The Labouchere System

31 August 2023

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: What is the most frequently sold gambling system through the Internet or mail? By the way, it is guaranteed to be a winner! Now, that is something right?

ABBY: This system is not – and I know you know this – a winner at all. When casino players realize that they have bought a turkey in a terrible sense, they will probably ask for their money back and that won’t happen.

CINDY: That almost never happens.

ABBY: Almost? No almost. Never is more like it. Henry Labouchere, a dirt-poor gambler who toured the gambling world of his time looking for a pot of gold. He died in 1912, the year the Titanic went down in the North Atlantic. Sadly, gamblers have gone down in the deep waters when they used his “unbeatable” system.

CINDY: What Labouchere actually “created” or rather “stole” was a mathematical system discovered by the 18th century man of letters the Marquis de Condorcet, a noted swordsman. Luckily, Labouchere lived two hundred years later – lucky for Labouchere!

ABBY: This is a cancellation system. With this playing system you have a locked method for wagering. I guess this is better than just throwing money onto the layout.

CINDY: Take this row of numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Each of these numbers represents a wager. You could make it $10, a $100, that’s up to you. Your very first bet adds #1 with the last number which is #5. Your bet is now #6. When you lose a bet, you add the total of the last bet to your column. Here is your new line: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. If you win the next bet (1+6) for 70 you are 10 units up. You now subtract the 1 and the 6. Say, you lose that bet, you add a 7 to the end of the number string.

When you win a bet, you cancel the first and last numbers, thus giving you 2, 3, 4, 5. Win again? Your line is 3 and 4. If you lose again, you now have 3, 4, and 5 as the sequence. Win that 3 + 5 wager, your next bet would be the 4.

If you cancel everything, you are a temporary winner.

ABBY: Is this system similar to the Martingale that we wrote about several weeks ago? Yes, it is.

CINDY: If we translate the above numbers and make this real betting? Here goes:

The line: $10, $10, $10, $10, $10
Bet: $20 ($10 + $10)
Lose the best: $10, $10, $10, $10, $10, $20
1. Bet: $30 ($10 plus $20)
Lose: $10, $10, $10, $10, $10, $20, $30
2. Bet: $40 ($10 plus $30)
Lose: $10, $10, $10, $10, $10, $20, $30, $40
3. Bet: $50 ($10 plus $40)
Lose: $10, $10, $10, $10, $10, $20, $30, $40, $50
4. Bet: $60
5. And on it goes.

You can control the system and not go hog wild. Just put a cap on what your biggest bet will be and do not go over that cap.