Pros and Cons of the Martingale System

Gambling games like roulette do so much to prevent anyone from making profits off the game. This is the reason why, as a general rule, one must simply enjoy the game instead of aiming to make money from it. Doing otherwise can only result in frustration and disappointment.
Nevertheless, some people won't just budge from the idea of winning roulette and are actively aiming to make money from it. To achieve such clear goals, they employ betting systems that can purportedly help them do so. Among this is the very popular Martingale system.
The Martingale has rather simple betting rules. As usual, the player will start off with a small amount on an even money bet like black or red. This amount is doubled if the bet loses, and is decreased if it's lucky enough to win. As the bets are doubled, a single win can net twice the amount as the previous bet, which would mean recovery of all the lost bets plus a small profit on top of it.
This betting system has its own advantages and disadvantages however, and is neither fully effective nor suitable for everyone. Let's go on dissecting, shall we?
Pros
1. Very easy to follow.
With a very simple way of progressing, the Martingale is one easy strategy to learn and apply. It's not as complicated as Labouchere and Fibonacci, not as aggressive as Paroli, and definitely not as fallacious as L'Alembert. In other words, it is a betting system that even those new to roulette can easily master.
2. Sure profit in a single win.
As previously mentioned, a Martingale user will only need a single win to recuperate all the losses and get a modest profit. Winning a larger sum is also possible, provided that the player wins more than once.
Cons
1. A losing streak can ultimately lead to bankruptcy.
While one may be able to profit using the Martingale, it is also entirely possible for a player to have a long losing streak and not be able to recover the losses at all. Thus can this betting system lead you to bankruptcy as it can get you profit.
2. You'll always lose if zero comes up.
Martingale is almost always applied to even money bets and rarely to columns, dozens, or groups of single bets. In the case of even money bets, the wager loses if zero comes up. For those who do not know, even money bets include red, black, even numbers, odd numbers, low numbers (1-18), and high numbers (19-36) - zero is not in any of them as you can see.
3. You can't bet past the casino's set ceiling amount.
Modern casinos usually allow players to bet only up to the specified maximum amount. Now how can this be bad for Martingale users? Well, even if you have a lot of chips to spare, reaching the casino's ceiling amount and losing repeatedly would get you farther away from profit, as the strategy breaks at that point due to the fact that you can no longer increase your stakes.
So can we now conclude whether or not the Martingale is effective? Definitely not, as the system's effectiveness lie on no other factor than the player's luck.

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Efficient Roulette Strategies That Work

There are a lot of people that are indeed enamored by the game roulette in various casinos worldwide. Although there are no clear roulette system that works well for them and the chance of subduing this great game and escaping with loot on your bare hands is indeed a tall order. But what is the secret that lies in the charm of this game, since if you compare with the other games the chances of winning here is perhaps the lowest especially when you use Probability and Statistics.
Although many believe that there are no strategies to topple this game, still there are those who are confident of their winning chances whilst using experience, intuition and various techniques. The thrill provided by the game is indeed enthralling and captivating, and this makes this game a potent force to reckon with although winning here is highly questionable. The game play is way too easy, the black and red stuffs is so amusing, the sights and sounds that surrounds the game is incomparable and the thrill in the game itself is so mesmerizing especially on the part of players that loves this game so much.
Now let us have a sneak peek at the different roulette strategies, and assess their strengths and weaknesses. First on the plate is the progression type of strategies (e.g. Martingale System, Labouchere System, and D'Alembert System). This requires you to be on the lookout for patterns to materialize like calculating and counting wins and setbacks. There are two types of patterns like the negative progression (which concentrates on the losses) and its opposite, that is, the positive progression (which concentrates on wins). There is also a progression strategy that requires combination of wins and losses before extracting a win. Also belonging to this category is the five number bet. The roulette game is erratic and spontaneous, and such strategy that deals with patterns was already smothered time and time again. This strategy gives you empty promises and absorbing more setbacks with this strategy is inevitable.
The strategies that will increase your chances and minimizing the odds stacked on you should be given prior importance. As cited in many articles online, the European wheel is a favorable table compared with the American wheel. It appreciably bolsters your chance of being successful with your bets since it has lesser house to begin with, which can resonate into a good advantage. Be wise with the wheel you are playing with!
Also be on search for the dealer signature that is commonly employed by many roulette players. This strategy calls for a careful and thorough attention to the dealer on how the ball is thrown in a fashion that whips out similar outcomes. Pouncing on such weakness like this makes betting favorable on your part.
Now here are some worthwhile tips that will make your gaming experience not only thrilling but also boosts your chance of winning and at the same time reduces the odds of losing. Enjoy!

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History of Roulette

Roulette is considered to be a very popular casino game all over the world. Its presence is constant across borders as one can play roulette whether in Las Vegas or in many areas in Europe.
The game is very simple and easy to understand and to be liked by anyone across varied social standings, age and even across gender. Knowing a little about the history of roulette is a good way to start learning and enjoying the game.
With the advent of online casinos one can enjoy the pleasure of being able to play casino games in the comfort of their very own homes. Even in this virtual location, roulette is one of the crowd's favorites. The simple rules and mechanics paired off with the chances of getting a shot at a winning streak or two are exciting additions to the whole package.
Blaise Pascal, who has been known to us as one of the best mathematicians and scientists of all time, was actually one of the first proponents of the roulette tables that are scattered in all the casino locations we can get to. In his then ultimate source of the machine of perpetual motion, he accidentally presented a variation of the present casino roulette.
The history of roulette goes back a long way indeed. The way it is presently being played is how it has been played ever since 1796 in Paris, France. A description of the roulette wheel includes that of the house pockets and the layout.
The description can be found in a book that was published in 1801. When the regulations for New France or Quebec were published, there was a reference to roulette where it was banned along with the games of dice, faro and hoca.
In the German town of Homburg, two Frenchmen set up a single 0 style of roulette wheel game in 1843. This was a unique feature to compete with the traditional wheels of single and double zero house pockets that were offered by the other casinos in the area.
The earlier forms of American roulette showcased numbers 1 to 28 along with a single and double zero as well as an American eagle. If the ball landed on any of the zeros or the eagle the banker swept everything off the table.
Due to cheating in the earlier years of the roulette wheels in the United States, the wheel was designed to be on top of a table in order to keep it away from having certain devices placed in the table or the wheel. The whole layout was simplified in the long run. This marked the beginning of the American version of roulette.
The history of roulette is far from being all-American considering how its humble beginnings are rooted in the annals of the French lifestyle. However, more and more casinos and roulette wheels are being set up all over America that it might not be so hard for most people to think that the roulette game actually started as an American game.

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Does the Andrucci Roulette System Work?

Roulette is without a doubt a game loved by many casino gamblers. Some are attached to it simply because of how thrilling and exciting it can be, especially during that heart-stopping spin when everyone has their fingers crossed, hoping their bets will win. Others meanwhile are out for the money. Roulette is a game that's pretty easy to win, and cases as the latter can't really be helped.
Now some of those who want to profit from roulette have developed systems aiming to beat the game. While many of these systems have strong mathematical bases, there are still those that straightforwardly play with chance. The Andrucci roulette system can be classified as one among such systems.
The Andrucci roulette system is said to be based on the chaos theory. Basically, this betting strategy works on the principle that in the long run, every single number in the roulette wheel will come up with the same frequency. For the short term however, the ball will land on one or a few numbers on the wheel more times than it would on all the others. Such are aptly labeled as "lucky" numbers, and the Andrucci system is created to figure out just what number it is and eventually exploit it.
To play using the Andrucci system, you first have to take up the role of a spectator and observe the trends on the wheel for thirty spins. Remember, or better yet, record all the results. Note which numbers frequently win during that period, as well as those that never came up at all. Once done, select your bet among these lucky and no-show numbers. Wager a single bet on that specific number for 30 to 35 rounds, pray and hope that the spin results arrive at it at least once.
Does this particular betting system work however? Some gamblers will attest to its effectiveness, but the truth is that it is mathematically impossible to win with the Andrucci. The lack of mathematical backing aside, another reason is that roulette is totally random. It's impossible for certain numbers to come up more often than everything else present on the roulette wheel. Those that seemingly appeared lucky are no more than a product of coincidence, if the wheel you happen to be playing on is not a biased one. These coincidences in turn are very hard to spot and will take a lot of luck to simply run into, let alone to correctly bet on one.
In spite of this, the Andrucci roulette system can be useful when you are trying to detect biased roulette wheels. These wheels are a staple of casinos and are rigged to favor the casino more than regular wheels do. Significantly increasing the number of observations done before betting can give you better data, helping you pick out which numbers the wheel is biased to a lot easier.
To conclude, it is not advisable to use the Andrucci system if you're aiming to win in roulette, unless you're aiming to bet on biased wheels. By default, this strategy can be said as no more than blind betting but with a method.

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The Roulette Flaw Review - Is There Really a Flaw in the Roulette Table?

In this Roulette Flaw Review, I will talk about a free website that is called Roulette Flaw. According to logic, the name of the website indicates that there is a flaw in the roulette table. To my understanding, what this means is that there is a certain percentage of numbers that could possibly come up over a period of time. This simply isn't true, and I will tell you why.
First, if you have followed the roulette system industry for any length of time, you will see right away that the system Roulette Flaw implements is known as the sleeper system. This system has been widely available on the internet for a long time, and once was even for sale on eBay.
eBay sellers would actually sell this exact same system for a penny, so that they could get the buyers to enter their casino. Since then, eBay has implemented strict selling guidelines that restrict sellers from selling downloadable information products, so these systems are not as prevalent on that marketplace.
Back on topic, the reason I believe that this system is misleading is because there is no flaw in the roulette table. What I mean here is that the Roulette Flaw system requires that you use it in an online casino. It would make sense if you were to exploit a physical roulette wheel that had a bias in it, but that is another story. If you want to find out more on physical roulette bias, search the Internet for the "Roulette Assault", not the software, but the actual documentary.
Online casinos use something called an RNG. That stands for "Random Number Generator". These numbers are created by computer, and people seem to think that since they are computer generated then they truly aren't random, because real randomization requires intelligence.
That is an arguable fact, but what people don't realize is that computers can use outside influence to affect how random numbers are created. For example, if a computer had several microphones that collect wind noise, traffic noise, animal noise, and then take the frequency from each noise and use that as a basis for randomization, then the computer develops a sense of artificial intelligence.
Don't think for one second that the RNG in the online casino is flawed, and will produce numbers that are predictable. If they were, the casinos would be out of business.
By implementing the Roulette Flaw method, you are simply waiting for the RNG to produce numbers that consistently come up on one section of the roulette board. When the section that hasn't come up within a determined amount of spins, the player would then place a wager. If the roulette wheel produces losing number, then the player would follow a progression in an attempt to win back their losses, plus make a gain.
Somehow this seems to indicate that there is a flaw in the roulette table, but in reality, its just roulette. Sections of the board can be missed of several spins in a row. That is why the roulette flaw system is not what it seems to be.

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Loading RTG Video Poker Games

Loading RTG Video Poker Games
Realtime Gaming (RTG) video poker games play a bit differently. The amounts wagered are not deducted from the casino account balance but the game has to be preloaded with credits transferred from the casino account and those credits are then to be used for wagering. Similarly the amounts won remain as credits within the game and are not credited to the casino account. The credits lying within the game can be cashed out at any time and transferred to the casino account.

How much should the player transfer to the RTG video poker game to start with? In a sense it does no matter because if he runs out of credits he can always reload and if he has transferred more than he required then he can always cash out at the end of the game. Even though reloading is simple task players tend to load larger than required amounts to start with and then give in to the temptation of wagering whatever has been loaded.

It is more prudent to adopt a responsible gambling approach. The player must have a wagering target both in terms of credits and time. If his target is 1,000 credits over 60 minutes he should load the RTG video poker game by only 1,000 credits. If the credits are consumed before the time is up the player should not reload but end the game prematurely. Otherwise he should cash out at the end of 60 minutes.

There is one drawback with this method. The winnings remain in play at all times and the player would be using them to wager along with the credits loaded. It would help if he devised some system to remove his winnings from his playing money. The most thorough way of doing this would be cashing out after each win and reloading the playing balance only. But this is not a practical approach and middle of the path solution needs to be adopted.

One method is as follows. If the player has a target of wagering 1,000 credits over 60 minutes then he should load only 500 credits to start with. If he is extremely lucky and keeps winning the 500 credits may last the full 60 minutes and would have thus made a saving of at least 500 credits. If he had loaded the full amount then he would have more playing money in the RTG video poker game and may have been tempted to increase the amount of his wagers. If the player runs out of credits after 45 minutes and has 15 minutes of wagering left then he does not reload the full remaining 500 credits but only a pro rata amount of 250 credits.

In another method the player does not withdraw after each win but sets targets for cash outs. He loads the full 1,000 credits to start with but has a target of cashing out whenever he has a net winning of 200 credits. Supposing after wagering for 15 minutes the credits balance in the RTG video poker game reach 1200. He then cashes out and reloads a pro rata amount for the balance period. In this case he has 45 minutes left and therefore he will load only 750 credits.

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Microgaming Double Exposure Blackjack Tips

Microgaming Double Exposure Blackjack Tips
Double Exposure is a blackjack variant offered at Microgaming online casinos. The essence of this game is that both the pocket cards of the dealer are dealt face up and hence the name Double Exposure. This obviously gives the player a fantastic advantage and therefore the rules are tweaked so as to level the playing field. Blackjack pays even money only. The dealer wins all ties except for a tied blackjack. The player wins tied blackjacks, which is another advantage to the player. Another significant rule is that the dealer must hit on a soft 17. The other rules can be seen by moving the cursor over the Rules icon in the top left hand corner of the screen.

The cards are dealt as follows. First one card is dealt to the player, then one to the dealer, then the second card to the player and finally the second card to the dealer. All cards are dealt face up. The player then makes his moves. He can obviously hit or stand and can also split or double if the rules permit. The player cannot take insurance, but that should not matter because this bet is a loser bet under all circumstances.

The optimum strategy for Double Exposure blackjack has been generated through computer simulation as is the case for all blackjack games. However this strategy is much more complicated and almost impossible to learn. Therefore it is essential that players use the strategy card provided by Microgaming. It would be stupidity not to do so. The strategy card can be accessed only in the Expert Mode and therefore players must play in this mode only. This mode can be activated by clicking the Expert button in the bottom tool bar. Every time the player has to make a move he should take note of his and the dealer’s hand totals and then click on the Strategy button. When the strategy card is displayed the regular game table gets covered by it.

The strategy card is a big one and is displayed over two pages. The columns reflect the dealer’s hand totals. The first columns display the dealer’s hard totals from 4 to 20. The later columns display the dealer’s soft totals from 12 to 17. The rows reflect the player’s hand totals. The first rows display the player’s hard totals from 5 to 20. The middle rows display the player’s soft totals from 13 to 20. And the last rows display the pairs dealt to the player. Based on the cards dealt the player has to choose the appropriate row and column and read the instruction from the cell at the intersection. The instructions are color coded and given in text. The yellow cell says STAND, the red cell says HIT, the green cell says SPLIT and the blue cell says DOUBLE.

This is a cumbersome process and Microgaming has given a way out to those players who want to avoid it. The strategy card can be automatically used with the Auto Play feature. The Auto Play feature is available only in the Expert Mode. It can be activated by clicking the Auto Play button. The Auto Play set up box appears. The number of deals required can be entered and the conditions required to stop the auto play can be checked. Then the player can sit back and watch the software wager for him using optimum strategy. If the player has difficulty in figuring out what is happening at the table he can set the time between cards to 2 seconds and this will help.

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Playing Progressive Jackpot Slots

Playing Progressive Jackpot Slots

Progressive jackpots present a unique facet of gambling. Over the course of time the wagered amount can remain the same, the probability of the progressive jackpot being hit remains the same but the payout offered keeps increasing till the jackpot is hit. In non-progressive games the player's expectation remains unchanged every time the wager is placed. In progressive games the expectation is negative when the game is reset; it becomes zero at some point in time and thereafter starts increasing. The expectation is the average amount the player can expect to win or lose from the wager being repeated a large number of times under identical conditions based on mathematical calculations.

If the wager required is $10 and the probability of a hit is 0.01% then the expectations would be as follows. If the jackpot amount was $10,000 the expectation would be a loss of $9, if the jackpot amount was $100,000 the expectation would be to break even and if the jackpot amount was $200,000 the expectation would be a win of $10. The correct thing to do would be to catch the progressive game when the expectation becomes positive. To be able to do this one has to know the probability of the jackpot being hit. In online roulette this is not too difficult. In online blackjack this would require computer simulation but can be done. However, in online slots there is no way that the probability of hitting the jackpot can be calculated. Therefore this system of deciding when to go on board a progressive slot game will not work.

Players generally use two indicators to decide when progressive slots may be ripe for a hit. At the outset it must be made clear that these indicators do not have a mathematical basis, but are popular with slots players. These require tracking the progressive jackpot games for some time. Fortunately there are several sites on the Internet that do the tracking so the player need not carry out this exercise himself. The first indicator is the average payout delivered by the progressive slot game. This is usually tracked over the past one year. If there have not been five hits in the last one year it may be tracked over the last five hits. When the current jackpot amount exceeds the average hit the traffic to the jackpot starts increasing and the jackpot starts rising faster. This would be good time to enter the jackpot. The second indicator is the average time between hits. This is tracked in a similar manner. Here again many players start entering the progressive jackpot when the time from the last hit exceeds the average time between hits.

In summary certain things need to be made clear. These two indicators do not coincide with the point at which the expectation, described earlier, changes from negative to positive. The expectation may have become positive earlier or it may still be negative. If one enters the progressive jackpot as soon as it is reset one would almost certainly be in the region of negative expectation. If one delays entering the progressive jackpot it may be hit by someone else. Hence these indicators are at best a means of taking a call on when to enter. And most slots players do follow these because jackpot amounts rise faster once these indicators are crossed.

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Using Tables in Blackjack Switch

Using Tables in Blackjack Switch
Blackjack Switch is an unusual blackjack variant in which the player places two equal wagers and is dealt two hands. Before he makes any of the regular moves the player has the Switch option. He can, if he wants to, interchange the second dealt cards in each of his hands. Thereafter each hand is played independently in the normal manner. Blackjack Switch has two aspects to the strategy. One deals with deciding whether or not to take the Switch and the other deals with playing out the hands after the decision to accept or reject the switch has been taken. Tables are helpful for both decisions but different types of tables.

Given the player’s two dealt cards and the dealer’s face up card computer simulations have determined the expectation for this three card combination. A larger positive value of the expectation implies that the player has a greater chance of winning and a larger negative value for the expectation implies that the player has a greater chance of losing. Expectation values of all possible combinations have been tabulated. The dealer’s face up card is placed in the columns and the player’s two card combinations are addressed as rows. For the large part the rows are addressed as two card hand values but hands with aces and hands with pairs are shown separately.

This table can be used to make a perfect decision for the Switch move. The player reads the expectation values for each of his two hands and totals them correctly taking into account the positive and negative values. Then the player visualizes the two hands in case the Switch is applied and similarly finds the total. If the total after the Switch is greater than the total before the Switch the player must make the Switch move, otherwise not.

The Switch move gives the player a significant advantage. In order to counterbalance that some of the rules of blackjack have been tweaked for Blackjack Switch. The most significant of these is that blackjack pays even money and not 2 to 1. Also the dealer pushes on 22 whereas the player busts on 22. These changes render the common strategy cards useless for Blackjack Switch and the player has to use the dedicated Blackjack Switch strategy card. The rows and columns are the same as in the table described earlier. The cells do not have expectation values but color and letter coded instructions for which move to make.

Blackjack Switch also has a side bet called Super Match. This bet is based on the player’s initial four cards and pays out even money for a pair, 3 to 1 for three of a kind, 8 to 1 for two pairs and 40 to 1 for four of a kind. This wager is voluntary and the question arises whether the player should place this wager or not. This wager has a house edge of 2.5%. This is significantly more than the Blackjack Switch house edge, which is about 0.6%. But the payouts can be as high as 40 to 1 as compared to even money in the main game. Hence the side bet is on a higher risk return curve and meant for the more aggressive players. To put things in perspective the house edge for European Roulette is 2.7%.

Blackjack Switch is offered at all Playtech online casinos. CasinoAdvisor recommends Casino Tropez, Play United Casino, Omni Casino and Casino Del Rio.

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3 Card Rummy Tips

3 Card Rummy Tips

More and more online casinos are now offering the table game 3 Card Rummy. It makes a welcome change from the poker based casino games. This article first explains the rules of 3 Card Rummy and then offers some tips.

3 Card Rummy, or Vegas 3 Card Rummy as it is sometimes called, is played with a single standard 52-card deck. In the beginning the player makes an ante bet plus an optional bonus bet. The player is dealt three cards face up and the dealer is dealt three cards face down. The hands are scored in the following manner. Pairs, three of a kind, and runs of at least 2 suited cards count as zero points. Isolated cards are valued as follows. The cards from twos to nines have their face values; aces are valued at 1 point and all other cards at 10 points. The objective is to have fewer points than the dealer. Based on his hand the player has the choice of raising or folding. If the player folds he loses the ante wager. If the player raises he must make an additional bet equal to his ante bet. The dealer's cards are then exposed. The dealer must have 20 points or less in order to qualify. If the dealer does not qualify, any remaining ante bets will pay even money and raise bets will push. If the dealer does qualify the player and dealer totals will be compared and the lower total will win. If the player has the lower total, the ante bets will pay even money and the raise bets will pay according to a given payout table. If the dealer has the lower total, both the ante bets and the raise bets will lose. A tie will result in a push. The bonus bet pays up front according to a separate payout table if the player is dealt specified hands.

In 3 Card Rummy the player makes only two decisions, which are whether or not to place the bonus bet and whether to raise or fold. The tips and strategies in 3 Card Rummy revolve around these decisions. The Microgaming 3 Card Rummy has the following payouts for the bonus bet. A suited A23 pays 100 to 1, 0 points pays 25 to 1, 1 to 6 points pays 2 to 1, 7 to 10 points pays 1 to 1 and 11 to 12 points pays 4 to 1. If the player has more than 13 points the bonus bet loses. The bonus bet with the above payouts has a house edge of 3.5%. This is a lower house edge than in online slot games and on par with the house edge in the main game therefore players are not taking undue risks in wagering the bonus bet.

The strategy in the main game is deciding up to which total to raise. Experts have evaluated the house edge of the main game with different strategies. It has been found that if the player decides to raise with a total of 20 or less and fold with a total of 21 or more, the house edge is minimum at 3.2%. Therefore this is the strategy to be followed. Incidentally it coincides with the dealer qualifying at 20 points.

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