Every system has its Waterloo—it will succeed for days, possibly weeks, and small gains be made; but finally the occasion must and will arrive when all previous profits and the system player's capital will be swamped. At the end of this article will be found a scheme devised by the writer whereby the punter puts himself into the position of the Banker as nearly
as possible, and consequently is enabled to win such vast stakes as are lost by a system player in the ordinary course, when that particular sequence of events occur which demolishes his system.
Here is an example of a "Montant et demontant" played in the usual method, and played with an increasing unit after each net loss of 10 units. The player is supposed to stake on the Red throughout; and the dot indicates which colour wins.
| Ordinary Method. | A varying Unit employed. | Remarks. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R. | B. | Net + or – | R. | B. | Net + or – | |
| 01 | • | –1 | 01 | • | –1 | |
| 02 | • | –3 | 02 | • | –3 | |
| 03 | • | –6 | 03 | • | –6 | |
| 04 | • | –10 | 04 | • | –10 | Having lost 10 single units, the system is re-started with a double unit. |
| 05 | • | –15 | 02 | • | –12 | |
| 06 | • | –21 | 04 | • | –16 | |
| 07 • | –14 | 06 • | –10 | |||
| 08 | • | –22 | 08 | • | –18 | |
| 09 • | –13 | 10 • | –8 | |||
| 10 | • | –23 | 09 | • | –17 | As the object is to be +1, 9 is a sufficiently high stake. |
| 11 | • | –34 | 11 | • | –28 | |
| 12 | • | –46 | 02 | • | –30 | As not more than 30 may be lost while employing a double unit, 2 is the highest stake allowed. |
| 13 | • | –59 | 03 | • | –33 | |
| 14 • | –45 | 06 • | –27 | |||
| 15 • | –30 | 09 • | –18 | |||
| 16 • | –14 | 12 • | –6 | |||
| 15 | • | –29 | 07 | • | –13 | As explained before. |
| 16 • | –13 | 10 • | –3 | |||
| 14 • | +1 | 04 • | +1 | As explained before. | ||
Had the player lost 60 units, he would have re-started the system and played 4, 8, 12, &c.; and if this play showed a net loss of 100 units, 5, 10, 15, &c.,
would have been staked, and continued with until either the net loss was 150, or the net gain 1 unit, in which case the player would begin all over again with a single unit.
Another style of play is to bet on the prospect of the colour, or even chances, running in a particular way. Some people play for an intermittence of colour, consequently always stake on the opposite colour to that which turned up last. Others play for the run, and so always stake on the colour that last appeared. A very popular wager is to stake on the "Avant dernièr," or on the colour that turned up the last time but one. By this means there is only one combination of events by which the player loses, and this is if the colours go two of one kind, followed by two of the other; but the weak point about it is that the player may miss his first stake and his last one, although the series goes in his favour. Yet another common method of staking is to play "the card"—that is, to play in expectation of previous events repeating themselves. Thus if the previous throws have given three Blacks, followed by three Reds, the expectation is if three Blacks immediately occur, that three Reds will also occur.[[110]] Such theories, of course, have absolutely no scientific basis, and, in the opinion of the writer, are only vexatious and a cause of trouble to the player, who should invariably stake on the chance that is most convenient to where he is sitting. He has an equal chance of winning, and by this means will save himself the trouble of reaching across the table, both to place his stake and to retrieve his winnings.
There may be, however, some reason in playing for a run on one colour or chance, but not staking until after this colour or chance has appeared. By this means the player, if he plays flat stakes, is square on all runs of two, wins one on all runs of three, two on all runs of four, and so on. He loses one unit on every intermittence, but against this he loses nothing at all on all runs of the opposite colour or chance.
Had this method of staking been followed in the example given on p. [460], it will be seen that the player would have won 2 units on Red and 4 units on Black, and the highest stake necessary on any coup would have been 3 units; and had it been adopted in the example given on p. [457], only 70 units would have been lost on the Red side, and the highest stake risked 16; while on the Black, 41 units would have been won, with 9 as the highest stake.