The Labouchère System for Roulette
The Labouchère system is actually an approach to staking on Roulette even money shots which is designed to help the player achieve a profitable session by adjusting the size of his bets from spin to spin. The Labouchère is also known as the Cancellation System, and like many staking plans its biggest weakness is that the player needs quite a bit of capital to continue using it during an extended losing run. Even if there was an infinite bankroll to draw from, the betting limits at the table may not enable the player to place the bets required.
With those warnings in mind, the Labouchère system can be useful when applied sensibly for short periods of time.
To use the Labouchère system you start out by writing out a string of numbers which total the amount that you would like to win from a particular session, for example:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
You then bet the total of the first and last numbers on the list, so your first bet here would be 1 + 5 = 6 points.
If you win a bet then you cross off the first and last numbers on the list and stake the new first and last numbers on the next bet. For example, if the above bet won you would cross off 1 and 5 and your list would now be 2, 3, 4 so you would stake 2 + 4 = 6 points.
If your bet loses then you add your loss to the end of the list. For example, if the first bet of 6 points had lost you would add 6 to the end of list, giving you 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Your next bet would then be the sum of the first and last numbers, so 1 + 6 = 7 points.
You continue in this manner, crossing off the first and last numbers after a win or adding a new last number after a loss, until all of the numbers have been eliminated from the list. At this stage you will have made a profit equal to the total of all the numbers in the original list – in this case 15 points.
The numbers used in the example list presented here can be whatever you want them to be, and the list itself can be as short or as long as you like. Obviously, the shorter the list the less time it should take you to achieve the goal. Here are some popular lists to consider using as a starting point:
1, 2 = A profit aim of 3 points
1, 1, 1, 1, 1 = A profit aim of 5 points
1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3 = A profit aim of 12 points
The Labouchère system is by no means guaranteed to succeed because of the reasons given in the introduction to this article, but it can often be useful as long as you remember that it should only be used on even money shots and with caution. Consider paper trading this approach for a session or two and see what you think. Good luck!
Michael Hastings
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