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Economy => Gambling => Topic started by: leen93 on April 09, 2015, 04:49:22 PM



Title: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: leen93 on April 09, 2015, 04:49:22 PM
Am I right that when I want to make 1 btc profit from eg. 7 btc it is better to start doing this with a martingale strategy from 1 btc instead of going all in on a lower odd to earn this. Since with this strategy you wager on average less (1, 3 or 7 btc) than with the all-in strategy (7btc) I should on average lose less so I should have a higher chance making 8 btc from 7 btc using martingale than from an all-in bet?


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: pedrog on April 09, 2015, 04:53:58 PM
Yes, but with the amount of your bets approaching huge values like 1,000,000 the probability of you busting all your balance is going to 1, so eventually it will happen.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: GrandmaJean on April 09, 2015, 05:41:40 PM
isnt that the same possibility to get 1 btc because of the house edge? you would have to make more bets with lower wins or 1 bet with bigger win


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: RHavar on April 09, 2015, 05:47:03 PM
Am I right that when I want to make 1 btc profit from eg. 7 btc it is better to start doing this with a martingale strategy from 1 btc instead of going all in on a lower odd to earn this. Since with this strategy you wager on average less (1, 3 or 7 btc) than with the all-in strategy (7btc) I should on average lose less so I should have a higher chance making 8 btc from 7 btc using martingale than from an all-in bet?

With a fixed house edge, yes, you are better to martingale. Your expected losses are based on how much you wager, and done properly a martingale will greatly reduce the amount you wager compared to an all-in bet, and thus improve your chances of winning.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: leen93 on April 09, 2015, 05:49:12 PM
felt bored and calculated it
so imagine you have 7 btc and want to make it 8 btc and there is a house edge of 2%
chance you'll be able to do this with martingale is 86.375%
chance you'll be able to do this with a bet of 7 btc is 85.75%
just a difference for exactly the same outcome


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: 98problems on April 09, 2015, 06:12:03 PM
felt bored and calculated it
so imagine you have 7 btc and want to make it 8 btc and there is a house edge of 2%
chance you'll be able to do this with martingale is 86.375%
chance you'll be able to do this with a bet of 7 btc is 85.75%
just a difference for exactly the same outcome

so theres just no point to gamble small bets and waste your time on it. just do one bet and thats it


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: bitllionaire on April 09, 2015, 06:37:12 PM
martingale is not a bad strategy in ideal conditions, but if you have the house edge and a limited bank( it has to be really big related to your bets) you will finish losing you whole bank. If you think it is a win strategy,go and try it,and come to tell us your results


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: kotwica666 on April 09, 2015, 07:40:30 PM
Someone checked, that you can lose up to 32 times in a row, so count how much you need to protect such a strategy .. The truth is that there is no 100% strategy to win. It is just luck ;) ..Which I don't have ;D


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: luciann on April 10, 2015, 12:01:55 AM
its not bad? well that depends all on the bankroll you have.. if you keep doubling you`ll bound to lose.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: rayhan on April 10, 2015, 12:28:47 AM
martingale sucks, never using method like this again, no matter how much of bitcoin which i had always gone when using this method .. martingale can only be done on sports betting


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: GMA7 on April 10, 2015, 12:34:02 AM
if you have 1000BTC bankroll and you have only 1satoshi as base bet then you can win with martingale :)


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: rayhan on April 10, 2015, 12:45:02 AM
if you have 1000BTC bankroll and you have only 1satoshi as base bet then you can win with martingale :)
how could anyone willing to waste the time only for 1 satoshi if he had 1kbtc


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: malphite on April 10, 2015, 12:49:09 AM
not bad... is so how much has anyone won from ding this long term.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: dznuts85 on April 10, 2015, 01:08:36 AM
from my own personal experiece, martingale isnt bad really, i sometimes use martingale and i profit most of the time. i think it only depends on how you control your betting, just dont go to "waiting the red streaks to come".. if you know what i mean :D


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: waterpile on April 10, 2015, 01:29:58 AM
 I started with a .1BTC bank roll and with the power of martingale

https://i.imgur.com/eKQUJ59.jpg


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Light on April 10, 2015, 01:35:28 AM
I started with a .1BTC bank roll and with the power of martingale

https://i.imgur.com/eKQUJ59.jpg

TBH, you could've also lost all of that in a series of losses. Martingale always make you feel good because you think you have a winning strategy when in fact all it does is convince you to keep playing until you lose it all. That's why it's so profitable to run a large dice site (and why Stunna can lose 200 BTC due to exploits without blinking an eye).


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: waterpile on April 10, 2015, 01:37:37 AM
I started with a .1BTC bank roll and with the power of martingale

https://i.imgur.com/eKQUJ59.jpg

TBH, you could've also lost all of that in a series of losses. Martingale always make you feel good because you think you have a winning strategy when in fact all it does is convince you to keep playing until you lose it all. That's why it's so profitable to run a large dice site (and why Stunna can lose 200 BTC due to exploits without blinking an eye).

I think all methods and strategies can lead to a series of losses. I'm just pointing out that martingale and like all other strategies have no differences.


edit*

Its about knowing when to stop, when you hit your target profit.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Ingatqhvq on April 10, 2015, 03:15:10 AM
If you lose one time, it always happened, no matter how less chance it is, you may lost all your money. Martingale strategy doesn't work all the times.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: fox19891989 on April 10, 2015, 03:21:08 AM
I started with a .1BTC bank roll and with the power of martingale

https://i.imgur.com/eKQUJ59.jpg

Congrats, you got good luck. 0.1btc to 1+ btc, that's very nice profit. ;D

Martingale system working when someone has good luck and big bankroll. Don't forget risk and bankroll management, when you loses in a row just stop and withdraw.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Bit_Happy on April 10, 2015, 03:30:35 AM
Am I right that when I want to make 1 btc profit from eg. 7 btc it is better to start doing this with a martingale strategy from 1 btc instead of going all in on a lower odd to earn this. Since with this strategy you wager on average less (1, 3 or 7 btc) than with the all-in strategy (7btc) I should on average lose less so I should have a higher chance making 8 btc from 7 btc using martingale than from an all-in bet?

Martingale isn't that bad if you (for example) start with ~0.03 BTC and treat it like 3 Million units.
Betting small amounts you can have winning streaks that last over 8 to 10 days, just make sure the effort is worth your time (and money if you lose)


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: bitbaby on April 10, 2015, 03:33:09 AM
I don't know about that. I think mostly you get lucky and you feel that a certain strategy worked. I had quite a bad luck this week, lost about 0.3 BTC playing roulette and dice with Martingay.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: badjacks99 on April 10, 2015, 03:47:29 AM
thats the problem with martaingale. it lulls you into believing that it is a winning stratagey and makes you think of the endless amounts of bitcoins you can earn. Thats all great until that run of 14 reds come out and your bankroll is gone. I believe it does work in the short run, atleast for me it does. But once you to get to where you are making 100000 rolls the chances of losing it all are getting bigger, you keep going it will happen.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Mehek on April 10, 2015, 04:21:30 AM
martangle startagy is good but had some errors i am working on it


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: futureofbitcoin on April 10, 2015, 05:47:04 AM
felt bored and calculated it
so imagine you have 7 btc and want to make it 8 btc and there is a house edge of 2%
chance you'll be able to do this with martingale is 86.375%
chance you'll be able to do this with a bet of 7 btc is 85.75%
just a difference for exactly the same outcome


Your calculations are wrong. How did you calculate this?

The thing is, with different martingale systems, the result is different. For example, is your starting bet 1BTC? Or 0.1BTC? Or 0.01BTC? Or 0.5 BTC?

The probability of obtaining a 1BTC win (and only 1 BTC) is different in each of those scenarios.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: leen93 on April 10, 2015, 05:51:20 AM
Don't misunderstand me, martingale is a losing strategy, just like every strategy, the house wins in the long run due to the edge.
but it's a better (or less worse) strategy than going all in, that's all i said


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: futureofbitcoin on April 10, 2015, 06:19:00 AM
Don't misunderstand me, martingale is a losing strategy, just like every strategy, the house wins in the long run due to the edge.
but it's a better (or less worse) strategy than going all in, that's all i said
I'm not misunderstanding you, you're misunderstanding me. Your calculations are wrong, because martingale doesn't give the same probabilities for different starting amounts.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: dznuts85 on April 10, 2015, 06:30:30 AM
Don't misunderstand me, martingale is a losing strategy, just like every strategy, the house wins in the long run due to the edge.
but it's a better (or less worse) strategy than going all in, that's all i said
I'm not misunderstanding you, you're misunderstanding me. Your calculations are wrong, because martingale doesn't give the same probabilities for different starting amounts.

i think he/she just mean that with 7BTC, if you want to make it to 8BTC it would be better to make a martingale until you reach 1BTC profit instead of yolo bet


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: galbros on April 10, 2015, 06:33:08 AM
Martingale works great until it doesn't.  I agree with waterpile that the key is to set your win target and stick to it.  That seems to be what trips up most gamblers.

I like the idea of comparing it with one all in bet.  It seems that dooglus did something along these lines awhile back.  IIRC he found that you were actually better off betting smaller amounts at high odds rather than one all in bet.  This makes sense if you think about it, your expected value is the same but your amount at risk is lower.  But I'm not sure if that extends all the way to martingale.  Your calculations suggest it might.

Regardless, good luck!


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Wendigo on April 10, 2015, 06:35:01 AM
You need a safety cushion of at least 20 consecutive lost bets to not destroy your whole bankroll and bet according to this to at least have a chance in my experience.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: futureofbitcoin on April 10, 2015, 07:19:41 AM
Don't misunderstand me, martingale is a losing strategy, just like every strategy, the house wins in the long run due to the edge.
but it's a better (or less worse) strategy than going all in, that's all i said
I'm not misunderstanding you, you're misunderstanding me. Your calculations are wrong, because martingale doesn't give the same probabilities for different starting amounts.

i think he/she just mean that with 7BTC, if you want to make it to 8BTC it would be better to make a martingale until you reach 1BTC profit instead of yolo bet
You're still not understanding me. I don't know why you guys don't understand such a simple point.

Martingale with 0.1BTC as the minimum bet does NOT YIELD THE SAME RESULT as martingale with 0.2BTC as the minimum bet. So to say that "martingale has an X% chance" is wrong.

Martingale works great until it doesn't.  I agree with waterpile that the key is to set your win target and stick to it.  That seems to be what trips up most gamblers.

I like the idea of comparing it with one all in bet.  It seems that dooglus did something along these lines awhile back.  IIRC he found that you were actually better off betting smaller amounts at high odds rather than one all in bet.  This makes sense if you think about it, your expected value is the same but your amount at risk is lower.  But I'm not sure if that extends all the way to martingale.  Your calculations suggest it might.

Regardless, good luck!
Either you're confused yourself, or you just didn't express yourself properly.

Expected value factors in risk. Expected value includes everything. You aren't better off under any strategy, they're all the same.

What changes is the distribution of possible outcomes. With bets of smaller amounts, you have a higher chance of losing smaller amounts, but also a higher chance of winning lower amounts. With larger bets, you have a higher chance of losing larger amounts but also a higher chance of winning larger amounts.

That's all. There's no "better". It just depends on the individual's definition of "better".


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Kprawn on April 10, 2015, 07:22:06 AM
The Martingale system has never worked for me... I think I chicken out too quickly, when the numbers gets too high.  :(

In the beginning some of the faucets with a multiplyer option had no Martingale counter and I got some profit... then I got greedy and they implemented a counter and I lost it all.

It's always fun, when you beat the system... and then it goes BANG!  ;D


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: XinXan on April 10, 2015, 07:28:46 AM
felt bored and calculated it
so imagine you have 7 btc and want to make it 8 btc and there is a house edge of 2%
chance you'll be able to do this with martingale is 86.375%
chance you'll be able to do this with a bet of 7 btc is 85.75%
just a difference for exactly the same outcome


Your calculations are wrong, with a 0% house edge doing it with martingale is a 87.5% and doing it all in with 7 btc would be also 87.5% so it doesnt matter wheter you use martingale or all in, the only thing you win is time


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Bitdicesupport on April 10, 2015, 08:31:29 AM
I would also contribute something to this thread. We have a player "snmp" on www.bitdice.me (http://www.bitdice.me) who is playing martingale for more than 2 weeks now and he keeps on winning. He has taken 2 loosing series but he has a stop in place at around 30 btc. But that being said, he is almost at 100BTC in profit.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Minnlo on April 10, 2015, 08:46:38 AM
Don't misunderstand me, martingale is a losing strategy, just like every strategy, the house wins in the long run due to the edge.
but it's a better (or less worse) strategy than going all in, that's all i said

The best strategy is to minimize your wagered amount, which in turns maximize your EV (still negative anyways).
And putting all your balance on a YOLO bet is never the best strategy.

Check https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=939776.msg10529739#msg10529739 to see a series of bets that gives you 49.65% to double 1 btc in a 1% house edge dice site. For comparison, an all-in x2 bet gives you 49.5% success rate.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: shulio on April 10, 2015, 08:56:32 AM
I would also contribute something to this thread. We have a player "snmp" on www.bitdice.me (http://www.bitdice.me) who is playing martingale for more than 2 weeks now and he keeps on winning. He has taken 2 loosing series but he has a stop in place at around 30 btc. But that being said, he is almost at 100BTC in profit.



NOt really a fact that martingale is a winning strategy, atleast he know when to stop, Martingale is a strategy but it is not always a winning strategy, all we need to do is the tendency to stop whenever we are in profit, otherwisethe losing streak will strike and bust our bankroll


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Bitdicesupport on April 10, 2015, 09:11:42 AM
I would also contribute something to this thread. We have a player "snmp" on www.bitdice.me (http://www.bitdice.me) who is playing martingale for more than 2 weeks now and he keeps on winning. He has taken 2 loosing series but he has a stop in place at around 30 btc. But that being said, he is almost at 100BTC in profit.



NOt really a fact that martingale is a winning strategy, atleast he know when to stop, Martingale is a strategy but it is not always a winning strategy, all we need to do is the tendency to stop whenever we are in profit, otherwisethe losing streak will strike and bust our bankroll

No no im not saying it is a winning strategy but it can work very well :)


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: shulio on April 10, 2015, 09:33:43 AM
I would also contribute something to this thread. We have a player "snmp" on www.bitdice.me (http://www.bitdice.me) who is playing martingale for more than 2 weeks now and he keeps on winning. He has taken 2 loosing series but he has a stop in place at around 30 btc. But that being said, he is almost at 100BTC in profit.



NOt really a fact that martingale is a winning strategy, atleast he know when to stop, Martingale is a strategy but it is not always a winning strategy, all we need to do is the tendency to stop whenever we are in profit, otherwisethe losing streak will strike and bust our bankroll

No no im not saying it is a winning strategy but it can work very well :)

Yes indeed it is, some strategy are design to win over the house, but no doubt that the tiny chance to hit a red streak will always be there, From what I saw in the site, its seems line snmp is coming back with his martingale strategy but it seems he keep on going , sooner or later there will be a chance where he will bust all of his winning


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: futureofbitcoin on April 10, 2015, 09:50:15 AM
felt bored and calculated it
so imagine you have 7 btc and want to make it 8 btc and there is a house edge of 2%
chance you'll be able to do this with martingale is 86.375%
chance you'll be able to do this with a bet of 7 btc is 85.75%
just a difference for exactly the same outcome


Your calculations are wrong, with a 0% house edge doing it with martingale is a 87.5% and doing it all in with 7 btc would be also 87.5% so it doesnt matter wheter you use martingale or all in, the only thing you win is time
This is also false. The distributions are not the same, even though the end effect is the same.

Consider one family with a 1.80m tall father, 1.60m tall mother, and a 1.70m tall son. The "expected height" of the family is 1.70m.

Consider another family with a 2.00m tall father, a 1.60m tall mother, and a 1.50m tall child. The Expected height is also 1.70m, but obviously the distribution is different.


It's the same thing with gambling strategies. The EV is the same, but distribution is different. In the case that you want to win 1BTC and EXACTLY 1BTC, no more, no less, with EXACTLY a 7BTC bankroll*, there are two optimal routes**:

1. Bet all-in at high odds
2. Martingale with a BASE BET of 1BTC.

These result in the same odds for earning exactly 1 BTC. Any other variation of the martingale would result in a lower chance.

*Any difference in ANY of the variables would change this conclusion.

**There are possibly other routes that would arrive at the same % chance, but these are not within the topic of martingale vs all-in.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: dznuts85 on April 10, 2015, 09:50:56 AM
felt bored and calculated it
so imagine you have 7 btc and want to make it 8 btc and there is a house edge of 2%
chance you'll be able to do this with martingale is 86.375%
chance you'll be able to do this with a bet of 7 btc is 85.75%
just a difference for exactly the same outcome


Your calculations are wrong, with a 0% house edge doing it with martingale is a 87.5% and doing it all in with 7 btc would be also 87.5% so it doesnt matter wheter you use martingale or all in, the only thing you win is time

How can you prove that his calculation is wrong if your calculation shown to us is from 0% house edge?


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Shogen on April 10, 2015, 10:32:37 AM
felt bored and calculated it
so imagine you have 7 btc and want to make it 8 btc and there is a house edge of 2%
chance you'll be able to do this with martingale is 86.375%
chance you'll be able to do this with a bet of 7 btc is 85.75%
just a difference for exactly the same outcome


Your calculations are wrong, with a 0% house edge doing it with martingale is a 87.5% and doing it all in with 7 btc would be also 87.5% so it doesnt matter wheter you use martingale or all in, the only thing you win is time

How can you prove that his calculation is wrong if your calculation shown to us is from 0% house edge?

No idea why XinXan talks about 0% house edge, but the 86.375% numbers is slightly off under the 2% house edge assumption.

The chance to win a x2 bet under 2% house edge is 49%.
The chance to lose it thrice is 51% ^ 3 = 13.2651%.
So the chance to make it 8 btc from 7 btc successfully is 1 - 13.2651% = 86.7349%.

The number 85.75% is correct by the way.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: leen93 on April 10, 2015, 10:49:44 AM
felt bored and calculated it
so imagine you have 7 btc and want to make it 8 btc and there is a house edge of 2%
chance you'll be able to do this with martingale is 86.375%
chance you'll be able to do this with a bet of 7 btc is 85.75%
just a difference for exactly the same outcome


Your calculations are wrong, with a 0% house edge doing it with martingale is a 87.5% and doing it all in with 7 btc would be also 87.5% so it doesnt matter wheter you use martingale or all in, the only thing you win is time

How can you prove that his calculation is wrong if your calculation shown to us is from 0% house edge?

No idea why XinXan talks about 0% house edge, but the 86.375% numbers is slightly off under the 2% house edge assumption.

The chance to win a x2 bet under 2% house edge is 49%.
The chance to lose it thrice is 51% ^ 3 = 13.2651%.
So the chance to make it 8 btc from 7 btc successfully is 1 - 13.2651% = 86.7349%.

The number 85.75% is correct by the way.
i exchanged the 3 and 7 by accident; Thanks by pointing this out


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: leen93 on April 10, 2015, 10:57:04 AM
felt bored and calculated it
so imagine you have 7 btc and want to make it 8 btc and there is a house edge of 2%
chance you'll be able to do this with martingale is 86.375%
chance you'll be able to do this with a bet of 7 btc is 85.75%
just a difference for exactly the same outcome


Your calculations are wrong, with a 0% house edge doing it with martingale is a 87.5% and doing it all in with 7 btc would be also 87.5% so it doesnt matter wheter you use martingale or all in, the only thing you win is time
don't come up with a 0% house edge, i'm talking about a 2% house edge, for every strictly positive house edge martingale is better than a yolo bet if you have a clear goal


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: magicmexican on April 10, 2015, 12:12:42 PM
Its actually quite a common fallacy/delusion that breaking down your "one big bet" to like 5 smaller bets and use martingable is somewhat "safer" player to get the desired result. Probably has something to do with the human psychology of avoiding that devastating loss on the 1st all-in bet.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Phildo on April 10, 2015, 12:54:11 PM
Martingale makes it easier to win a small amount, but it also makes it easier to lose a big amount than a flat betting strategy, and that is where the problem lies.

Here is a math problem to find out why martingale isn't the best idea. Whatever game you are playing, what are the odds of winning 10 games in a row, and what are the odds of losing 10 games in a row? Very close, if not the same. How much do you win when you win 10 in a row and how much do you lose when you lose 10 in a row? Big difference, and the problem.

The reality is that it's just not worth it in the long run, that big losing streak will come, and it will wipe out of all of your previous winnings and then some.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: omahapoker on April 10, 2015, 01:02:20 PM
Am I right that when I want to make 1 btc profit from eg. 7 btc it is better to start doing this with a martingale strategy from 1 btc instead of going all in on a lower odd to earn this. Since with this strategy you wager on average less (1, 3 or 7 btc) than with the all-in strategy (7btc) I should on average lose less so I should have a higher chance making 8 btc from 7 btc using martingale than from an all-in bet?



https://i.imgur.com/tUEMaqn.jpg






your right. it isnt that bad


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: zinjo on April 10, 2015, 01:17:44 PM
martingale is always bad , just don't forgot , house always wins :D


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: leen93 on April 10, 2015, 05:04:38 PM
Martingale makes it easier to win a small amount, but it also makes it easier to lose a big amount than a flat betting strategy, and that is where the problem lies.

Here is a math problem to find out why martingale isn't the best idea. Whatever game you are playing, what are the odds of winning 10 games in a row, and what are the odds of losing 10 games in a row? Very close, if not the same. How much do you win when you win 10 in a row and how much do you lose when you lose 10 in a row? Big difference, and the problem.

The reality is that it's just not worth it in the long run, that big losing streak will come, and it will wipe out of all of your previous winnings and then some.
please read the OP. I'm comparing an all in method with a martingale one, with the same goal (eg 8 btc from 7) and then the all in method is worse than the martingale...


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Chemistry1988 on April 10, 2015, 05:26:36 PM
Martingale makes it easier to win a small amount, but it also makes it easier to lose a big amount than a flat betting strategy, and that is where the problem lies.

Here is a math problem to find out why martingale isn't the best idea. Whatever game you are playing, what are the odds of winning 10 games in a row, and what are the odds of losing 10 games in a row? Very close, if not the same. How much do you win when you win 10 in a row and how much do you lose when you lose 10 in a row? Big difference, and the problem.

The reality is that it's just not worth it in the long run, that big losing streak will come, and it will wipe out of all of your previous winnings and then some.
please read the OP. I'm comparing an all in method with a martingale one, with the same goal (eg 8 btc from 7) and then the all in method is worse than the martingale...

A major difference between OP's strategy and normal martingale players' strategy is that OP will only do 1 round of bets. When he wants to make 1 btc profit, he simply set his base bet to 1 btc and stop right after achieving his goal.
This way he effectively lower his wagered amount from 7 btc to about 3 btc (50%*1btc+25%*3btc+25%*7btc) and as a result has a higher probability of making 1 btc than the all-in strategy.

But if he set his base bet to, say 0.0001 btc, he will need to make 10000 rounds of bets to make the 1 btc, which will have a very high wagered amount and much lower success probability than the all-in strategy.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: katerniko1 on April 10, 2015, 05:34:44 PM
with martingale you end on 0 eventually.
that tactic works only with infinity amount of money


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: leen93 on April 10, 2015, 07:00:15 PM
Martingale makes it easier to win a small amount, but it also makes it easier to lose a big amount than a flat betting strategy, and that is where the problem lies.

Here is a math problem to find out why martingale isn't the best idea. Whatever game you are playing, what are the odds of winning 10 games in a row, and what are the odds of losing 10 games in a row? Very close, if not the same. How much do you win when you win 10 in a row and how much do you lose when you lose 10 in a row? Big difference, and the problem.

The reality is that it's just not worth it in the long run, that big losing streak will come, and it will wipe out of all of your previous winnings and then some.
please read the OP. I'm comparing an all in method with a martingale one, with the same goal (eg 8 btc from 7) and then the all in method is worse than the martingale...

A major difference between OP's strategy and normal martingale players' strategy is that OP will only do 1 round of bets. When he wants to make 1 btc profit, he simply set his base bet to 1 btc and stop right after achieving his goal.
This way he effectively lower his wagered amount from 7 btc to about 3 btc (50%*1btc+25%*3btc+25%*7btc) and as a result has a higher probability of making 1 btc than the all-in strategy.

But if he set his base bet to, say 0.0001 btc, he will need to make 10000 rounds of bets to make the 1 btc, which will have a very high wagered amount and much lower success probability than the all-in strategy.
no, the total average amount wagered would be exactly the same. Trying to earn 1 btc in 1 martingale bet loses on average x, trying to earn 0.0001 btc loses on average 0.0001*x, trying this for 10.000 times (to have 1 btc profit) will give an average loss of 1*x too. 1 martingale or 10000 small martingales, it's all the same. Average wagered amount will be the same too taking into mind that the average loss is a % of the total amount wagered. Please think before you say something


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: leen93 on April 10, 2015, 07:01:53 PM
with martingale you end on 0 eventually.
that tactic works only with infinity amount of money
yes, and this is only true for sure if you let it run for an infinite amount of time and this assumption is as stupid as your assumption of having an infinite amount to wager


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Chemistry1988 on April 10, 2015, 07:20:10 PM
Martingale makes it easier to win a small amount, but it also makes it easier to lose a big amount than a flat betting strategy, and that is where the problem lies.

Here is a math problem to find out why martingale isn't the best idea. Whatever game you are playing, what are the odds of winning 10 games in a row, and what are the odds of losing 10 games in a row? Very close, if not the same. How much do you win when you win 10 in a row and how much do you lose when you lose 10 in a row? Big difference, and the problem.

The reality is that it's just not worth it in the long run, that big losing streak will come, and it will wipe out of all of your previous winnings and then some.
please read the OP. I'm comparing an all in method with a martingale one, with the same goal (eg 8 btc from 7) and then the all in method is worse than the martingale...

A major difference between OP's strategy and normal martingale players' strategy is that OP will only do 1 round of bets. When he wants to make 1 btc profit, he simply set his base bet to 1 btc and stop right after achieving his goal.
This way he effectively lower his wagered amount from 7 btc to about 3 btc (50%*1btc+25%*3btc+25%*7btc) and as a result has a higher probability of making 1 btc than the all-in strategy.

But if he set his base bet to, say 0.0001 btc, he will need to make 10000 rounds of bets to make the 1 btc, which will have a very high wagered amount and much lower success probability than the all-in strategy.
no, the total average amount wagered would be exactly the same. Trying to earn 1 btc in 1 martingale bet loses on average x, trying to earn 0.0001 btc loses on average 0.0001*x, trying this for 10.000 times (to have 1 btc profit) will give an average loss of 1*x too. 1 martingale or 10000 small martingales, it's all the same. Average wagered amount will be the same too taking into mind that the average loss is a % of the total amount wagered. Please think before you say something

Let's say you set the base bet to 0.0001 btc.
For each round of martingale, you will wager 0.0001 for 50% chance, 0.0003 for 25% chance, 0.0007 for 12.5% chance, ... , 3.2767 for 0.00305% chance, 6.5535 for 0.00305% chance, right?
So you will on average wager 0.0016 btc per round, and a total of 16 btc assuming you didn't hit a 16-loss streak, right?


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: coingamblingreviews on April 10, 2015, 11:27:56 PM
Martingale is always bad if you run the maths...


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: futureofbitcoin on April 11, 2015, 02:22:05 AM
Martingale makes it easier to win a small amount, but it also makes it easier to lose a big amount than a flat betting strategy, and that is where the problem lies.

Here is a math problem to find out why martingale isn't the best idea. Whatever game you are playing, what are the odds of winning 10 games in a row, and what are the odds of losing 10 games in a row? Very close, if not the same. How much do you win when you win 10 in a row and how much do you lose when you lose 10 in a row? Big difference, and the problem.

The reality is that it's just not worth it in the long run, that big losing streak will come, and it will wipe out of all of your previous winnings and then some.
please read the OP. I'm comparing an all in method with a martingale one, with the same goal (eg 8 btc from 7) and then the all in method is worse than the martingale...

A major difference between OP's strategy and normal martingale players' strategy is that OP will only do 1 round of bets. When he wants to make 1 btc profit, he simply set his base bet to 1 btc and stop right after achieving his goal.
This way he effectively lower his wagered amount from 7 btc to about 3 btc (50%*1btc+25%*3btc+25%*7btc) and as a result has a higher probability of making 1 btc than the all-in strategy.

But if he set his base bet to, say 0.0001 btc, he will need to make 10000 rounds of bets to make the 1 btc, which will have a very high wagered amount and much lower success probability than the all-in strategy.
no, the total average amount wagered would be exactly the same. Trying to earn 1 btc in 1 martingale bet loses on average x, trying to earn 0.0001 btc loses on average 0.0001*x, trying this for 10.000 times (to have 1 btc profit) will give an average loss of 1*x too. 1 martingale or 10000 small martingales, it's all the same. Average wagered amount will be the same too taking into mind that the average loss is a % of the total amount wagered. Please think before you say something

Let's say you set the base bet to 0.0001 btc.
For each round of martingale, you will wager 0.0001 for 50% chance, 0.0003 for 25% chance, 0.0007 for 12.5% chance, ... , 3.2767 for 0.00305% chance, 6.5535 for 0.00305% chance, right?
So you will on average wager 0.0016 btc per round, and a total of 16 btc assuming you didn't hit a 16-loss streak, right?

Exactly. The OP can't do math, yet keeps telling others they're wrong. eh.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: dznuts85 on April 11, 2015, 03:43:46 AM
with martingale you end on 0 eventually.
that tactic works only with infinity amount of money

It will really get you busted if you dont know when to stop, if you are greedy then it means you are only waiting to get busted


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Rmcdermott927 on April 11, 2015, 03:45:39 AM
It's fine, if you walk away quickly.   Get greedy and it ends badly.   


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Tlee88 on April 11, 2015, 04:03:46 AM
My record was lost in 15 consecutive times , at this moment I realized we never could win dealer with any method


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: adaseb on April 11, 2015, 04:21:05 AM
My record was lost in 15 consecutive times , at this moment I realized we never could win dealer with any method

Yes the point of creating this thread is pointless because there aren't any websites with a 0% house edge.

And even if there was a website, it would probably cheat you.

Even if it didn't cheat you, your emotions would cause you to lose everything


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Light on April 11, 2015, 04:25:54 AM
I already made a couple of posts on why martingale sucks - but I didn't actually address OP.

I haven't done the math on the martingale method per se - but I did dig up an old conversation me a dooglus had about losing 'less' by betting less (ie. rather than all in betting, splitting your bets into n portions where you aim to get to x as a value then stop).

Yes.

And you're the first person who responded in such an open manner.

Everyone else just tells me I'm wrong.  :)

The trick is to split up your bet (the amount you were going to risk in a single bet) into a series of amounts which sum to a the same, and which form a sequence such that you can bet the smallest amount, and if it wins, you make the same as if you bet the whole amount at 49.5% (so you'll be betting with a smaller chance, and higher payout multiplier).  And if it loses, you want betting the 2nd amount to cover the first loss and make the same net profit.  Etc.

If you can find such a sequence (and you always can, though it can involve some hairy math depending on the length of the sequence you're looking for) then the amount you expect to risk is less than your whole amount (since there's a non-zero chance that you will win before the last bet, and stop at that point), and so the amount you expect to lose, being 1% of the amount you risk, is less than when you make the single bet.

Here's a very simple example:

you have 1 BTC and want to double it.

* you could bet it all at 49.5%, and succeed in doubling up with probability 0.495

* or you could bet 0.41421356 BTC at 28.99642866% with payout multiplier 3.41421356x, and if you lose, bet the rest at the same chance.  If you win either bet, you double up, else you lose.  Your chance of doubling up is 0.4958492857 - a little higher than the 0.495 you have with the single bet.

Cool, huh?

That's breaking the single bet up into a sequence of length 2.

If you break it up into more, smaller bets, then the probability of success increases further.

The more steps, the closer to 0.5 your probability of success gets.

You'll be limited by real-life barriers, like the invisibility indivisibility of the satoshi, and the limit of 4 decimal places on the chance at JD.  But in theory you can get arbitrarily close to 0.5.  I think.  :)

And some quick maths (plus graphing)

I cannot believe I'm saying this but I think you might be right.

I went ahead and played around with a case where the player starts at 1 wants to move to 2 by making two bets (of any size between 0-1 inclusive). Hence I went to go graph the function to see if it was true and I got this:

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/obkfifgbnl

Where y = probability of succeeding
and d = the value of the first initial bet

Notice how at both d = 0 and d= 1 the probability is 0.495 as expected (as you are either betting nothing then 1 or 1 then nothing and both are equivalent cases). And in between you get a probability higher than the 0.495 offered for the single bet.

I've tried a few set values for cases where you split your value up to more than two and you do get a better result. I can only theorise that this is because as your bet size approaches 0 with the number of bets approaching infinity your expectation approaches 1.

However, what I do not understand at the present is why this is so. I almost fell out of my chair when the numbers came out (I checked like 6 times), as it's inferring that you can get better than what the house 'technically' offers. The problem with this is that your expectation is better than just flat betting and logically that doesn't make sense. Both should have the same expectation.

I'm going to mull it over.

I haven't given it a lot of thought beyond this - doog explained it quite elegantly.

When you bet your whole bankroll in a single bet, you expect to lose 1% of it.

When you split it up and bet the pieces in order from smallest to biggest, and stop when any bet wins you often don't end up betting the whole bankroll, and so you expect to lose 1% of less than the whole bankroll.

By splitting it up you reduce the amount you expect to bet, and so you reduce the amount you expect to lose.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: birdcat90 on April 11, 2015, 05:39:04 AM
does playing using martingale system not profitable in the long run?

because from my experience, my bet always end in loss if i use it for more than 3 hours..>.<


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: lite on April 11, 2015, 12:22:31 PM
does playing using martingale system not profitable in the long run?

because from my experience, my bet always end in loss if i use it for more than 3 hours..>.<
No it's not profitable in long run house will win, it's better to use some other strategy to win.


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: dooglus on April 11, 2015, 12:54:32 PM
felt bored and calculated it
so imagine you have 7 btc and want to make it 8 btc and there is a house edge of 2%
chance you'll be able to do this with martingale is 86.375%
chance you'll be able to do this with a bet of 7 btc is 85.75%
just a difference for exactly the same outcome

Your calculations are wrong, with a 0% house edge doing it with martingale is a 87.5% and doing it all in with 7 btc would be also 87.5% so it doesnt matter wheter you use martingale or all in, the only thing you win is time

This is also false. The distributions are not the same, even though the end effect is the same.

Consider one family with a 1.80m tall father, 1.60m tall mother, and a 1.70m tall son. The "expected height" of the family is 1.70m.

Consider another family with a 2.00m tall father, a 1.60m tall mother, and a 1.50m tall child. The Expected height is also 1.70m, but obviously the distribution is different.

Your example doesn't apply here. In OP's example you end up with either 0 or 8 BTC. There's no "son" who is somewhere between mother and father. There's just "lose 7" and "win 1" as the two possible outcomes, and they have different probabilities depending on which strategy you use. In that sense one strategy is clearly better than the other, in that it wins the same amount as the other but with higher probability.

It's the same thing with gambling strategies. The EV is the same, but distribution is different. In the case that you want to win 1BTC and EXACTLY 1BTC, no more, no less, with EXACTLY a 7BTC bankroll*, there are two optimal routes**:

1. Bet all-in at high odds
2. Martingale with a BASE BET of 1BTC.

These result in the same odds for earning exactly 1 BTC. Any other variation of the martingale would result in a lower chance.

*Any difference in ANY of the variables would change this conclusion.

**There are possibly other routes that would arrive at the same % chance, but these are not within the topic of martingale vs all-in.

The two strategies OP proposes:

A) bet 7 BTC at a multiplier of (8/7)x
B) bet 1 BTC at 2x, if you lose, bet 2 BTC at 2x, if you lose, bet 4 BTC at 2x

Hopefully you can see that they both have only two possible outcomes: you end up with 0 BTC or 8 BTC.

OP claims that the probability of ending up with 8 BTC instead of 0 BTC is higher with strategy B is higher than with strategy A. You claim that they are the same. You are wrong, and he is right (unless the house edge is 0% of course, in which case both strategies have a probability of success of 7/8). Do the math for yourself and you will see it.

Exactly. The OP can't do math, yet keeps telling others they're wrong. eh.

That seems unnecessarily rude. Especially when OP is right.

If you don't want to do the math, perhaps check some of the many threads where this has been discussed before. Light links to one such thread:

dig up an old conversation me a dooglus had about losing 'less' by betting less (ie. rather than all in betting, splitting your bets into n portions where you aim to get to x as a value then stop)


Title: Re: Martingale isn't that bad
Post by: Shogen on April 11, 2015, 06:14:21 PM
does playing using martingale system not profitable in the long run?

because from my experience, my bet always end in loss if i use it for more than 3 hours..>.<

All pure luck games like dice, roulette, online blackjack (reshuffle after every hand, so counting cards is useless), slots, are not profitable in the long run no matter how you play it. So you should play it for fun but should not be looking to be rich through gambling.