenever you win, one coin becomes two coins, when you lose, you lose one coin. So, to get back to even, you only need one win after a loss. The Martingale strategy factors in a series of losses by continually doubling the bet. Doubling accounts for the losses sustained and a potential subsequent loss.

When a win eventually lands to pay at evens, the continued doubling will allow for the same amount lost to be returned along with the stake. With an infinite bankroll, this mathematical foundation of the Martingale system allows for all wins to be profits and losses to be neutralized.

Key Components: Bet Doubling and Additional Units

The Grand Martingale strategy builds on the Martingale’s foundations but makes it so that a win after losses doesn’t just neutralize the losses. By adding another unit after doubling on a loss, a win on even-money returns the stake, any losses sustained, and an additional win from the additional unit. As a losing streak stretches, the potential win increases – almost making it beneficial with an unlimited bankroll for long losing streaks to occur.

How the Grand Martingale Strategy Works

Step-by-Step Explanation of the Grand Martingale

With the Grand Martingale strategy, you set your single-unit bet and place it. If it wins, you place that same bet again. Once you lose, you double the bet and add another single unit on top. A second loss in a row sees you double that after-loss bet and add a single unit on top again. This continues until you win, at which point you revert to the single-unit bet.

An Example of Grand Martingale in Roulette

Here’s an example of how the Grand Martingale may play out in online roulette:

  • You place a 12-coin bet on black, and it wins. You’re now 12 coins up.
  • You place a 12-coin bet on red, and it loses. You’re now back to zero.
  • As you lose, you place a 2x12 +12 bet, a 36-coin bet, on red, and it loses. You’re now 36 coins down.
  • Double the bet and add one unit again to wager 84 coins (2x36 +12) on red, and it wins. You’re now 48 coins up.
  • Start again with a 12-coin bet to run the system again.

Advantages of the Grand Martingale Strategy

Potential for High Returns

With an infinite bankroll, the Grand Martingale strategy can yield high returns. It transforms the negative progression of the Martingale into one that will eventually make an ever-increased profit when the win lands. The bet does increase and become riskier with each successive loss, but so does the potential profit on the next win.

Simplicity and Ease of Implementation

Like the Martingale system, the Grand Martingale strategy doesn’t require any kind of complex mathematics or an unfamiliar sequence of numbers to follow. You just set your unit, stick to it with wins, and double the last bet with an added unit on top after a loss.

Short-term vs Long-term Gains

All gambling games are wholly randomized in each round. There’s every chance that roulette will show six red numbers in a row, even if you’re betting on black each time. For most, Grand Martingale has to be seen as short-term gains because of the rapid increase in bet sizes. That said, with a hefty enough bankroll, long-term gains are on the table if you rack up some long losing streaks that end in wins before you have to bow out.

Risks and Drawbacks of the Grand Martingale Strategy

Increased Risk and Potential for Large Losses

Grand Martingale strategists are subjecting themselves to much greater risk after every loss. Eventually, the bankroll will run out, and with the “double plus one” method, the end of the bankroll gets nearer far quicker than with the more subtle Martingale method – which itself is also considered to be quite aggressive.

Requirement for a Substantial Bankroll

In terms of units, one loss increases your stake from one unit to three. Two losses in a row ups your bet to seven units. Three losses puts that bet up to 15 units. Before that fourth bet goes down, you’re 26 units down, and at a fairly low table minimum of five coins, that’s 130 coins and you need to bet another 31 units or 155 coins on the next round.

Impact of Betting Limits and Table Maximums

Tables with high minimums will force the Grand Martingale system to be exceedingly risky from the off. If there’s a maximum bet, your window for fulfilling the Grand Martingale narrows further. Low minimums and high maximums are essential to getting the time needed to complete a round of this strategy.

Comparing the Grand Martingale with Other Betting Strategies

Classic Martingale vs Grand Martingale

Classic Martingale is a negative betting system like the Grand Martingale but only doubles the bet after a loss, rather than adding an extra unit. It’s not as risky, with the trade-off for that being the lack of profit after breaking a losing streak.

Labouchère System

The Labouchère system is a form of Martingale system – also known as the Split Martingale – only it has a predetermined outcome. With Labouchère, you define your goal, divide it by ten, and then write that number down ten times in a row. Bets are formed from the first and last numbers. Wins tick those numbers off, losses add the numbers combined as one unit to the end of the row. The aim is to complete the row. Naturally, this is much more complicated than the Grand Martingale but does have an end game built in.

Fibonacci Betting System

The Fibonacci sequence is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, with each subsequent number being the sum of the two that came before. When betting, you set your unit as the 1. If you lose, you move along the sequence and use the last two numbers to find your unit count.

For example, after one loss, you move to 0, 1, 1, for two units. Next, on to 0, 1, 1, 2 for three units. After a win, you move back down the sequence by one number. Like the Grand Martingale, it’s another negative betting system, only with a more complex sequence, and doesn’t guarantee drawing even or making a profit after winning after a series of losses. It relies on streaks of wins.

D'Alembert System

The D'Alembert system slides up and down the wagers similarly to the Fibonacci system, but without the set number series. Instead, you add one unit to your bet after a loss, but once you win, you remove one unit from that bet for the next round. So, you’d go from ten coins to 20 coins after a loss, 30 coins after another loss, but then back down to 20 coins if that bet wins. It’s a simple system like the Grand Martingale but often relies on a streak of wins to recover from several losses.

Grand Martingale Strategy FAQs

Does the Grand Martingale System Work?

The Grand Martingale betting system only works if you don’t go on a losing streak that extends beyond your bankroll. Given the aggressiveness of the betting unit increases, many modest and even average bankrolls can quickly evaporate with successive losses. So, the opportunity for the Grand Martingale system to work on one playthrough is significantly less than even the standard Martingale system.

What Casino Game is Best for the Martingale System?

Any casino game with even-money betting options and a low house edge on these options can utilize the Martingale system. These include betting on red or black, odd or even, and high or low on roulette, player or banker on baccarat, and even standard bets on blackjack. Still, roulette is generally considered to be the ideal game for the Martingale system, given its simplicity and pure randomness.

What is the Progression of the Grand Martingale?

The progression of the Grand Martingale is to play the same base bet whenever you win. When you lose, you double the bet and add one unit of the base bet. For a two-coin base bet, a loss would double two coins to four coins and then add two coins to make it a six-coin bet. A loss after that brings the wager up to 14 coins. After a win, the betting goes back to the two coins base bet.

Learn about other roulette strategies in our guide: