BJ vs. Roulette for doubling bets?

In the betting strategy in which you keep doubling your bet every time you lose, until eventually you win and are up 1 betting unit, would you use this strategy in red/black for roulette or use this playing BJ? Which is the better option mathematically?

Well if you are going to martingale, I would think doing red/black would be the easiest as hitting/standing in blackjack requires a bit more skill, I would say do baccarat because if it ties you dont lose

My first thought was bacarrat also but not on Banker because you have to pay 5% on the win. This would cause you to lose money! So Player it is. Craps pass or don't pass would be in the mix somewhere.

One other kink is that BJ basic strategy sometimes requires splitting or doubling down. It would be frustrating to double-up to the limit of your bankroll and look down to see 8,8.

Quote: DeMango

My first thought was bacarrat also but not on Banker because you have to pay 5% on the win. This would cause you to lose money! So Player it is. Craps pass or don't pass would be in the mix somewhere.

But the banker wins more frequently. Plus, you don't actually lose any money, as long as the banker wins before you hit the table limit. In a martingale progression beginning with a $10 banker bet, for instance, you would eventually win at least $9.50 as long as the banker won before you'd doubled your way to the limit. Unless you're considering that fifty cents extra that would have been won by betting the player as being "lost" by not having made that bet.

Quote: DeMango

My first thought was bacarrat also but not on Banker because you have to pay 5% on the win. This would cause you to lose money! So Player it is. Craps pass or don't pass would be in the mix somewhere.

The least volatile way to do this is with the don't pass line on craps. Other than that, all you need is an unlimited bankroll and a casino that will accept any size wager.

I have a far better solution. Don't do the strategy you're suggesting. You will reach the table max or your bank roll max and lose out. It simply does not work. Never go for a big win. If you wanted a big win you should have invested in social media 6 - 7 years go. Big wins come from hard work, dedication, and intelligent ideas. They are called "Careers." Gambling = small wins here and there. The martingale system, which is the term for the one you suggested, is a sucker system to rope in those who feel like it can't lose. It can lose and you won't sleep for weeks when it happens. If you only ever gamble for fun and expect to lose your money then you can't really lose in the end. The only way you can really make a good living gambling is professional poker or just really good at card counting with blackjack. Everything else is going to be weighted towards the house and you will lose eventually. The house is rich and has all the time in the world. If you are ever lucky enough to win big then you should walk out and not return for some time. When you do return, treat the situation as if you never won big at all. Never fall for the old "playing with the house's money" because it is your money when you win it and not theirs. If you think of it like that, you will surely lose it all. I remember losing 700 bucks one time and hating myself for days because of how stupid I was. Mainly because I only started with 250 and I won that 700. I was on the "house's money" mentality and it cost me 700 bucks of what really was MY money. I just hit 18 at the time. It was a costly mistake and one that I never intend to repeat.

I disagree with the "Never go for a big win" part.

It all depends on what your goals are, but there is nothing wrong with going for a big score if it's not going to cost you a lot.

Well finsrule sure if you're going to play the lotto and put $5 on it and hope for a big win. You could also play keno for $1 and depending on how many numbers you play, $1 could win you millions on just one game. However, I don't think I need to say that the odds of you winning are exceptionally low. I was more refering to table games in casinos (because this is the table game sub forum). There arn't many big wins that won't cost you a lot at the casino. Even if you play sic bo at the triple die payout of 180-1, it is very probable you will lose due to the significant house edge on playing that one bet over and over and you would need to bet big to win big. Table games require you to bet a proportional amount of your winnings which is why grinding out small wins relative to your bankroll is better. If you go for the large win like the sic bo 180-1 after some losses, your potential win is going to be really bad. Therefore, people used the Martingale system and then we go into a full circle on why that's a terrible idea.

This is all gonna be somewhat semantic.

I don't know very much about keno; I've never played it, but I've been in Las Vegas enough times to get the idea. Every discarded keno ticket I've seen said something like "$250,000 limit to aggregate players each game" across the top. But, like I said, I've never played keno, so maybe there are high limit games that I don't know about, or maybe the limits have gone up and I didn't notice. I had always understood it to be a game that used very controlled prize pools with tightly fixed ceilings, however.

Sic bo is more interesting than a lot of people give it credit for. Yes, there are those bets that pay out 180:1, but, naturally, those bets win a lot less frequently than that. But then there are also the single-number bets. They pay out even money if the number comes up on one die, 2:1 if it comes up on two dice, or 12:1 if it comes up on all three (some places only pay 3:1 for the latter; sic bo odds are not standardized, but 12:1 seems more traditional, 3:1 probably being a payout imported from chuck-a-luck). So you've got even-money bets that can be briefly martingaled if you're feeling lucky, which will occasionally pay out better than even money. Kinda fun, I think.

Of course I realize that the whole idea of doubling bets is based on disastrous logic, but when I gamble I'm playing for fun, not to put a roof over my head and pay the bills or anything like that. I'm gonna keep doing things that I think are fun to do whether they make sense or not. (Destroying baccarat cards comes to mind.)

EDIT -- forgot to mention and feel obligated to:

Quote: Ravzar

The only way you can really make a good living gambling is professional poker or just really good at card counting with blackjack.

My uncle spent half a century handicapping racehorses for a living. Just because it's rare doesn't mean it can't be done.

"My uncle spent half a century handicapping racehorses for a living. Just because it's rare doesn't mean it can't be done. "

I had an uncle who made his living betting the trotters. Of course it helped that he had a boarding house and rented rooms to drivers for the meet.