The D’Alembert Casino Betting System
The D’Alembert betting system is quite popular and, like the Martingale strategy, can be used with most casino games, though it is preferred by roulette players. However, it is far less aggressive than the Martingale betting strategy, making it much safer.
A Quick History Lesson
This betting system was developed by Jean-le-Rond D’Alembert in the 18th century. Interestingly enough, D’Alembert was the illegitimate son of a famous French officer. He was abandoned as a child to foster parents. Despite the fact that his father provided the foster parents with funds to raise him, he still had a very poor childhood.
However, he did receive a good education, which led to his fascination with mathematics and the concepts laid out by Sir Isaac Newton. Eventually, this led to the development of the now-famous betting system named after him.
How the D’Alembert Betting System Works
The D’Alembert betting system is far simpler than many other betting strategies, especially if you look at systems like Labouchere.
The core concept is to increase your bets after every loss, just like with the Martingale betting system. However, with Labouchere, the increases are much, much smaller than with the Martingale approach.
While it is classed as a negative progressive system, many refer to it as a flat progressive approach because the increases are so much smaller.
Once again, the D’Alembert relies on bets placed on the even odds sectors, like betting on even or odd, red or black, or high or low numbers.
You start by deciding on your initial bet. The amount can be whatever you decide, but experts recommend 0.5% of your budget as the safest bet.
Then, every time you lose, you increase your bet by 1 unit. Every time you win, you decrease your bet by 1 on the next round.
So, let’s say that you start with a bet of $5. On the first round, you lose. So, your next bet is $6. You lose again, so you bet $7. This time, though, you win. By D’Alembert rules, your next bet should be 1 unit lower, so you bet $6. You lose, so you bet $7. You win, so your next bet is $6, and you win again.
Thus, you bet 6 times, incurring 3 wins and 3 losses. You lost a total of $17, but won a total of $40, of which $20 was the money you wagered, meaning a profit of $20. After adding in the losses, your final profit was $3. So, despite the 50/50 split of wins to losses, you would have still made a profit.
The key to the D’Alembert is that you will make a profit, even when you lose the same number of games as you win.
While it sounds great that you only need to win as many rounds as you lose to make a profit, reality doesn’t really work like that.
Statistically speaking, on a European roulette table, you will only win 48.65% of the time, with the remainder being losses. Thus, you will lose more times than you win, and even if it’s by a small margin, it’s still enough to ensure that you will lose in the long run. The difference is even more pronounced with American roulette.
The Pros and Cons of the D’Alembert Betting System
The biggest advantage of the D’Alembert betting system is that it’s one of the safest strategies available because of the smaller progression. While it’s still risky – it is gambling, after all – your chances of being wiped out are far smaller.
Furthermore, you don’t need a huge budget to use the D’Alembert system since it relies on increases and decreases of 1 unit. You also won’t have problems with the maximum betting limits imposed by casinos.
However, if you are looking to win big, then the D’Alembert betting system isn’t really the best choice. The profits are small when you consider the initial bet and how many times you have to play to win some decent cash.
While the small bets make it safer, it also makes life more difficult if you’ve had a number of losses one after the other, because it will take you longer to make your money back and possibly earn a small profit.
Consider that you start with a bet of $5. You lose, so you bet $6. You lose again and bet $7, then $8, then $9, then $10. That’s six losses in a row. Your next bet is $11, and this time you win. Now, in the best-case scenario, you would win the next five spins, and you would be in the black with a profit of $6.
However, that rarely happens. What’s more likely to happen is that you win $11, bet $10, maybe win again and then place a bet of $9, which you lose.
Remember, the key is to have an equal number of wins to losses, but now, you’re down 7 spins and up only 2. So, you have to keep going.
It can take a while to balance things out, and in some cases, it just won’t happen, which is why a losing streak can be problematic with the D’Alembert system. With the Martingale, conversely, you would only need one win to get back into the black. Of course, if you suffered a losing streak with the Martingale, you’d have a much better chance of getting completely wiped out than with the D’Alembert.
Variations on the D’Alembert
As with anything that’s been around for so long, all sorts of variations have been developed. In fact, because the D’Alembert is so simple, it’s a great foundation for you to create your own betting system.
For example, you can change up the bet progression. Instead of decreasing by 1 unit when you win, you could reset your bet to the initial amount. This will lead to very low losses.
Another option is to decrease by 1 unit on a win but increase by 2 units on a loss. This is riskier but will help you recover faster after a losing streak.
There are all sorts of combinations you can try. However, remember that the key to the D’Alembert is that an equal number of wins and losses lead to a profit, so try to stick to that core concept.
The Reverse D’Alembert
Of course, that D’Alembert has a reverse. Instead of increasing your bet after a loss and decreasing after a win, you do things the other way around. So, you’ll increase your bet by 1 unit after a win and decrease your wager by 1 unit after a loss.
Let’s say you start with a bet of $1. You win, so that’s a profit of $1. Your next bet will be $2. You win again, so you make a profit of $2, resulting in a total profit of $3.
Now, you bet $3. You lose this time, meaning that you lost the profit you made in the first two rounds, and you are sitting at $0 profit. You bet $2 this time, and you lose again, bringing you to an overall loss of $2.
You bet $1 now and you win, so your overall loss is now $1. Your next bet is $2, which you lose, bringing you to an overall loss of $3.
So, with 3 losses and 3 wins, the result was an overall loss of $3.
As you can see, it’s not quite as effective as the original D’Alembert, because you will end up with a small loss after an equal number of wins-to-losses. However, the advantage is that you can play with an even lower budget. It’s also easier to recover from a long losing streak with the reverse D’Alembert.
In conclusion, the D’Alembert is very simple but also very safe compared to other strategies. It won’t make you a millionaire, and, in the long run, you will eventually lose because of the casino’s edge. However, it’s a great way to enjoy playing roulette without the stress of losing large amounts of money.
