The Labouchere System

Also known as The Cancellation System

This is a negative progression, meaning that you increase your bets as you lose, rather than as you win.

This system of betting is a bit more complicated than some of the others listed here, primarily because there are more variables involved.

Depending on the game you are playing and its odds, you select a sequence of numbers, long or short, and not necessarily sequential.

For example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8

To start off, you must determine what your betting "unit" will be. This could be the minimum bet allowable by the casino at that table. Or it could be a fractional portion of your overall bankroll. Whatever you decide, each number in your sequence then represents a multiple of your chosen "unit" (so "2" is 2x1 unit, and "6" is 6x1 unit, etc.)

For your first bet, you place the sum of the first and last numbers in your sequence. So, in the first example (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) you would bet 8 (or 1+7) x 1 unit. In our second example (1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8) you would be 9 (or 1+8) x 1 unit.

If you win, you cross out the two outer numbers (1 & 7 in the first example, 1 & 8 in the second) and bet the sum of the next two outer numbers. So, in the first example, you would bet 8 (or 2+6) x 1 unit, and in the second example, you'd bet 7 (or 1+6) x 1 unit.

If you win again, you cross out those two numbers and repeat the process until, if you continue winning, you have a "Coup" and you start all over again with the original sequence.

Going back to your first round of betting, let's examine what you would do if you lose. In the first example (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), you bet 8 x 1 unit on the first bet and, sadly, you lost. So what you do is add that number (8) to the end of your sequence, making a new sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Your next bet (clearly a larger bet intended to offset your recent losses) would be 9 (or 1+8) x 1 unit.

If, however, in this same example, you won the first round of betting, [with 8 (or 1+7) x 1 unit], but lost the second round [with a bet of 8 (or 2+6) x 1 unit, then your new sequence would be 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8.

You continue this way until achieving a coup, at which point, you start over again with your original sequence - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Going back to the second example(1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8), if you lost your first round of betting, then you would add 9 to the end of the sequence, making a new sequence of 1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, and your next bet would be 10 (or 1+9) x 1 unit.

If, however, still using our second example, you won your first round of betting [with 9 (or 1+8) x 1 unit] but lost the second [with 7 (or 1+6) x 1 unit], then your new sequence would be 1, 3, 4, 6, 7.

Again, you continue this way until achieving a Coup at which point you would start over again with the original sequence.

The intended benefit of this rather confusing method is that anytime you achieve a Coup, you come out with a profit. The downside to this method, of course, is that you can rack up huge losses before you see any winnings, if ever.

As you can probably see, the success of this system is very much dependent upon finding the ideal sequence of numbers for the game you are playing. We'd love to give you a hard and fast rule for each game you'll encounter at a typical online casino but, of course, if it were that easy, we wouldn't be writing about it. We'd be at the casino right now, raking in the profits.