The Labouchere is a slightly more complex system that may require some practice to get used to. It’s a system that you dictate the rules for before you start playing. You decide how much you will bet and you decide how long you will play for.

First thing’s first, this is an even chance betting system so it can be used on Red/Black, Odd/Even and 1-18/19-36. It can’t be used elsewhere on the table because the maths wouldn’t add up.

Labouchere Roulette System Example. To properly grasp the Labouchere strategy in Roulette, grab a pen and a piece of paper. We’re going back to basics. Then, take these three steps: Write down how much you’re able to invest. Do not go overboard and stay rational. Jot down the table betting limits. You’ll need this to determine your unit. Keep in mind that the Labouchere system is intended to be applied to Even/Odd, Red/Black, or 1 – 18/19 – 36 bets only. Example If you wish to win £ 25, and you have chosen the series 2, 5, 3, 9, and 6 (sum = 25), then your first bet will be (2+6=) £ 8 on red or black.

So what you do is construct yourself a “betting line” and the numbers will dictate how much you bet and the length will go some way to dictating how long you will bet. So this is what a simple Labouchere betting line could look like (remember it’s totally up to you).

1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1

That’s a very simple betting line that keeps the bets as low as possible. So once you have your line, you take the number from the left hand side of the line and the number from the right hand side of the line and add them together. This gives you the number that you need to bet.

Using the line above, the left hand number and right hand number added together is 2, so your first bet is 2. If you win, you cross both the left and right hand numbers off your line, so it would now look like this:

1 – 1 – 1 – 1

This is one of the two golden rules with the Labouchere: always cross both left and right hand numbers off your line after a win. Once you’ve crossed the numbers off, you then take the new left and right hand numbers, add them together to give you the next number to bet. You repeat this process until there’s no numbers left in your line. At this point you either quit and walk away, or construct yourself a new line.

What Do You Do After A Loss?

When you lose a bet, you don’t cross any numbers off your line. Instead you add the number that you’ve just bet to the right hand side of your line. So using the above line as an example again, if you lose your first bet of 2, your line would then look like this:

1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 2

This is the second golden rule for the Labouchere: always add the number you’ve just bet to the right hand side of the line after a loss and don’t cross any numbers off. Now let’s go through an example of playing through to the end of a betting line. The line we shall use is this slightly more complicated one:

1 – 3 – 4 – 2 – 1 – 2

Bet 1: 1 + 2 = 3 so the bet is 3. We place a bet of 3 and it lost. The line now looks like this:

1 – 3 – 4 – 2 – 1 – 2 – 3

Bet 2: 1 + 3 = 4 so the bet is 4. We place a bet of 4 and it wins. The line now looks like this:

3 – 4 – 2 – 1 – 2

Bet 3: 3 + 2 = 5 so the bet is 5. We place a bet of 5 and it wins. The line now looks like this:

4 – 2 – 1

Bet 4: 4 + 1 = 5 so the bet is 5. We place a bet of 5 and it lost. The line now looks like this:

4 – 2 – 1 – 5

Bet 5: 4 + 5 = 9 so the bet is 9. We place a bet of 9 and it wins. The line now looks like this:

2 – 1

Bet 6: 2 + 1 = 3 so the bet is 3. We place a bet of 3 and it wins. The line has now been completed.

When you get to the end of your betting line your profit will be the total of all the numbers added together from the original betting line. So with the above line that we used, your total win would be as follows:

1 + 3 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 13

It doesn’t matter how many wins or losses you get along the way, so long as you get to the end of your betting line, your profit will be the total of the original betting line added together.

So remember the two golden rules which are:

• Always cross the numbers from the left and right hand sides off your line after a win.
• Don’t cross any numbers off and add the number that you’ve just bet to the right hand side after a loss.

Upside To The Labouchere

The maths adds up nicely providing you stick to the system. If you get as many wins as losses without an extended losing run in the middle, you will be in profit.

Downside To The Labouchere

The problem with the Labouchere is that if you experience a losing run, your line will get longer and the amounts that you have to bet will keep creeping up. The only way to get the numbers back down is a winning run. The big downside is that once the bets get big, they stay big until you have a prolonged winning run to bring them back down.

Due to the fact that this is one of the more complicated strategies that’s been covered, it’s highly recommended that you practice on the games in our Free Roulette section to get used to the rules and maths. Another tip would be to use pen and paper to visually track your betting lines and cross the numbers out/add them on as you play.

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Many roulette systems and strategies have an opposite, or “reverse” variant. The Martingale system does, and so does the Fibonacci System.
The Reverse Labouchere is perhaps the most famous (it’s the mirror image of the the Labouchère roulette system of course).
In this section we’ll explain what it is, and how to play it.

[ Video Clip Coming Soon ]

The Reverse Labouchere:

Whereas the Labouchere is a negative progression system like the Martingale and Fibonacci System, where you bet a higher amount after a loss to try and get back into profit, the Reverse Labouchere is a Positive Progression System like the Reverse D’Alembert system where you increase your bet after a win in an attempt to accelerate profits on a winning streak (another example is the Reverse Fibonacci). In essence, it is very similar to the Labouchere, you just increase your bets after a win rather than after a loss.

The Reverse Labouchere system was made famous by an English guy called Norman Leigh in the sixties who subsequently wrote a book about his exploits (13 Against The Bank). He travelled down to the French Riviera with a team of 12 guys with the aim of taking the casinos to the cleaners playing roulette.

The Leigh team were eventually banned by every casino in France.
Norman Leigh’s thinking was as follows: He reckoned the easiest system with which to lose money in roulette was Labouchere. By pure logic, he deduced that if he played its reverse, he’d have the best system with which to win money.

Let’s just run through a revision of the Labouchere:

First, write down a sequence of numbers, for example
1, 2, 3, 5.
Then, bet an amount equal to the sum of the 1st and last numbers in the series (6 in the series above). Cross off the numbers at either end if you win, add the last bet if you lose, so if you win, you new sequence is:

2, 3.

Now bet the sum again- in this case 5.
If you get to the point where all numbers are crossed off, you have completed the progression. If not, continue until you do, or until you hit your stop loss limit.

Now, let’s look at the opposite to this: the Reverse Labouchere or Reverse Labby, where you add numbers to your sequence after you win, not after you lose. You try and accelerate winning streaks and conserve profits.

When Norman Leigh and his team did this, they covered all the even payout outside bets (the so called “50-50″ bets: red-black, odd-even, high-low) at 2 tables. Leigh took a 10% cut, and the rest of the profits were split evenly among the team.

Is this myth. or reality? Well, one thing is for certain. Norman Leigh has made alot of money from his book- that is probably where he made most of it, in fact. This system won’t change the house edge, but it is never a bad thing to work to a strict system where you have a stop loss and take profit target.

Quick Guide to the Reverse Labby (More Detail Below)

1. Wirite down a sequence of numbers
2. Bet the sum of the first and last numbers
3. After a win, add your last bet to the end.
4. After a loss, take out the 1st and last numbers
5. Keep playing until you have got through all of the numbers in your sequence or hit your stop loss limit or profit target. You may need to have “mini” profit targets for each run.

This system is best played on the lower risk bets outside bets that pay out 1:1: follow Norman Leigh’s lead (red/black, even/odd, hi/low etc).

Reverse Labouchere System

Pros

• Makes you set a strict stop loss and profit target like the 1326 System.
• You decide the agressiveness of the progression and the level of risk.
• Bets increase after a win, so you are betting previous winnings rather than chasing losses

Cons

• Because bets increase after a win, there is a danger of you wiping out your previous winnings if you do not time the end of each mini session. Are you planning to win 3 times in a row? 4? 5? Decide first, and pull out before you reach it
• The Reverse Labouchere has no impact on the overall house edge: 2.6% in European and 5.2% in American Roulette

Writing Down Your Labouchere Sequence

Grab a pen and paper and write down a list of numbers. The numbers are up to you. The larger the numbers, the more you are risking, of course. Experiment with different sequences and then fix your betting profile. Also write down your stop loss limit and your profit target. You can set your profit target as the sum of all the numbers in your sequence, but it is good practice to try and make lots of “mini targets” rather than play for an overall one for yor whole session. That way, you can try and build up to it

A low risk Labouchere sequence will have lots of 1s in there, particularly at each end. Bigger numbers, mean a bigger risk of course. You can repeat numbers

Make sure you stick within the betting limits of the table. There are some high limit roulette tables about like Premier Roulette, for example. Or you might want to keep your bets lower on a standard European Roulette game.

Labouchere Roulette System Example Definition

Free Roulette System Bet

Where to Play The Reverse Labouchere

We would recommend playing the Reverse Labouchere on a European Roulette Variant such as the one at Virgin Casino. Call us superstitous, but we’d play this on a French Roulette game. Norman Leigh did!