The Labouchère Betting System – My Ultimate Guide

Introducion To The Labouchère Betting System
How the System Works: What is a Labouchere Strategy?
Implementing the Labouchere
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Introducion To The Labouchère Betting System

The Labouchere is a “negative progression” betting system and is also commonly referred to as a ‘cancellation’ system or ‘split Martingale.’

Named after roulette player Henry Labouchere, the system is practically optimized to work best for roulette.

While this system can be applied to different games, roulette is where the Labouchere is most frequently used (and successfully implemented). Similarly to the Martingale, the Labouchere means the player is only required to win less than half of their bets to reach a predetermined betting ‘goal’ to ensure a profit.

The algorithm for the Labouchere is considered a “Las Vegas algorithm,” as the amount the player sets out to win is always predetermined.

The problem with the Labouchere is similar to that of the Martingale in that bankroll funds need to be ‘unlimited’ as the player may not reach the desired outcome before all their losses wipe out their bankroll completely.

How does the Labouchere stack up against alternative negative progression systems, and how is it implemented in the game of roulette?

How the System Works: What is a Labouchere Strategy?

As a negative progression betting system, with the Labouchere, you increase your amount staked after a loss. The idea here is that eventually, you’ll be able to win back any/all losses, as long as the amount staked increases.

How does this differ from the Martingale?

In the Martingale, you try to recover all prior losses with a single bet by doubling up, whereas, in the Labouchere, you seek to do so with several bets. This is why the Labouchere is also referred to as the ‘split’ Martingale.

The system was designed for even money betting, such as red/black and odd/even, 1-18 or 19-36 on the roulette wheel.

Implementing the Labouchere

We would only recommend using the Labouchere with roulette games for practical reasons.

To use the Labouchere in roulette, you first need to devise a sequence of numbers. This sequence of numbers is also based on how much you’d like to win, which is represented in the total sum of all the numbers. It would be best if you kept this simplistic, but it could be any set of numbers you want.

For example: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. = $55.

Your bet will always be the sum of the first and last numbers in that sequence.

Following our previous example, this would mean 1+10= $11 on an even bet like red/black or odd/even.

If you lose this bet, you ‘add’ a number to the sequence. This number is the amount you just lost by.

This would reflect as: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11.

1+11= $12.

If you win a bet, you then remove both of the ‘outermost’ numbers.

This would reflect as: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.

This would make your next bet after winning: 2+9= $11.

Reaching the ‘end’ of this sequence means you will only have one number remaining. So this will be your ‘final’ bet to finish the sequence and profit.

As we mentioned, you can use any simplistic set of numbers to stake using the Labouchere. However, if you want to increase the potential profit, you can opt for a sequence like 3,6,9,12,15,18,21, etc. But, of course, this also means that bets on losses will increase exponentially.

The benefit of the Labouchere is that you can appropriately set a limit before betting since you now know you will be betting based on a certain amount. The bets will slowly decrease while winning and slowly increase while losing.

The Labouchere, like most negative betting systems, often works best for roulette.

However, this system also presupposes an infinite bankroll, no betting limits, and no house edge.

If you choose to use the Labouchere system, we suggest using a limited portion (smaller percentage) of your total funds. In terms of games like blackjack, or especially sports betting – we would rather see players look for value in bets and odds.