While some blackjack betting systems are fairly simple to learn, the Labouchere system requires a bit of an explanation. Now this isn’t to say the Labouchere is overly-difficult to learn, you just need to understand a couple of basic points before putting it into practice. That being said, here is a closer look at the basics of using the Labouchere and its effectiveness.
How the Labouchere Works
The first step to the Labouchere involves thinking about how much profit you want to accumulate at the end of a session; to make things simple, we’ll just say you’re aiming for $100. The next move is to come up with a string of betting units that will add up to $100 based on the bet sizes you make. Assuming you placed $5 bets, your number string could look like the following: 1, 2, 3, 5, 3, 3, 2, 1
This equals 20 betting units, which comes out to $100 when multiplied by 5. When coming up with your number sequence, keep in mind that it doesn’t matter how the string looks as long as it adds up to the desired profits. And the end goal is to finish out your string of numbers and hit the desired profit.
To make bets, you add the two numbers on the end; in this case, your first bet would be 2 units ($10). If you win the bet, you cross off the two end numbers and move on to the next wager. But if you lose the bet, you add the total number of units to the end of your number string. So if you lost the first wager, your new string would look like this: 1, 2, 3, 5, 3, 3, 2, 1, 2
Labouchere Effectiveness
The nice thing about this blackjack strategy is that it gives you a lot of freedom. Basically, you could either make this a negative or positive progression betting system based on the string of written numbers. For example, you could write a string of numbers such as the following to make a negative progression: 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4
Of course, you also have to consider that making a negative progression system is more risky because you’re placing the big bets before winning anything. That said, if you’re going to use the Labouchere, it’s highly recommended that you start out with a positive progressive first such as the one we used in the first example. This way, if you go on a losing streak, you won’t be forced to make huge bets until finally winning some money.