The80 20system Book

Martin J Silverthorne
The 80-20 System

The premier gambling strategy for
winning even-money bets!
Silverthorne Publications, Inc.
The 80-20 System

The premier gambling strategy for winning even-money bets!
By Martin J Silverthorne
COPYRIGHT 2010 Silverthorne Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages used in legitimate reviews, no parts of
this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.
Address all inquiries to the publisher:

Silverthorne Publications, Inc.
848 N. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 601
Las Vegas, Nevada 89107
United States of America
The material contained in this book is intended to inform and educate the reader and
in no way represents an inducement to gamble legally or illegally.
This publication is designed to provide an independent viewpoint and analysis of
the subject matter. The publisher and the author disclaim all legal responsibility
for any personal loss or liability caused by the use of any of the information
contained herein. Questions about this publication may be addressed to:
orders@silverthornepublications.com
Published in the United States of America
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2010 Silverthorne Publications

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Table of Contents
Introduction
The Players Edge
Betting Strategies
Betting Progressions
Even Money Bets
Synchronized Bet Selection
The 80-20 System Betting Strategy
Sample Games Using the Complete 80-20 System
Money Management Rules for the 80-20 System
How to Play Roulette
Winning at Roulette
Playing Craps
Winning at Craps
Playing Baccarat
Winning at Baccarat
Playing Sic Bo
Winning at Sic Bo
Betting, Bankroll and Win Rates
Skilful Play
Discipline and Control
Getting Casino Comps
Casino Etiquette
Keeping Records
How to Win With the 80-20 System
Going Home a Winner
80-20 System Bet Tracking Forms
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4
7
10
20
31
33
40
46
50
57
66
75
80
89
92
98
108
112
118
125
137
147
150
156
159
163
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Introduction
The 80-20 System is the premier gambling strategy for winning games with evenmoney bets.
It changes the game of craps from a vicious bankroll devouring game into a 100%
reliable source of cash.
It tames roulette and turns it into a convenient 100% dependable source of funds
that are there for the taking.
Baccarat players are simply astounded by its simplicity and complete consistency
in beating the game of baccarat.
Sic Bo players are pulling in cash like mad using the most reliable winning system
ever created.
$5 Bettors Are Easily Pulling In $9,563 Every Week With Clock-Like Precision.
And, $25 bettors are making $1,913 an hour using a system that has been called
unfailingly precise.
If you are ready to discover the power of gambling with a 96% plus win rate, read
on. If you can picture yourself making $9,563 to $19,126 every week from the
comfort of home then the 80-20 System is the strategy for you!
You are about to learn
How you can turn just $60 into profits of $38,248 a month as a $5 bettor.
How you can set up a permanent weekly income of $19,124 a week as
easily as you can read this report!
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How you can beat any casino game offering even-money bets in either
land-based or online games everywhere in the world!
How you can get rich using our 1-100 Plan making $1 bets using the
smallest stakes possible.
How a handful of my students are now pulling in outrageous amounts off of
casinos worldwide all with low-risk even money bets!
One thing you can be sure of

Everything I am going to share with you is 100% true and has been completely verified
by independent testing!
Sky-High Profits Others Can Only Dream About . . .

The 80-20 System throws off very high profits. There is no way that anyone can
make profits as fast or as easily in any business or moneymaking system. Stock
traders cant make money as fast as 80-20 System players. And, no other
gambling system or business opportunity offers safe fast mega-profits like this
blazing hot system! Whats more
It is easy to learn.
It is simple to use.
No special background, education or training is needed.
It has a blistering high win rate of 96.15% of all sessions!
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It doesnt take much money to set up. If you have $60 you have enough to
start bringing in $9,563 a week making $5 bets!
One thing is certain!
If you want to make more money than you ever believed possible, this is the
system you will use.
With its ultra-high performance, low bankroll requirements and unsurpassed
win rate, there is simply no better way to make money safely and reliably
than by becoming an even-money bet specialist and using the 80-20 System.
There is no doubt that the 80-20 System is the premier system for beating the
casino games of craps, roulette, baccarat, mini-baccarat and Sic Bo.
It uses a unique Hybrid Betting Strategy consisting of a very short betting series
coupled with Bet Optimizing. The result is a very strong betting strategy with low
betting limits and very high win rates!
On top of the unequalled performance of the betting strategy, the 80-20 System
uses Synchronized Betting the system that automatically synchronizes your
betting with the games actual decisions.
The power of the combination of an ultra-high performance betting strategy with a
bet placement strategy with pinpoint accuracy is really remarkable.
It produces consistent winnings in the 95% to 96% range for the games of craps,
baccarat and roulette.
It can be used with low bankroll requirements.
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The Players Edge

As powerful as the casinos may seem to be, you can walk into a casino knowing that
you have an edge over the house. As a successful gambler you have to be able to
win more than you lose. What are the tricks you will use to gain an edge over this
formidable adversary?
Your edge will consist of the following actions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
When you are losing, you can quit.

When you are winning, you can walk out with the casino's money.
You can vary the size of your wagers.
You can pick where to play.
You can modify your strategy based on table results and conditions.
You can use discipline to develop a winning plan and then stick to it.
Most players never realize what an advantage these offer. The casino cannot be
flexible. It must continue to offer the same games, with the same rules, without the
ability to react to changing conditions. The nimble player can weave and dodge and
even choose not to play a particular game. Let's elaborate on the player's edge:
1. When you are losing, you can quit. You can always control your losses while
the casino must continue to offer its games regardless of the outcomes. I have seen
hot baccarat tables where the casino lost over a hundred thousand dollars in less than
an hour. All the casinos can do is order in more chips and hope that the hot streak
will end.
2. When you are winning, you can walk out with the casino's money. As a
player you can always control when you stop playing. While the casino must
continue offering its games twenty-four hours a day, you can jump in, grab a win and
pull off. You have ultimate flexibility while the casino does not.
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3. You can vary the size of your wagers. One approach a player can use is to
increase the size of his wagers when he is winning and reduce them when losing.
He may also choose to raise his wagers after losses so that only a win or two out of
many wagers will put him ahead. A player can set up options where he doesn't have
to win the majority of his bets. Using these techniques effectively goes a long ways
towards minimizing the house edge and even turning it into a player edge!
4. You can pick where to play. You can play at tables offering the best situations
for you. You can choose to play at tables that are almost empty by playing during
slack periods. This can significantly increase your hourly win rate. You can also
make it your business to know where the best payoffs are. The casinos, which pay
triple on a field roll of 12, turn this wager from a weak one to one with acceptable
risk.
If you are looking for certain table conditions, you can scout for the right table before
you play. You have numerous options while the house must offer the game to
anyone who is old enough to play, conforms to fairly lax casinos standards and has
some money to begin play.
5. You can modify your strategy based on table results and conditions. Every
table develops different trends at different times. Some tables favor bettors who play
numbers, while others favor players who bet from the dark side, wagering on the
don't pass or don't come. Most tables are choppy, favoring neither right nor wrong
betters. You can adjust to the changing playing conditions as they occur. If the table
is repeating numbers, you can modify your strategy to take advantage of this trend.
If the table is ice cold, you can make still different moves. In short, you have the
ability to bob and weave, duck and thrust, parry and counter punch. The table can't
react to anything. Every casino table game is like an inanimate object that must
endlessly grind out numbers, while you circle and pounce.
6. You can use discipline to develop a winning plan and then stick to it. The
house has ultimate discipline. The very structure of the casino games and
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atmosphere exhibit a carefully planned approach designed to transfer funds from the
players' pockets into the casino coffers in the shortest time possible. Of course, to a
large extent this relies on most players' lack of discipline. Once you gain the
discipline to set up a winning game plan and then follow it, you can effectively
neutralize much of the casino's edge over the crowd of players.
I played a couple of hours of baccarat in a local casino last night. I played for low
stakes, buying in for $500. I used the 80-20 System. The table varied from
choppy to cold the whole time I was there. I don't believe that anyone else at the
table won any money but me. The difference between the rest of the players and
me was that I had a plan for the evening and I stuck to it. With a $500 buy-in, I
set $350 as my profit goal. After less than two hours of play I checked my chips,
found I was up $361 and cashed in.
The player's edge comes from all of the points listed above, plus the ability to hide
your wins from the casinos. There is really no reason that anyone other than
you and your significant other should know about your casino prowess. There are
people who would kill you for fifty bucks. Casinos really don't like winners.
That's why a number of Las Vegas casinos still bar blackjack card counters. It
may not be fair, but even with all of its advantages, if you somehow manage to
win, the casino can deny you access to their games.
The book How to Survive and Prosper as a Professional Gambler available from
Silverthorne Publications offers some excellent suggestions on how to consistently
beat the casinos and still stay on the bosses' good side. I recommend it to you.
The net effect of applying all of the elements of the player's edge is to neutralize
and even overcome the casino's advantage. Your biggest edge will come from
your discipline. Interestingly, this is the same kind of discipline the casinos
expect from their dealers, floor bosses and staff. If it works for them, you know
that it will work for you too!
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Betting Strategies
Nearly every gambler uses some kind of system even if his system merely consists of
guessing what to do next. In July 1891, Charles Wells, an Englishman, arrived at the
casino at Monte Carlo with 10,000 francs. Within a few days he had won over a
million. He retired for a few months to relish his accomplishment, then returned and
proceeded to win another million francs. His exploits inspired the song "The Man
Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo."
Unfortunately, he would not quit while he was ahead. He returned the next year and
lost it all. Later he resorted to illegal shenanigans, was imprisoned and eventually
died in poverty. But his play gave Monte Carlo worldwide fame. Many studied his
play and tried to emulate him. He finally confessed before he died that he had no
system. His winnings were attributable to an amazing run of luck!
Betting systems or betting progressions have been devised for every gambling game.
Many of them had their origins in eighteenth and nineteenth century roulette played
on the French Riviera. While the particulars of different betting systems vary
greatly, the systems fall into three broad categories:
1. Flat: Keep bets constant, waiting for a streak of successes.
2. Negative progressions: raise bets after losses, trying to recover an eventual win.
3. Positive progressions: raise bets after wins, hoping to use the "house money" to
create a large win.
Each of these systems has positive and negative characteristics, but the approach,
which catches the most flack from gaming experts, is the negative progression. The
advocates of positive progressions don't think much of increasing your wager after a
loss. By their thinking, increasing a bet after you have lost amounts to throwing
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good money after bad, with the probable outcome being that you will just lose more
money. However, as we shall see, in the short run just the opposite is likely to be
true.
Assume that we are going to bet player for eight decisions. Three different players
will help us in this illustration.
Player A does not believe in ever changing the size of his bet. He bets flat, that is the
same amount on every hand, regardless of the outcome of his preceding hand. In our
example, he will bet $10 a hand.
Player B likes to follow the system many experts recommend and he will press or
double his bet after each win, gradually betting more and more as he uses the house's
money. He will start with a $10 bet, increase it to $20 after a win, then wager $40 if
he wins again. If his bet reaches as high as $160, he will stay at this level until he
loses a wager. After any loss, he will drop back to betting $10.
Player C has heard that increasing his bets after losses is the "surest way to win." He
will start with a $10 bet. If he loses this bet he will wager $20. If this bet loses, he
will increase his bet to $40, then $80, followed by $160 if this wager also loses. His
maximum wager is $160. If he reaches this level he will continue to wager $160
until he has a win. After any win, he will regress to a $10 bet.
The following table compares the results of eight decisions, consisting of six losses
and two wins.
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Comparison of Bet Selection Methods
Decisions
Bet
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
Win (loss)
-10
-10
+10
-10
-10
-10
-10
+10
Net Win
-10
-20
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-40
Bet
10
10
10
20
10
10
10
20
Win (loss)
-10
-10
+10
-20
-10
-10
-10
-20
Net Win
-10
-20
-10
-30
-40
-50
-60
-50
Bet
10
20
40
10
20
40
80
160
Win (loss)
-10
-20
+40
-10
-20
-40
-80
+160
Net Win
-10
-30
+10
-0-
-20
-60
-140
+20
Player A
Player B
Player C
W= Win, L= Loss of wager

In this series of wagers, Player A loses $40, Player B loses $50, while Player C
comes out $20 ahead. I purposely set up this example to illustrate some of the
characteristics of each of the betting strategies.
For a given session, flat betting leads to sessions with the narrowest, most balanced
range of expected wins and losses. In this series, we lost 75% of our wagers;
therefore, we expect to have a loss.
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Positive progressions, like the progression used by Player B, offer more likelihood
of an adverse than a favorable session, with intermittent large wins. In this example,
increasing wagers after wins caused this player to lose $50, a greater loss than the
one realized betting flat.
Negative progressions, like the one used by Player C, offer a greater chance of
winning any given session but have the characteristic of generating many small wins
with occasional large losses.
The exact result of sessions played in casinos depends on the details of each game
and on variations applied to systems by individual players. However, by ignoring
variations, using each system in its rawest form, we can test how each system
performed against the same set of decisions and comment on general characteristics
of each approach to wagering.
A test was created assuming that wagers are made on pass line only. Each game was
100 decisions long. Limits on the progressions were imposed which required any
progression to end immediately if the next bet required in the series exceeded 256
units.
The following systems were tested. Please note that these are not presented as
practical systems but are used to emphasize the differences you can expect in each
approach to wagering.
1. Flat Betting: Single units are bet and the amount never varies.
2. Positive Progression: In this parlay type of progression, bets are doubled after
every win and reduced to one unit after every loss. Assuming a string of nine
consecutive wins, this progression would be: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256.
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3. Negative Progression: A Martingale type of progression is used where bets are

doubled after every loss and reduced to a single unit after any win. Assuming a
string of nine consecutive losses, this series would consist of the following
wagers: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256.
The results of a 2,000-session computer run using each technique are presented in a
table on the following page.
This table shows some of the trade offs among the systems. Notice that while the
average size bet for flat betting was 1 unit, it increased to 3.8 units using a positive
progression, and was highest at 5.2 units for the negative progression. The average
size bet was larger for negative than positive progression because runs of losing bets
were longer, and therefore, required higher wagers than runs of winning bets. In this
contest, which is also analogous to blackjack, the losing streaks tended to be longer
than the winning streaks.
Flat betting won 38.70% of the games and lost 59.85% of them. The positive
progression showed the lowest win percentage of all, winning only 9.60% of the
games while losing over 90% of them.
The negative progression won over 85% of the games and lost only about 15% of
them. This strategy was clearly the winner in terms of the number of individual
games won.
The last column in the table "Equivalent Amount Won or Lost" shows how much the
amounts would have been if the flat and positive betting strategies' wagers had been
raised so that the averages were the same as with the negative progression.
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2,000 Session Computer Run Testing

Flat, Positive and Negative Betting Systems
Betting
System
Outcomes
Percent of
Sessions
Average
Amount Won
or Lost
Equivalent
Amount
Won or
Lost
Flat (1 unit is the average size bet)

Break even
1.45%
Won
38.70%
37
Lost
59.85%
48
Positive (3.8 units is the average size bet)

Break even
0.05%
Won
9.60%
56
56
Lost
90.35%
412
412
Negative (5.2 units is the average size bet)

Break even
0.00%
Won
85.35%
359
492
Lost
14.65%
43
59
There are a number of variables which affect your ability to avoid losing your
bankroll. These variables include the type of betting system used, the size of your
bankroll, the games you play, the length of time you play, and your luck at winning
any given gaming contest.
Let's compare the effects of using different betting systems on our ability to play
without losing our bankroll. The betting systems we will use are:
1. Flat betting. We will bet $25 regardless of previous outcomes.
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2. Positive Progression. We will start with a $10 base bet. After each win we will
double our bet with a maximum wager of $80. If we reach the $80 betting level we
will continue to wager $80 until we lose a wager. After any losing wager we will
drop back to betting $10. The bets we would make in a winning streak would be:
$10, $20, $40, $80, $80, until we have a loss.
3. Negative Progression. Again we will use a $10 base bet. After each loss we will
double our bet, with our maximum bet to be $80. If we reach the $80 bet, we will
continue to wager $80 until we have a win. After any win we will drop back to
betting $10. A losing series would consist of: $10, $20, $40, $80, $80, until we
have a win.
Here's the game we will face. We will play in a coin-tossing contest and we will
always wager heads. Heads wins even money less a 2 percent house commission.
When tails shows we lose the wager. The chances here are 50-50 and the house edge
is 1 percent.
The next table shows how each betting system fares, varying the size of our bankroll
and the number of games played. Each game consists of 100 bets.
Flat betting offers the least chance of losing your bankroll. If you are willing to use a
bankroll of $2,000 in playing this coin-tossing game, you will have a 99% chance of
not losing your bankroll if you flat bet.
Using a positive progression gives you almost as good a chance of keeping your
bankroll intact as flat betting. A $500 bankroll offers a 94% chance of not losing all
of your bankroll as compared to 96% for flat betting and only 83% for the negative
progression at this level.
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Computer Run Testing Different Betting Systems

Comparing the Bankroll Used and the Length of Time Played.
Chance of Not Losing Bankroll

Bankroll
Size
Number
of Games
Played
Flat
Bets
Positive
Progression
Negative
Progression
250
100
69%
66%
56%
500
100
96%
94%
83%
750
250
93%
87%
80%
1,000
500
90%
81%
76%
2,000
750
99%
98%
94%
Increasing your bets after losses greatly increases your chance of losing all of your
bankroll. Using the negative betting progression, the chance of keeping your
bankroll is only 56% using a $250 bankroll, playing for 100 games. The pattern of
much higher risk of losing your bankroll with a negative progression continues until
we increase our bankroll to $2,000. With a $2,000 bankroll, we can play the cointoss game for 750 rounds with only a 6% chance of losing our bankroll (94% chance
of keeping it as shown in the table). This compares favorably with the flat bettor's
percentage of 99% and the positive progression bettor's percentage of 98% at this
level.
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The moral of this comparison should be obvious. Using a negative betting

progression greatly increases your likelihood of losing your bankroll unless you
increase your bankroll to an adequate level. In this example, by increasing our
bankroll to $2,000, we only give up 5% of the chance of losing our bankroll using a
negative progression as compared to betting flat (94% as compared to 99%).
All gambling strategies involve compromises. Betting flat offers the greatest
likelihood of keeping your bankroll, but the poorest chance of winning. You may
recall in the earlier table comparing betting strategies that flat betting only won about
39% of its games.
Using a positive betting progression wins only 9.6% of its games (shown in earlier
table), but you won't risk losing your bankroll much more using this system than
with betting flat.
Referring again to the earlier table, we notice that using a negative progression gave
us a win rate over 85%. At first glance at the table on the preceding page, it would
seem that this high win rate came only by increasing our risk of losing our bankroll
by a large factor. But please note the following. Once we increase our bankroll to a
larger amount, $2,000 in the example here, our risk of losing our bankroll using a
negative progression is only 6%, not much greater than the 2% chance of losing with
a positive progression, or the 1% chance of losing our bankroll betting flat.
If we are willing to use a somewhat larger bankroll, using a negative progression
gives us the best of all worlds: A high probability of winning and a low possibility
of losing our bankroll. This is something that almost no gambling experts will ever
tell you. Experts invariably recommend only the first two approaches to win any
gaming contest.
The first approach is to gain a mathematical edge over the game. This is the strategy
card counters hope to use at blackjack. At roulette, wheel watchers hope to gain an
edge by finding an unbalanced wheel where the ball lands in one section of the wheel
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a higher percentage of the time than chance would explain. With baccarat,
advantage seekers look to precision shooting to alter the casino's edge against the
players.
The second approach to gambling, almost universally recommended by the experts,
is to use a positive betting progression. That this is the best system for capitalizing
on winning streaks is the number one reason cited for using this system. Almost
never mentioned by the experts is that this system has a dismal winning rate, losing
about 9 out of every 10 sessions. As we have seen, the betting strategy with the
greatest chance of winning is the negative progression. With an adequate bankroll,
the risk of loss can be reduced to a reasonable amount.
The examples and simulations used in this chapter were for games of chance, rather
than a game of skill like blackjack. The examples also assumed games where the
house had an edge over the player. Our examples serve to illustrate the varying
characteristics of betting flat versus using either a positive or negative betting
progression.
In the next chapter we will take a look at different betting systems. Several of these
approaches are over one hundred years old. Let's see if our not so dumb ancestors
had any meaningful insights on how to beat the baccarat game!
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Betting Progressions
Betting systems fall into the broad categories of betting the same after each decision,
known as flat betting, raising wagers after wins, called positive progressions, and
raising money after losses, named negative progressions.
There are also systems which have characteristics of one or more of these types, such
as the Baccarat Attack Strategy Betting System which we will encounter in a few
more chapters. Many of the classical betting systems were developed for roulette in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but can be used for other games with evenmoney wagers such as craps, baccarat and blackjack. Although none of these
systems in its pure form is a winning system, it is worthwhile to study the efforts of
our ancestors as these betting systems are the grandparents of every modern betting
system.
Martingale
Martingale is one of the oldest betting systems using a negative progression. It is
named after Henry Martingale, an English casino owner in the 1700s who is reputed
to urge losing punters to "double 'em up" with their wagers.
This system is very simple. You will use a betting series where each bet in the series
is twice as large as the preceding one, as with 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. So long as you win a
bet, you will continue to bet at the lowest level, e.g. wager 1. If you lose a bet, you
will move up to the next wager, doubling the amount of the previous wager. Use of
the system ensures that whenever your wager eventually wins, you will win the
amount of the original wager, in this instance 1.
One of my gambling friends once told me about an amazing system he had
developed for craps. He had gone to Las Vegas on two consecutive trips and
returned a winner. He was wagering only on don't pass at casino craps using a
betting series starting with a $1 bet and doubling his bet after each loss. He was
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certain that his risk of loss was very small and planned to continue to use the
system. He was reluctant to share the system with me but he finally confessed that
he was using the following betting series, increasing his wager one level following a
loss: 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256. He correctly pointed out that he would have to lose
nine times in a row to lose the betting series, and he just didn't think that this was
possible.
I pointed out to him that there was a very real possibility that he could lose nine
decisions in a row; in fact, this would happen once about every 500 pass line - don't
pass decisions. With craps decisions averaging fifty to sixty per hour, a loss of all
nine wagers could happen once every eight to ten hours. I asked him to consider
whether he was winning enough to sustain a loss of $511.00 (the total amount he was
risking) in order to win the sum of $1. This must have impressed him as I don't think
he ever used this system again (or at least he didn't tell me about losing with it).
The Martingale system would be just about unbeatable if you could continue to
double your wagers until you finally won a bet. Modern casinos are very aware of
Martingale, and they know that the easiest way to thwart the system is to narrow the
spread between maximum and minimum bets allowed. In other words, the minimum
wager must be high enough and the maximum wager low enough that no more than
eight or nine doublings can occur. If you find a table with a low minimum, such as
$1 and a high maximum, such as $3,000, you may wish to try using a Martingale
system against the table.
You could use the following series of wagers: 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1,024
2,048. With 12 bets in the series, you would be an odds-on favorite to win any
weekend gambling contest involving even-money wagers. However, you might
want to consider one thing. If you try this, sooner or later you will lose bet number
11, for $1,024. You will now have lost $2,047 and will be called on to bet $2,048 in
order to win the grand sum of $1. Are you willing to risk it? If you win, you will be
up exactly one buck for your efforts. However, if you lose your last wager of
$2,048, you will have lost $4,095 in the gaming contest. While the risk of loss is
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low, it will happen at some time if you continue to wager this way, and there is no
guarantee that it won't happen during your first casino excursion using this system.
Mini-Martingale
Martingale in its purest form is too risky for the amount of reward offered. Nearly
every gambling expert likes to cite Martingale as an example of a losing system and
then jump into a gloating mode and proclaim that all betting systems are losers.
However, a Martingale system can be used with very good results if it is used on a
spot basis. Assume that you are wagering on an even-money game and that you have
lost the last four consecutive wagers. Usually, a three-stage Martingale against this
trend continuing for three more decisions will be quite profitable and the reward will
be reasonable as compared to the amount risked.
A five-stage Martingale progression can be used very profitably when it is used
against a betting pattern which is less likely to occur than would normally be
expected.
Grand Martingale
One criticism of Martingale is that too much is risked as compared to the potential
return. For example, in the first Martingale series shown, you would have had to
wager $256 in order to win a net $1. With Grand Martingale, additional chips are
added to each increased wager, so that when a win finally occurs, the amount
won will be greater than just the amount of the first wager. A typical Grand
Martingale series is: 1 3 5 15 35 75.
Martingale in all forms risks a lot to win a little. When the losses come, they will
wipe out hours of profits. Another twist to using a Martingale series is to play
Martingale in reverse, called an "Anti-Martingale" betting series. With this system,
winning wagers will be pressed (doubled). Whenever you encounter a long winning
streak this system can produce phenomenal profits. Assume we use the following
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Anti-Martingale series: 5 10 20 40 80. With five consecutive wins, we will $155,

while our total risk is only the amount of our first wager, $5. The high-risk reward
ratio is a major reason raising your wagers after wins is recommended by many
gaming experts. However, as we saw two chapters back, this type of system wins
very infrequently, and the many small losses overwhelm most gains, so that over
90% of all games will end with a loss.
Labouchere
With Labouchere, also known as the Cancellation System, the player sets up a series
of numbers which will add up to the profit he will make if he wins this betting series.
If he picks 1 2 3 as his series, his expected profit for winning this series is 1 + 2 + 3 =
6. Like the variations of Martingale, this series is used with even-money bets.
To start the series, a player will wager the sum of the two outside numbers, in this
case 4 (1 + 3 = 4). If he wins this wager, he will cancel the two outside numbers by
scratching them out, and wager the sum of the next two outside numbers. In this
simple series, only the single number of 2 is left, so the player would wager 2. If
he also wins this wager, he will have won the series, having won 4 on the first round
and 2 for the second wager, for a total of 6, the total of all bets in the series.
Any time the player loses a wager, he will add the amount lost to the series and
continue to wager the sum of the two outside wagers. Let's assume the player lost
the first bet of 4. He would add this wager to the series, which would now become:
1 2 3 4. His next wager would be for 5, the sum of the two outside wagers. We will
assume that this bet wins. Having won the bet, our players cancels the outside
numbers of 1 and 4 leaving the series as: 2 3. He next wagers the sum of these two
numbers, betting 5. If this wager wins the series is completed. If he loses this wager,
the losing bet of 5 will be added to the series and he will continue the series.
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The principal appeal of this system is that it appears to be a two for one proposition
in that each win cancels two numbers while a loss only adds one number to the
series. However, this isn't the case, as the player is not paid two for one on winning
bets.
In testing this system, I have had bets escalate to wagers of hundreds of dollars all
too frequently. This is probably the most insidious of the old time roulette systems.
It is said to have been responsible for more suicides on the French Riviera than any
other system. Part of the problem with this system is that the small stream of steady
wins tends to lull the player into believing that the system can't lose. Unfortunately,
a long enough losing streak will occur that the wagers called for will either be larger
than the player's bankroll or will exceed the house limits and not be allowed. In
either case, the series will be over with the end result that the player suffers a
substantial loss.
This system can also be played in reverse, known as Reverse Labouchere. With
Reverse Labby, as many punters call it, the amount of each win is added to the
series, and the two outside numbers are canceled whenever a loss occurs. Each
wager is still the sum of the two outside numbers. This system produces many small
losses in exchange for an occasional win over 1,000 times the amount at risk.
Use of this approach is recounted in Norman Leigh's fascinating account of
his successful effort to beat the casino in Monte Carlo by playing Labouchere in
reverse (Thirteen Against the Bank, William Morrow & Co., 1976). Norman Leigh
theorized that the reason so many players lose with Labouchere is that they run into
the house limits or lose their playing capital and are unable to recoup losses. Since
the bank has almost unlimited capital in comparison to the players, the bank can out
wait most player assaults, knowing that either the house betting limit or the player's
own limited financial resources will bring about the player's demise.
In using the reverse betting strategy, Leigh reasoned that this approach would most
closely resemble the bank's approach to most other players. He would wait out the
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small losses until a large win occurred. Leigh spent months recruiting and training
a team to play against the casino. His trials in pulling off this coup make for
fascinating reading. I believe that one of the reasons he was eventually able to beat
the casino in Monte Carlo was that his starting wagers were fairly low and the house
maximums large in comparison. Consequently, he was able to keep his losses fairly
low while his team played on, waiting for the monster win.
It is doubtful that this system could be used successfully now, as the spread between
minimum and maximum wagers is not large enough in most casinos. The losses
realized while waiting for the large win would be enormous, with the house limits on
maximum wagers limiting the systems' ability to ultimately recoup the losses.
D'Alembert
This system was invented by a French mathematician, based on the
assumption of equilibrium in gaming contests. D'Alembert reasoned that since
winning and losing bets must eventually equal one another, a system of adding one
chip after each losing bet and subtracting a chip after a winning bet would ultimately
result in a win as winning wagers would always be greater than losing ones.
It is not unusual to win only ten of the first thirty wagers in an even-money betting
contest. With d'Alembert's system, the player will wager higher and higher amounts
until he eventually runs into our old nemesis, the house limit.
D'Alembert can be fairly successful if it is modified to include no more than nine or
ten bets in a series of wagers, so that potential losses are limited. An additional
modification to improve the system is to space the bets so that the win of two
consecutive wagers will offset prior losses. A series which accomplishes this is 1 2 3
4 7 11 18. With this series, a player would drop back to the lowest bet after winning
two consecutive wagers, such as 7 and 4. This system can be fairly successful if
used by two partners betting the opposite in roulette, craps or baccarat.
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Contra-d-Alembert
Like Reverse Labouchere, the idea behind Contra-d'Alembert is to reduce the
amount risked while allowing profitable runs to rise to great heights. With this
strategy we will increase our wager one level after a win and reduce it a level
following a loss.
The only positive aspect to the strategy is that when you hit a prolonged losing streak
the size of your wagers is quickly reduced. In this respect this system can help
protect your bankroll.
However, the upside of using any system requiring increasing your wager following
wins is limited. Trends of long, uninterrupted winning streaks are fairly rare in
gaming and a system relying on piling up win after consecutive win is not going to
win very often.
Here's an example. Your first bet is for one unit. You win and move up to betting
two units. With another win, you wager three units and have a loss. You have won
two out of three bets and have absolutely nothing to show for it. All of your profit
evaporated with that single loss.
If you could always pick your spots, this system would have merit. Of course, if pigs
could fly . . . well, you get the idea. It is just about impossible to know in advance
when a three-wager consecutive win might occur so that you could jump in with a
Contra-d'Alembert. Like so many systems, this one sounds good on paper, but is
difficult to squeeze profits out of in real world gaming.
Ascot
This is another of the old time roulette systems that can be adapted to any
game offering even-money bets. With Ascot, winning wagers are increased one unit
at a time in a predetermined series of wagers while losing bets are lowered one step
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using the same betting series. An Ascot betting series can be from seven to eleven
numbers. A typical series is: 2 3 5 8 13 20 30. The player's first wager would be a
middle number such as 8. If this wager wins, the next wager would be 13. If this
wager also won, the succeeding wager would be for 20, and so on, with each win
followed by an increase of one level in the betting series. The series would end with
the win of the last bet in the series. For a win, that would be a win of 30. A losing
series would be terminated with the loss of the lowest bet of 2.
The greatest problem with Ascot is that alternating wins and losses at the higher
levels of wagers will destroy the profit potential of the series. This can be a serious
flaw in any system calling for a large reduction in the amount wagered following a
loss.
The Fibonacci System
Fibonacci was a mathematician who discovered a series of numbers where the sum
of each two numbers in the series equals the number which follows. A Fibonacci
series with twelve levels of bets would look like: 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233
for a total risked of $608.
This is a very low risk system for use with even-money bets at craps, roulette and
baccarat. To use it, you will increase your bet one level following a loss. After any
win, you drop your next wager one level. If you win two bets in a row, or win two
out of three bets, you drop back to the first bet in the series.
This system was sold many years ago for $100 a copy with instructions to use it
betting don't pass in craps. This is a good system for partners to use betting
opposites. With roulette, for instance, one partner could bet red while the other
wagered black. With craps, one would wager on pass line and the other on don't
pass. With baccarat, one partner would bet banker and the other on player hands.
An adaptation of this system has been used to successfully win at craps The
Silverthorne System, Silverthorne Publications.
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Incidentally, there are a number of derivations of the Fibonacci series of numbers,

including ratios of the numbers, which are regularly used in trading stocks and
commodity future contracts. This is indeed a versatile and powerful sequence of
numbers.
The Parlay
A parlay or paroli is a positive progression method. In its simplest form, it
consists of leaving a winning bet plus the winnings up for a second win. If you are
betting $10 on an even-money bet and win $10, you parlay the wager by leaving $20
up for the next decision. If this bet wins, you will have won $30 while only risking
$10.
Probably the most attractive aspect of a successful parlay is that it wins three
times as much as the amount risked. However, the probability of winning two bets
in a row on even-money wagers is less than one in four. For this reason, one of the
better ways to use a parlay is to combine it with a series of bets where the amount
wagered is increased following a loss. For example the following parlay progression
could be used: 2 2 3 4 6 8 12 16. To use this series, you would normally start with
the first wager in the series. If this bet won, you would parlay it and next wager $4.
If either the original wager or the parlay lost you would move up one level in the
betting series. Any time a parlay bet is won, you will start the betting series over. If
the series is lost, you may either start the series over or leave the table.
Setting up parlay progressions like the one above can be the basis for some of the
best performing betting progressions in gambling. To use such a series in blackjack,
which requires additional money in order to handle pair splitting and doublings,
requires adjustments to the series. One way to handle this is to modify basic strategy
to reduce the number of splitting and doubling plays. However, this is not a wise
way to play blackjack as these moves represent one of the player's strongest winning
options. A better way to handle the program of developing a winning parlay
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progression for blackjack is to modify the progression so that it allows for splitting
and doubling opportunities.
Oscar's Grind
If you want to use a system with very little risk of loss, here's the one you want.
Oscar has a target of winning one unit at the end of any successful betting series.
That's it. One unit. Here are the rules:
1. Increase your bet by one unit after every win; provided that winning the wager
won't result in a series gain larger then one unit.
2. Never change the size of your bet following a loss.
Assume that your betting unit is $5 and you are betting don't pass. You find yourself
fighting a hot streak and you have lost six bets in a row for a cumulative loss of $30.
You continue to bet $5 since you never change the size of your wager following
losses. You bet $5 again and win. Now, with one win and six losses, you are down
a net $25. Following the win, you raise your bet one unit and wager $10. This
wager also wins. You have reduced your net loss to $15. You raise your next wager
one more unit to $15 and win. You are now even. Your final wager will revert to
$5. Why? Because of the rule limiting the size of a wager to one which will not
result in a gain larger than one unit.
Your last bet of $5 wins. You now have a net win of $5, having lost six bets and
won four.
Even this system can take you to high levels on occasion. If you find yourself in a
situation where you have occasional wins followed by multiple losses, the size of
your wagers will continue to grow. If you run into this situation, you will be forced
to stop the series at some point and accept a loss, rather than risking larger and larger
amounts of money.
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Patrick's System
John Patrick, a professional gambler turned writer, presented another positive betting
system for blackjack, which can also be used for baccarat. In his John Patrick's
Blackjack (Carol Publishing Group, 1995) he describes his system. He uses a system
with both progressive and regressive attributes. With his system, you will start with
a wager at least twice as large as the table minimum so that you have room to reduce
the size of your bet after wins. After your first win, your next wager will be one-half
the size of the first winning wager. For instance, if your base bet is $10 and you win,
you will wager $5 next. After any net loss you will revert to the original starting bet.
However, if you can manage to win the second bet in a series, you will return to the
two-unit bet and increase the amount wagered after any additional win.
A series of six wins at a $10 minimum table would look like: 20 10 20 30 40 50 for
a total of $170 won.
Patrick suggests a way to limit losses by quitting if you lose the first four hands in a
shoe or deck.
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Even Money Bets

The 80-20 System is designed for even-money wagers in the games of craps,
roulette, baccarat and sic bo.
In craps, you will make pass line and dont pass wagers.
In roulette, you will pick and play one of the three types of even-money bets
colors (red and black), high and low numbers (1 to 18 or 19 to 36) or odd or even
numbers.
With baccarat you will wager on either player or banker.
And with Sic Bo you will bet on small or big.
You wont make any other wagers with the 80-20 System. With craps, you can
forget all about the long shot proposition bets in the center of the table.
With roulette, you wont be betting dozens or columns, combinations of numbers
or straight up number bets. You will only make even-money outside bets.
With baccarat you will never wager on tie. Just player or banker wagers.
And, with Sic Bo you can forget about wagering on totals of 10 and 11, twonumber combo bets and betting on doubles. You will only wager on big and
small.
This simplifies our process. In any of our games we will get a 1:1 return on a
winning wager.
If we bet $5 and win, we are paid $5 in winnings.
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While none of the games are quite 50-50 propositions like flipping a coin, it is
helpful to think of them as similar to coin flipping.
With the 80-20 System, each wager consists of two decisions:
How much do we bet? And,
Where do we place our bet?
We have a chapter devoted to each aspect how much to bet and where to bet.
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Synchronized Bet Selection

The 80-20 System Betting Strategy determines where we place each bet and is
based on a simple one-bet tracking system.
In each of the games we will play, using even-money bets, we have a choice of
just two spots to place a wager, as shown below:
Game
Craps
Roulette
Baccarat
Sic Bo
Even-money Bets
Pass Line Dont Pass
Red Black, Odd - Even, High - Low
Player Banker
Small - Big
After testing many different bet selection methods we found that Synchronized
Betting produces the best results.
There are numerous systems for determining where to place each bet.
For example, you can always bet on black. Or on red. Or play for repeating
decisions. Or bet that the next decision might chop from red to black.
You can get quite frustrated with these betting schemes when you start losing bet
after bet like an airplane that is losing altitude and going into a death spiral.
Most system developers expend 90% of their effort on a betting system and throw
in where to bet as sort of an after thought.
The 80-20 System is different. It is what I call a perfectly balanced system. It
has a powerful betting system and an equally powerful way of determining where
to place each bet called Synchronized Betting.
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With Synchronized Betting you dont have any preconceived notions of where
you will bet before you start playing.
Instead of betting some kind of fixed pattern, your betting will be determined by a
method that picks the optimal bet each time you wager.
Its primary goal is to synchronize your bet with whatever the table is doing.
If decisions are repeating, you will bet for a repeat.
If decisions are alternating, you will bet that they alternate.
If decisions are choppy, you will match the choppy pattern.
I have seen other systems that attempt to track the patterns of bets. However,
many of these systems require that you track three or more decisions and literally
calculate how to bet before you make each wager.
Not only are these systems mentally taxing, but they require that you use paper
and pencil to play.
Some of these systems even require that you skip rounds of play while the betting
system sorts out what to do. Many online casinos dont allow skipped decisions.
If you dont make a bet, there is no round of play.
Synchronized Betting is not only vastly superior to any of these other systems, it is
much easier to use.
With Synchronized Betting you dont have to write anything down. And you
wont have to stop and try to determine where to bet.
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All you have to do is follow a simple, but powerful, betting formula that
automatically determines where you will place each bet.
One of our players, Jim N., said, Synchronized Betting is very accurate at
determining where to make each bet. And, it is very easy to use. It is no stretch at
all to call it fully automatic bet placement
The Synchronized Betting System

Where to place each wager is determined by following these rules:
Observe one decision before you begin betting.
Your first wager will be the same as the previous decision.
You will continue the pattern of betting the Same (S) as the previous decision until
you lose a wager.
After losing a decision using the Same betting pattern, you will change to betting
Opposite (O) on the next round of play.
After any loss you will change the betting pattern. If you are betting the Same as
the previous decision and lose the wager, you will change to betting Opposite on
the next round of play. Likewise, if you are betting Opposite and lose your bet,
you will change to betting Same for the next round of play.
If you are playing online where you must make a wager in order to start a round of
play, use the following rules:
Craps Always start with a Dont Pass Bet and assume the S betting pattern.
Roulette Always start with a bet on Red and assume the S Betting pattern.
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Baccarat Always start with a bet on Player using the S Betting pattern.
Sic Bo Always start with a bet on Big using the S Betting pattern.
In any game where there are decisions which cause both bets to lose or which
dont affect the outcome of your bet, ignore the decision to determine your betting
pattern. For example, in Roulette assume you are betting S with a bet on Red and a
zero shows. After losing your bet you will ignore the zero and continue using the
S pattern with another wager on R.
The easiest way to understand this bet placement strategy is to put these rules into
play. The following table illustrates placing wagers in a game of craps.
Here is a key to abbreviations used in this table:
P = Pass line, D = Dont Pass
W=Win, L=Loss
S=Bet Same as Previous Decision
O=Bet Opposite of Previous Decision
Table Structure:
Ref Reference to number of round of play.
Decision Outcome of round of play. P = Pass line decision, D = Dont Pass
decision. Come out 12s, where Dont Pass is barred from winning are counted as
Dont Pass decisions for purposes of tracking.
Pattern The pattern used to determine where to bet. S means betting the Same as
the previous Decision and O indicates betting the Opposite of the previous
decision. For example, if the previous decision was P and we are using the S
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pattern, we will bet P, the same as the previous decision of P.

Bet On Where we placed each bet. With craps our choices are P for Pass line
and D for Dont Pass.
Bet This is the amount of each bet. In this example we bet flat, betting $5
regardless of the outcome of each bet. When we add the 80-20 System Betting
Strategy, we will vary the amount of each bet depending on the outcome of the
previous wagers.
W/L W = a winning bet, L = a losing bet.
Cum Win The Cumulative amount won or lost for this game.
Comments Comments about how we determined where to make each bet.
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Sample Craps Game Using $5 Bets

Ref
Decision
Pattern
Bet
On
Bet
W/L
Cum
Win
1
2
3
D
D
D
S
S
D
D
5
5
W
W
+5
+10
4
5
6
P
D
D
S
O
O
D
D
P
5
5
5
L
W
L
+5
+10
+5
7
8
9
10
P
P
P
D
S
O
S
S
D
D
P
P
5
5
5
5
L
L
W
L
-0-5
-0-5
11
12
13
14
D
P
D
P
O
S
O
O
P
D
D
P
5
5
5
5
L
L
W
W
-10
-15
-10
-5
15
-10
16
17
P
P
S
S
P
P
5
5
W
W
-5
-0-
18
+5
19
-0-
20
21
22
P
P
P
O
S
S
P
P
P
5
5
5
L
W
W
-5
-0+5
23
+10
24
+15
Comments
Observe first decision
Bet S for first bet
Following a win keep same pattern and bet S
again
Continue S pattern
After losing bet change pattern from S to O
Following a win keep same pattern and bet O
again
After losing bet change pattern from O to S
again
again
again
again
again
again
again
again
again
Here we show 24 craps decisions where we observed the first decision and
wagered on the next 23 decisions.
Out of the 23 decisions where we wagered we won 13 and loss 10 for a net win of
+15.
The purpose of this sample game is to illustrate how to place each bet. The
amounts bet in this example are irrelevant for the 80-20 System as it uses a
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different betting strategy.

Before you proceed to the next chapter, you should make sure that you understand
the 80-20 System Bet Selection Strategy.
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The 80-20 System Betting Strategy

The 80-20 System determines the size of each bet using the 80-20 System
Betting Strategy.
The 80-20 System Betting Series

When you start a game you will always start with the lowest bet in the 80-20
System Betting Strategy for your level of betting.
Each level of betting has its own Betting Series. If you are a $5 Base Bettor, you
will use the following 80-20 System Betting Series:
80-20 System Betting Series for $5 Bettors
Level
Bets
1
5
2
8
3
13
4
20
5
30
Rules for Using the 80-20 System Betting Series:

Rule 1. Always start a game with a Level 1 bet. A $5 bettor will start with a $5
bet.
Rule 2. Following a losing bet, you will increase the size of the next bet one level.
If you lose a Level 1 bet, you will make a Level 2 bet on the next round of play.
Rule 3. Anytime you win a bet, you will reduce the next bet one level. If you win
two bets in a row or win two bets out of three, you will drop the next bet two
levels.
Examples:
You wager $5 and lose your bet. You will bet $8 on the next round of play.
You bet $8 and also lose. You will bet $13 on the next round of play.
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You bet $13 next and win. Your next bet will be one bet lower.
You bet $8 and lose. You will increase your next bet one level to $13.
You bet $13 and win. Since you have won two out of the last three bets, you drop
your next bet two levels and bet $5 on the next round.
You may have noticed that this short series of bets resembles a Fibonacci Series.
You may also have also noted that this series is too short to be an effective game
beater on its own. Simply stated, if you stopped a game every time you lost a
Level 5 bet, this Betting Series would not give you a winning strategy.
The typical answer to this problem is to use a longer betting series.
For example, our betting series for $5 players could be expanded to:
8 13 20 30 50 75 100 150 225
Interestingly enough, this could be a winning betting system when used with the
80-20 System Betting Strategy if it used a Target Win of $50 to limit the length
of games.
If you add up all of the amounts in the above betting series, you will come up with
a total of $676. If you used this series you would need to buy-in for $676. This is
a pretty steep bankroll for $5 betting. In addition, the highest bet in this betting
series of $225 is 45 times the size of the base bet. There are a number of
successful betting systems which use bet spreads this large.
However, there is a huge downside to using a betting series with a spread of 45 to
1. Simply stated, whenever you have a loss it is going to be a large one!
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One loss of a strategy with such a large bet spread can wipe out hours or even
days of winning games with one loss. We have a different way of handling bets
after losing the fifth level bet of the 80-20 System Betting Series. It is called
Split Betting.
80-20 System Optimized Betting by Splitting Bets
If you lose the fifth bet in the 80-20 System Betting Series, you will begin using
a strategy called 80-20 System Split Betting.
Split Betting is much different than using the Betting Series. Its primary
objective is to win enough that you can revert to using the 80-20 System Betting
Series.
Whenever you lose the Level-5 bet in the 80-20 System Betting Series your
objective becomes to win an amount that is two times the size of your Level-5 bet.
Once you win this amount you will resume betting in the 80-20 System Betting
Series at a Level 4 bet.
In the Betting Series for $5 Base Bets, the largest bet is the Level 5 bet for $30.
If you lose this bet you will start Split Betting.
The first step to start Split Betting is to write down an amount double the amount
of your losing Level 5 bet. In this example, since our Level 5 Bet is for $30, we
will write down $60.
Our objective now is to win $60. Once we have won $60 we will resume betting
in the 80-20 System Betting Series starting with a Level 4 bet.
There are some special rules for using Split Betting:
Rule 1. With Split Betting your objective is to win an amount two times the size
of your losing Level 5 bet.
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Rule 2. After losing the level 5 bet you will record your objective. In the
example we will use, your objective will be to win $60, which is two times the
size of the Level-5 bet.
Rule 3. After any losing bet your bet will be equal to your Base Bet. In our
example the Base Bet is $5, which will be the amount you will wager following a
losing bet when in Split Betting Mode.
Rule 4. After each Split Bet play you will update the amount of your win
objective. For example, after you have recorded your win objective of $60 and bet
$5 and won, your Split Bet Win Objective will be for $55 ($60 less your win of
$5).
Rule 5. Following any win you will increase the size of your next bet to an
amount equal to one half the size of the Split Bet Win Objective, subject to these
rules:
a. To compute the size of the bet divide the Win Objective by two and round the
answer up to the next number divisible by five.
b. The maximum size of your bet will not exceed 18 times the size of your Base
Bet. In our example this would be determined as 18 x 5 = $90.
Rule 6. Following a winning Split Bet, if the previous bet was greater than or
equal to $30 you will make another wager of equal size or an amount equal to the
Win Objective, whichever is lower.
Rule 7. You can set the maximum size of your split bets before you begin playing.
For example, we normally set a Bet Limit for Split Bets at $90 for $5 Base Bets.
However, this Bet Limit can be reduced to $60 or even $40. If you play in online
casinos allowing bets ranging from $1 to $100, you may wish to reduce the size of
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your largest split bets to stay within the betting limits. For example, using our
standard procedures the Bet Limits for $8 Base Bets would be $144. However,
you can limit these bets to $100 to stay within the bet limits of games limiting bets
to $100.
Lets go through a series of bets as a $5 bettor and follow how we use Split
Betting:
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Example of Using Split Betting as a $5 Bettor

Ref
Bet
Level
W/L
1
2
3
30
5
5
Level-5
Split Bet
Split Bet
L
L
W
Split Bet
Objective
-60
-65
-60
30
Split Bet
-90
Split Bet
-85
45
Split Bet
-40
40
Split Bet
-80
Split Bet
-85
Split Bet
-80
10
40
Split Bet
-40
11
40
Split Bet
-0-
12
20
Level-4
NA
13
13
Level-3
NA
The 80-20 System
Comments
Set up Split Bet Objective of $60
Bet loses and we now have to win 65
Since we lost the previous bet we wager the Base Bet amount
again of $5 and win After the win we update our Split Bet Win
Objective to 60.
Following a win we divide the Split Bet Win Objective by two
and compute 30. We wager 30 and lose. We add the loss to
our Split Bet Win Objective which becomes 90
again of $5 and win. After the win we update our objective to
85
Following a win we divide the Split Bet Win Objective by two
and compute 42.5. We round this up to $45 and bet $45. Our
bet wins. Our Win Objective is now down to 40
Following a win we continue at the same level so long as the
bet doesnt exceed our Win Objective. In this case we wager
$40, the amount of our Win Objective and lose. We update our
Win Objective following the loss to 80.
again of $5 and lose. After the loss we update our objective to
85
again of $5 and win. After the win we update our objective to
80
Following a win we divide the Win Objective into two amounts
of $40 each and wager $40. Our bet wins and we adjust the
Win Objective to 40
Following a win of $40, we make another bet of equal size and
win. Our adjusted Win Objective is now zero.
Since we won our Split Bet Win Objective, we resume betting
in the Betting Series with a Level-4 bet of $20
After winning a Level-4 bet of $20 we drop one level and make a
Level-3 bet of $13

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Sample Games Using the Complete 80-20 System

Lets take a look at some sample games played using the complete 80-20
System.
Sample Game 1 uses the same bets as shown in the sample game shown in the
chapter on the 80-20 System Bet Selection Strategy. As you may recall, in the
earlier example all of our bets were for $5 each with no variation in bet size. In
that case, we won $15 for the game.
Sample Game 1 uses the same series of plays as the sample game with $5 bets.
However, in this case we use the 80-20 System Betting Strategy.
Sample Game 1
Using the 80-20 System in a Craps Game
P = Pass Line, D = Dont Pass
W=Win, L=Loss
Ref
Dec
Pat
Bet
On
Bet
1
2
3
D
D
D
S
S
D
D
Split Bet
Objective
W/L
Cum
Win
5
5
W
W
+5
+10
+5
+13
+8
-0-
13
-13
20
+7
10
13
-6
The 80-20 System
Comments
Bet S for first bet. Make Level-1 bet of 5.
Following a win keep same pattern and bet
S again. After win, repeat Level-1 bet of 5.
Continue S pattern Continue with Level-5
bet.
After losing bet change pattern from S to O.
Following loss, increase bet one level to
Level-2 bet of 8
O again Following win, drop bet one level.
After losing bet change pattern from O to S.
Level-2 bet of 8
Level-3 bet of 13
Level-3 bet of 20.
S again. After win drop bet one level to 13.

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Ref
Dec
Pat
O
Bet
On
P
11
12
Bet
20
30
13
14
15
16
17
Split Bet
Objective
Cum
Win
-26
-60
-56
-55
-51
30
-25
25
-50
-10
P
P
S
S
P
P
5
5
W
W
-5
-0-
18
+5
19
-0-
20
21
22
P
P
P
O
S
S
P
P
P
5
5
5
L
W
W
-5
-0+5
23
+10
24
+15
The 80-20 System
W/L
Comments
Level-3 bet of 20.
Level-3 bet of 30.
We are now Split Betting. Reduce bet to 5
and make Split Bet of 5 which wins. Update
Split Bet Objective to 55
O again. Make Split Bet of 30 which wins.
Adjust Bet Objective to 25.
O again. Make Split Bet of 25 which loses.
S again
S again
S again
S again
S again
S again

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Sample Game 2
Using the 80-20 System in a Roulette Game
R = Red, B = Black
W=Win, L=Loss
Ref
Dec
Pat
Bet
On
Bet
1
2
3
R
R
B
S
S
R
R
Split Bet
Objective
W/L
Cum
Win
5
5
W
L
+5
-0-
+8
+3
-0-
-5
13
+8
+16
+21
10
+16
11
+8
12
13
-5
13
20
+15
14
13
+2
15
20
+22
16
+14
The 80-20 System
Comments
Bet same as previous decision.
Bet same as previous decision. Make
Level-1 bet of 5 on R.
Following a losing bet change the betting
pattern to O and wager $8 on R
Bet opposite of previous decision. Make
Level-1 bet of 5 on B.
pattern to S and wager $8 on B
When a zero shows ignore it for purposes of
determining where to bet. Bet S pattern on
R and raise bet to 13
Bet Same as previous decision. Following a
losing bet change the betting pattern to S
and wager $8 on R.
Level-1 bet of $5 on R.
Level-1 bet of $5 on R
pattern to S and wager $13 on R.
Level-3 bet of $13 on B
pattern to S and wager $20 on B.
Bet same as previous decision. Since we
won two out of last three bets, drop next bet
two levels to 8.

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Ref
Dec
Pat
Bet
Bet
On
B
17
18
Split Bet
Objective
W/L
13
Cum
Win
+1
20
-19
19
30
+11
20
20
-9
21
30
+21
22
13
+34
23
+42
24
+47
25
+52
Comments
pattern to O and wager $13 on R.
pattern to S and wager $20 on R
Level-4 bet of $20 on B.
pattern to S and wager $30 on R.
Bet same as previous decision. Since we
won two out of last three bets, drop next bet
two levels to 13.
Review of Sample Game 2

Round 1. We observed one Red (R) decision before starting play. If you were
playing in an online casino which would not allow a wheel spin without a wager
you should assume that the first observed decision is R and start betting using the
Same betting pattern.
Rounds 6 and 7. A zero showed in Round 6 causing us to lose our bet. For the
next round of play, Round 8, we ignored the zero in Round 6 and continued to the
bet the Opposite of Round 5s decision and we bet on R. However, we dont
ignore the loss in terms of determining our wager. Since we lost an $8 bet in
Round 6 we raise our bet one level and wager $13 in Round 7.
Round 16. We won our bet of $20 in Round 13, lost our wager of $13 in Round
14 and won our wager of $20 in Round 15. With two out of three wins we drop
our next bet two levels and wager $8 in Round 16.
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Round 25. We decided to stop this game after our win hit or exceeded $50. This
amount is a good Target Win for betting at this level.
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Money Management Rules for the 80-20 System

Before you read this chapter you should understand how to use the 80-20
System.
Before you begin playing, you must plan on having the correct amount of bankroll
for your level of play.
The bargain games are found online where there are many games with $1 betting
minimums. You can play in these games with a $60 buy-in or Game Bankroll.
The buy-in is the amount of money you exchange for chips in a land-based casino
or deposit or set aside for one game in an online casino.
I will refer to buy-in and Game Bankroll interchangeably.
Rule 1. Determine the size of your Base Bet and your Game Bankroll before you
start playing.
As you have seen in previous examples, your Base Bet will be the size of the
smallest bet you make for even-money bets. Many times the size of your Base Bet
may be determined by the size of minimum bets the casino will accept.
Rule 2. Once you decide on your level of play, be sure your Total Bankroll is
large enough.
Your Game Bankroll is the amount of money you must use for a single game.
Your Total Bankroll is your Lifetime Bankroll or your Permanent Bankroll and
consists of the total amount of money you need in order to have an adequate
bankroll to be successful as a 80-20 System player.
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Here are the relationships you need to worry about

Game Bankroll = 60 times the size of your Base Bet
Total Bankroll = 3 times the size of your Game Bankroll
Total Bankroll = 180 times the size of your Base Bet.
These are very small bankroll requirements. Most gambling strategies will require
Game Bankrolls of 100 to 200 times the size of your minimum bets. And, the size
of the Total Bankroll is usually five to seven times the size of your Game
Bankroll.
Obviously, you can use the 80-20 System with a lot less money than is required
for other strategies.
The table below shows the relationships between Base Bets, Game Bankroll and
Total Bankrolls for different levels of play.
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Base Bets, Game Bankrolls and Total Bankroll

Base Bet
$1
$2
$3
$5
$10
$15
$25
$35
$50
$75
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
Game Bankroll
$60
$120
$180
$300
$600
$900
$1500
$2100
$3000
$4500
$6000
$12,000
$18,000
$24,000
$30,000
Total Bankroll
$180
$360
$540
$900
$1800
$2700
$4500
$6300
$9000
$13,500
$18,000
$36,000
$54,000
$72,000
$90,000
Rule 3. Set a Bet Limit for your level of play.

Your Bet Limit should be no more than 18 times the size of your Base Bet. For a
$5 Base Bettor this would be a Bet Limit of $90.
Bet Limits will come into play when Split Betting. For example, assume that you
are a $5 bettor and you have just won a $5 Split Bet which reduces your Split Bet
Win Objective to $200. Normally, you would bet one-half of the Win Objective
on the wager following a win. However, if your Bet Limit is $90, then you will
wager $90 on the next bet. In addition to your Game Bankroll which is your
ultimate Loss Limit for a game, Bet Limits will also help protect your bankroll.
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Rule 4. Set a Target Profit level for each level of play. I usually recommend a
Target Profit equal to ten times the size of your Base Bet.
The following table shows suggested Bet Limits and Target Profits for different
Base Bets and Game Bankrolls.
Suggested Base Bets, Game Bankrolls,

Bet Limits and Target Profits
Base Bet
$1
$2
$3
$5
$10
$15
$25
$35
$50
$75
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
Game Bankroll
$60
$120
$180
$300
$600
$900
$1500
$2100
$3000
$4500
$6000
$12,000
$18,000
$24,000
$30,000
Bet Limit*
$18
$36
$54
$90
$180
$270
$450
$630
$900
$1350
$1800
$3600
$5400
$7200
$9000
Target Profit
$10
$20
$30
$50
$100
$150
$250
$250
$500
$750
$1000
$2000
$3000
$4000
$5000
* You can set lower Bet Limits for Split Bets if you are playing in casinos with lower
betting limits, such as online casino games with betting limits from $1 to $100.
Rule 5. You will always use a Loss Limit when you play. The easiest Loss Limit
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to use is one equal to the Game Bankroll. Your Loss Limit always has a higher
priority than your Bet Limit. In other words, if the loss of any wager, even one
equal to or less than your Bet Limit would cause you to exceed your Loss Limit,
you will call the game complete.
Heres how Money Management Rule 5 operates

Lets assume the following:
Your Base Bet is $5.
Your Bet Limit is $90.
Your Game Bankroll is $300.
Your loss for the game is 228 and you are called on to make a wager of $90.
In this case, your remaining balance of $72 will limit your wager to $72. You can
make the reduced wager of $72 or just call the game over and accept a loss.
If you use a Game Bankroll equal to your Loss Limit, you wont be tempted to
ever lose more than your Loss Limit as you wont have a large enough Game
Bankroll to make the bet.
In this example, where your Game Bankroll is $300, you will have to limit the size
of any bets to make sure you dont exceed the balance of your Game Bankroll.
The one thing you must never do is to exceed your Loss Limit in a game.
And, you must set your Loss Limit before you start a game, not while you are
playing.
You can use a larger Loss Limit if you like, but you cannot make up rules as you
play. Always set your goals and limits before starting play and then stick with
them. This is the key to your winning consistently with only a few small losses.
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If you do decide to use a larger Loss Limit, you will need to increase the size of
your Game Bankroll and Total Bankroll to accommodate your larger Loss Limit.
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How to Play Roulette

Roulette is easy to play, and a wide variety of wagers can be made. The American
version is fairly fast with the dealer spinning the wheel from 80 to 110 times per
hour.
The French version of the game is more leisurely with only 30 or 40 spins per hour.
The bets are basically the same in the French and American versions of the game,
with the principal difference being that the American wheel has both a zero and a
double zero on it.
The French wheel has numbers 1 to 36 plus a zero. It is the zero that accounts for
the house edge of 2.70%. This percentage is cut in half on the even-money wagers
in European casinos, where these bets are placed en prison when a zero shows up.
They remain on the table "in prison" until the next spin.
For even-money wagers that win, the bets are returned; for those that lose, the
casino takes the wager. A second option is also offered, that of le partage (sharing).
With this option, when a zero comes up, a player with an even-money bet keeps half
his wager and gives up half. In Britain, no choice is offered; only le partage is
allowed.
With the en prison and le partage rules in force, the house edge is reduced to about
1.38% for even-money wagers.
The American wheel, with the addition of the double zero, offers the same payoffs
on wagers, but the extra zero increases the house edge to 5.26%. When a zero or
double zero occurs, all wagers lose, including all even-money bets.
Rule 1. Given a choice, always play the single zero version of roulette.
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The game is played with a wheel containing 37 numbers in the European version
(1-36 plus zero) and 38 numbers in the United States version (1-36 plus zero and
double-zero). The numbers are printed on spaces marked on a wheel and separated
by metal dividers called frets. The numbers do not run consecutively and there are
different layouts for the French and American wheels.
Wagers are made by placing chips in various positions on the table. The American
tables are much smaller than the French ones, and the players can usually reach the
portion of the layout on which they wish to wager and therefore place their own
wagers. In the French version, the table is much larger, and the croupiers use a rake
to place and pay wagers.
In either game, the croupier or dealer will assist a player wishing to make a wager.
The casino allows you to bet all of the numbers, including the 0 and 00. If you bet
any of the numbers "straight up," and your number comes up on the next spin of the
wheel, you will be paid 35 to 1 (you will have your original wager, plus chips equal
to 35 times your wager). You can also bet different combinations of wagers,
including two, three, four, five and six number bets, as well as dozens, columns, red
or black, odd or even and high or low.
The players make their wagers by placing chips on the spaces of the layout in any
manner allowed by the rules. The dealer starts the wheel spinning, then flips the
ball on the bowl's back so that it travels in the opposite direction of the spinning
wheel.
Players may continue to place bets while the ball and wheel are still in motion until
the dealer announces "no more bets." In the French version, the dealer will state
"rien ne va plus," meaning the same thing. Bets placed on the layout after this
announcement are not valid and will be returned to the player.
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When the ball comes to rest, it marks the winning number, the winning color and
any other combination bet made. The dealer announces the winning number.
On the first spin the dealer has no fixed point from which to spin the wheel or ball.
Thereafter, he will spin both from the position of the winning pocket of the
preceding spin.
The various bets are shown in the table below, as well as the payouts, and typical
(American) maximum wagers for each bet.
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Table 5. Roulette Wagers

Type of Bet
American term
French term
Straight or single number
En plein
Split or two numbers
A cheval
Street or three numbers
Transversale pleine
Square or Four numbers
En carre
Line or Six numbers
Sixaine or tranversale simple
Dozen (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
Douzaine (premiere, moyenne, derniere)
Adjacent dozens (only on French wheel)
Douzainea cheval
Column
Colonne
Adjacent columns (only on French wheel)
Colonnea cheval
Red or black
Rouge or noire
Odd or even
Impair or pair
High (19-36) or Low (1-18) Passe or
Manque
The 80-20 System
Maximum
Bet Allowed
Payout
$25
35 to 1
50
17 to 1
75
11 to 1
100
8 to 1
100
5 to 1
250
2 to 1
500
1 to 2
250
2 to 1
500
1 to 2
500
1 to 1
500
1 to 1
500
1 to 1

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Rule 2. Learn how to make bets on red and black (rouge or noire) and odd and
even (impair or pair). These are the only wagers used by the Power players.
A single number bet is made by placing a chip on the number itself without
touching any lines. Bets on two numbers are placed on the line between numbers.
Three number wagers are made on the outside line of the layout. Four number bets
go on the intersection of four numbers.
A five number wager is made on the American wheel and covers 1, 2, 3, 0 and 00.
This wager is placed on the line separating the 1,2, 3 from the 0 and 00 spaces at a
corner intersection. This becomes a four number wager on the French wheel.
Incidentally, the five number American wheel wager has the distinction of giving
the house an edge of 7.89% as compared to 5.26% for all other wagers on the
American wheel.
A six number bet is made by placing the chip at the intersection of the sideline and
the line between two rows of numbers.
Bets on columns are made by placing chips on one of the three spaces on the bottom
of the layout, under the columns of numbers.
Dozens are wagered by placing the wager in the appropriate box. On the French
table, 12P, 12M and 12D correspond to 1st, 2nd and 3rd 12s. Bets on adjacent
columns or dozens are placed on the line between the two columns or dozens.
Bets on even-money chances are made by placing the wager inside the box
corresponding to the wager. For instance, a wager on red is made by placing the bet
in the red box on the outside of the layout.
In the American version of the game, each player is issued a different colored chip,
so that no two players play with the same color chips. Typical colors used are
white, yellow, brown, red, green and purple. These chips themselves have no value
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as a player determines the value of the chips when he buys in. For instance, one
player's chips may represent $.25 each, while another player's chips may be worth
$1.00 each. The dealer "marks" the value of each color chip with a button.
An American Wheel
A player using the colored roulette chips should never leave the table with the
colored chips, as they may not be cashed in or used in any other casino game.
When you are ready to leave
the table, ask the dealer for color and he will change the roulette chips for regular
casino chips.
In the French game, chips represent fixed amounts, such as five francs, twenty five
francs and so on. You need to watch your own wagers like a hawk as there is no
difference in color to differentiate your wager from anyone else's. Consequently,
there are many more disputes in the French game, and more than once, another
player has tried to grab my winnings. I have found that it pays to stand firm in these
matters and that if the dispute can be resolved in no other way, the house will pay
both players.
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Because of the size of the French table, you will require the croupier's assistance in
placing many of your wagers. An experienced croupier will remember your wager
(especially if you tip after winning a large payoff) and can be your ally when these
disputes arise.
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TABLES OF NEIGHBORS
12
5
15
7
0
30
2
9
13
1
11
6
18
17
16
3
23
4
14
26
24
32
20
36
8
19
28
25
22
31
27
33
35
10
21
29
34
Single Zero Wheel

35 3 26 0 32 15 19 4
24 16 33 1 20 14 31 9
19 4 21 2 25 17 34 6
28 12 35 3 26 0 32 15
32 15 19 4 21 2 25 17
8 23 10 5 24 16 33 1
25 17 34 6 27 13 36 11
22 18 29 7 28 12 35 3
36 11 30 8 23 10 5 24
20 14 31 9 22 18 29 7
30 8 23 10 5 24 16 33
27 13 36 11 30 8 23 10
29 7 28 12 35 3 26 0
34 6 27 13 36 11 30 8
33 1 29 14 31 9 22 18
26 0 32 15 19 4 21 2
10 5 24 16 33 1 20 14
21 2 25 17 34 6 27 13
31 9 22 18 29 7 28 12
0 32 15 19 4 21 2 25
16 33 1 20 14 31 9 22
15 19 4 21 2 25 17 34
14 31 9 22 18 29 7 28
11 30 8 23 10 5 24 16
23 10 5 24 16 33 1 20
4 21 2 25 17 34 6 27
12 35 3 26 0 32 15 19
17 34 6 27 13 36 11 30
18 29 7 28 12 35 3 26
9 22 18 29 7 28 12 35
13 36 11 30 8 23 10 5
1 20 14 31 9 22 18 29
3 26 0 32 15 19 4 21
5 24 16 33 1 20 14 31
2 25 17 34 6 27 13 36
7 28 12 35 3 26 0 32
6 27 13 36 11 30 8 23
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TABLES OF NEIGHBORS
30
29
25
26
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
17
18
10
9
13
14
15
16
21
22
23
24
0
00
19
20
12
11
31
32
33
34
35
36
28
27
Double-Zero Wheel
26 9 28 0 2 14 35 23
25 10 27 00 1 13 36 24
10 27 00 1 13 36 24 3
9 28 0 2 14 35 23 4
13 36 24 3 5 34 22 5
14 35 23 4 16 33 21 6
15 34 22 5 17 32 20 7
16 33 21 6 18 31 19 8
17 32 20 7 11 30 26 9
18 31 19 8 12 29 25 10
11 30 26 9 28 0 2 14
12 29 25 10 27 00 1 13
32 20 7 11 30 26 9 28
31 19 8 12 29 25 10 27
27 00 1 13 36 24 3 15
28 0 2 14 35 23 4 16
36 24 3 15 34 22 5 17
35 23 4 16 33 21 6 18
34 22 5 17 32 10 7 11
33 21 6 18 31 19 8 12
6 18 31 19 8 12 29 25
5 17 32 20 7 11 30 26
4 16 33 21 6 18 31 19
3 1`5 34 22 5 17 32 20
2 14 35 23 4 16 33 21
1 13 36 24 3 15 34 22
8 12 29 25 10 27 00 1
7 11 30 26 9 28 0 2
29 25 10 27 00 1 13 36
30 26 9 28 0 2 14 35
9 8 12 29 25 10 27 00
20 7 11 30 26 9 28 0
21 6 18 31 19 8 12 29
22 5 17 32 20 7 11 30
23 4 16 33 21 6 18 31
24 3 15 34 22 5 17 32
0 2 14 35 23 4 16 33
0 1 13 36 24 3 15 34
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Winning at Roulette
Roulette first appeared as a game with a wheel in the 17th century. The game was
called hoca and was used by the French statesman Cardinal Mazarin as a means to
increase the treasury of King Louis XIV. Mazarin opened many casinos in France
and the money rolled in for him and King Louis. When Mazarin died hoca was
outlawed and anyone found playing the game was executed.
Millions of people love to play roulette. But it is not only Europeans who love the
game. Even though it is third in popularity among table games in the U.S. (behind
blackjack and craps) it is growing in popularity with American players. There are
now more roulette tables and roulette players than at any time in history. Roulette
games are you are using a $5 betting series, ask for chips with a value of $5. If the
table is not crowded, the dealer may be willing to issue two different colored chips
with values of $5 and $25. The reason you would prefer this is simple. If you are
called on to make a larger wager, say $100, it is a lot easier to make the bet using
four $25-valued chips than twenty $5-valued chips.
Check the Table Minimum Wagers Before You Start Playing

Roulette games are offered with minimum bets from as low as 25 cents to as high
as $100. You dont want to feel foolish and try to make a $5 wager at a table with
$10 or $25 minimum wagers.
The general guidelines for minimum wagers are pretty straightforward. More
upscale casinos are likely to have higher minimum wager games. The same holds
true for roulette games in high stakes playing areas.
Since roulette is not as popular in the US as craps or blackjack, it is generally
easier to find roulette games with lower minimum bet requirements than the other
table games.
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Dont let yourself be conned into playing at a roulette game with higher stakes
than you are prepared to play. If all of the roulette games available are $10
minimum and you only have the bankroll and the disposition to wager in a $5
minimum game, then dont play.
Buy In for the Amount Needed for Your Level of Play.

I am sure you are aware that using the 80-20 System entails matching your
bankroll to your level of play. Whenever you exchange your cash for chips, you
must buy enough chips to correctly play at the level of your proposed Betting
Series.
If you are using a $1 based betting series, then $60 is all you need for your game
bankroll.
As a bettor using the $5 based betting series, you will need to buy in for $300.
Ten-dollar base bets require that you exchange $600 in cash for chips, while $25
bettors need to convert $1,500 cash to chips before beginning play.
There are no shortcuts allowed here. To correctly play, using the 80-20 System,
you must have the correct bankroll.
Know How Much You Expect to Win Before You Start Playing
Gambling, using the approach advocated by the 80-20 System, allows you to
fine tune your play to the point of knowing, within a few dollars, how much you
can expect to make in a winning game.
I have given you the formula one sixth of the Game Bankroll is the Targeted
Amount of Winnings. So, if you are a $1 bettor, using a game bankroll of $60,
you know that you are looking for a win of $10..
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I suggest that you actually write down your Target Win before you start a roulette
game. You can write it on the paper you will use for record keeping as you play.
The reason I am suggesting that you do this is not that you are likely to forget the
dollar amount of your win, rather it is to increase the sense of commitment you
will have to sticking with this amount.
Once you write down the amount you expect to win, and do it before you start
playing, it is harder to play the kinds of mind games so many players engage in
which entail changing the target to fit the circumstances. Rather than playing
roulette like a gunslinger, hoping for another kill, I want you to play more like a
cautious banker, willing to accept your percentage, and knowing that as a
percentage player you will not only live longer than the gunslinger, but that you
are likely to make a whole lot more money.
Know Your Loss Limit as Well as Your Target Profit.
While thinking about how much you will win is a lot more pleasant than
considering a possible loss, losing about one game in ten is a known attribute of
using the 80-20 System.
Since you never know in advance when this one in ten event is going to happen,
the best way to play is to always know before you start a game just how much you
are willing to lose in a losing game.
Over my years of gambling, I have observed that a most common sight is
watching my fellow players reach into their pockets and lay more cash on the table
as they play. They may have started by converting just $100 into chips, but by the
time they repeat this process several times, their losses for a single game can grow
quite large.
So here is your first rule about losses. You will never lose more in any single
game than the amount you first convert to chips. And, this amount will always be
equal to the Game Bankroll needed for your level of play.
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As a $5 bettor, you will always convert $300 into chips. Three hundreds dollars
becomes by default the maximum amount you can lose.
But, you may end up losing less than your game bankroll and still have a losing
game. Anytime you dont have enough chips to make a wager called for in the
betting series you will have a losing game. Lets say your chips are down to $95
and you are called on to make a $100 wager. What do you do? Which would you
pick?
Wager $95, since this is all you have.
Convert another $20 in cash to chips so that you have enough to make the bet.
Call the game over and accept a loss of less than the full amount of your game
bankroll.
I hope you chose answer c accept a smaller loss. Here is your other rule for
determining when you have a losing game
If you dont have enough to make a wager, then the game is over. Count up your
chips, and if you are playing with the special chips given to roulette players, be
sure to give the dealer your chips and let her convert them to casino chips before
leaving the table.
What Do You Do After A Zero or Double Zero Shows?

What you do following the appearance of a zero or double zero depends on the
rules used in the version of roulette you are playing.
If you are playing on an American double zero or single zero wheel, where your
outside wager (bet on red or black, odd or even, high or low) loses, then your next
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wager will be for the next higher wager in the betting series you are using.
If you are playing a version of roulette using the en prison rule, then you will
count the wager as lost only if you ultimately lose the wager. If your bet breaks
even, then your next wager will be for the same amount. If your wager eventually
loses, then your next wager will be for the next higher wager in the betting series.
If the game used the la partage rule, whereby half of the wager is lost when the
zero shows, count the wager as a loss.
The next question becomes, how do you count the appearance of a zero or double
zero for purposes of determining where to wager? The answer is that you ignore
the zero or double zero for purposes of determining where to bet.
Lets assume you have the following spins Red
Black
Zero
Black.
For purposes of using the Bet Selection Method, you will ignore the zero and see
this pattern as
Red
Black
Black
In a couple of pages, where I show how I recorded a game of roulette that I
played, I will show you an example of a zero showing so that you can follow how
this rule operates.
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Take a Break Whenever a Game is Completed.

Whenever you finish a game, either because you hit your target win amount and
called the game over, or lost most of your chips and had to quit, you need to
remove yourself from play for a short time period.
If you are in a casino, you should take a break from the table and at least walk
around to clear your head and get a little exercise.
If you are playing online where games last no more than six to ten minutes, it may
seem a little silly to get up and walk around every time a game is completed. Here
you will at least log off the casino where you are playing and perform some other
task like checking your email before resuming play.
I have found that while taking a break after a win may help me relax, that taking a
break after a loss is critical. Losing a game is never pleasant and all kinds of
unhappy thoughts may pop into your head if you just keep playing. You may
decide to double up your bets and try to win your loss back. Or you may decide to
change the way you play and go out on your own. That is why it is especially
important that you take a break after a losing game. Usually even ten minutes
away from the table is enough to improve your attitude and allow you to continue
playing without engaging in self-destructive behavior.
Track Your Decisions as You Play

You will need to record your decisions as you play roulette. The easiest way to do
this is to record them in the format I have suggested. You will record the results
of each spin as it occurs, as well as information on how much you wagered, where
you wagered and the outcome of each spin.
If you prefer to use chips for tracking, you can set up a system similar to the one I
described for craps. However, since there are no rails for organizing your chips at
roulette like there are for craps, it is not as easy to use chips for tracking at roulette
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as it is at craps.
Since many roulette players use systems, you will find that there is very little
stigma to writing information down as you play roulette. The dealer will not
likely comment on note taking although a fellow player may be curious. My
recommendation is that you never discuss this system when you are playing. If a
player persists in questioning you just answer that you like to wager on patterns in
roulette and let it go at that. Chances are they wont have a clue what you are
talking about and not wanting to appear ignorant they will not ask any more
questions.
Dont Make Wagers Other Than the Ones Called for in the 80-20 System
Roulette, with its 35 to 1 payoffs for wins on single numbers, offers the highest
potential single decision payoffs of any of the casino table games. As you play
roulette you will probably be aware of other players, especially those that hit some
of the higher return payoffs and the dealer sets whole stacks of chips on their
winning wager.
You are expecting me to advise you to never make any other wagers, arent you?
But I am a fun loving guy as well as a person who likes to win at roulette. Ill let
you have a little fun too. As soon as you are ahead at least by the amount of your
lowest bet, you can set that amount aside and use it for wagers on inside numbers.
Heres how this will work. Assume that you are using the $5 Betting Series. You
win your first $5 wager. Take your winning chip and ask the dealer to give you
five $1-chips in exchange for it. This is now your mad money. Anytime you
feel lucky and just want to have more fun, place one of your $1 chips on a straight
up number or a combination of numbers. You will also make the wager called for
in using the 80-20 System so that your little side bet will not affect your system
betting.
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With this procedure, you have five chances to score big on the insight numbers.
If you lose all of your mad money, then you are finished making inside bets for
that game. If you should have a win, you should set aside all of the winnings from
this extraordinary win except for five $1 chips if you want to continue making
inside bets.
Thats it. You risk $5 of your winnings for a little fun. Sometimes you will
actually win one of your mad wagers and you too will get a nice little stack of
chips paying off your winning inside bet.
Recording a Game of Roulette.

Unlike the earlier examples of Sample Games, when I am playing I prefer using
the horizontal format, where I record decisions left to right. If you are more
comfortable recording a game in columns, just flip the form over 90 degrees so
that each row becomes a column and use this format for recording your play
Below is a recent game I played in a local Indian casino with a double-zero wheel.
Okay, I remember what I advised dont play on double-zero wheels. I guess this
shows that even gambling writers are human. At any rate, I won the game. Here
is what my game looked like when I finished playing:
Roulette Game Played on Double-zero Wheel
R = red
B = Black
Betting Series used:
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Roulette Game Played On Double-Zero Wheel in Recording Format

Dec
Pat
Bet On
Bet
W/L
Sp Bet
Obj
Cum
Win
B
S
R
5
L
R
O
R
8
W
R
O
B
5
L
R
S
R
8
W
B
S
R
5
L
R
0
R
8
W
R
O
B
5
L
R
S
R
8
L
B
O
R
13
L
B
S
B
20
W
B
S
B
12
W
R
S
B
5
L
R
O
B
8
L
R
S
R
13
W
R
S
R
8
W
R
S
R
5
W
R
S
R
5
W
R
S
R
5
W
R
S
R
5
W
-2
-4
17
16
11
16
24
29
34
39
44
Dec
Pat
Bet On
Bet
W/L
Sp Bet
Obj
Cum
Win
R
S
R
5
W
B
S
R
5
L
R
O
R
8
W
49
44
52
In this game I won $52 over 22 decisions. This game lasted 35 minutes played in
a land-based casino.
In reviewing this game, you should be able to understand why I wagered the way I
did for each spin of the wheel. If you have trouble understanding the logic behind
my bets, you should review the portions of this manual describing how to use the
80-20 System.
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Playing Craps
Craps can be a pretty intimidating game for beginners. The table has wagers
spread all over it. The stickman is speaking in a language unique to craps, where a
point of 4 is called Little Joe and a point of 10 may be called Big Dick.
Elevens are yolevens and when a player fails to make his point, it is seven out
pay the front line, take from the donts.
You can make hardway bets or bet on big red. Or make a craps check wager.
Or throw a bet into the field or bet that they come or dont come. Or maybe horn
or whirl bets turn you on.
You might be offered an odds bets or even allowed to take double or triple odds.
It is enough to drive a novice crazy.
Fortunately, you will only have to learn the two most basic bets to use the 80-20
System at craps the Pass Line and the Dont Pass wagers.
The most important concept to grasp about the craps game is that it is a game of
rounds.
The first round of a game entails establishing a point and is called the Come Out
Roll. If a 2, 3, 7, 11 or 12 is rolled on a Come Out Roll, that round ends with a
win or loss for Pass Line or Dont Pass wagers. If a point number of a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9,
or 10 is rolled, a new phase of play begins where the object of the game is to see if
the shooter can roll his point number before rolling a seven.
A white puck is placed on the table to indicate which number is the point number.
If the puck is turned over with the black side facing up and placed in the Dont
Come Betting box, the game is in the Come Out Roll phase where a point has yet
to be established. Once a point is established, the puck is moved to the back of the
box for the point number with the while side facing
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The Pass Line

A Pass Line bet is made before a Come Out Roll. Come Out Rolls occur when:
A new shooter is starting.
After the shooter has started a new Come Out Roll and rolled a 2, 3, 7, 11 or 12
resulting in wins or losses for Pass Line and Dont Pass Wagers.
After a shooter has made a point and is rolling the dice to establish another point.
On a Come Out Roll, a Pass Line Bet wins if a 7 or 11 is rolled. It loses if a 2, 3
or 12 is rolled (called craps numbers). If a point number is rolled (a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or
10), then that number becomes the shooters point. The shooter will continue to
roll the dice until he either makes his point, which is a win for a Pass Line Bet or
rolls a seven, which is a loss for the Pass Line Bet. If the shooter fails to make his
point, he is said to have sevened out and the dice pass to the next player who will
have the chance to shoot.
So, to sum
Pass Line Bets win on Come Out Rolls of 7 or 11 (called naturals).
Pass Line Bets lose on Come Out Rolls of 2, 3 or 12 (called Craps).
Pass Line wins if a point number is established and rolled again before rolling a
seven.
Pass Line loses if a seven is rolled before the point number.
When the dealer pushes the dice to you to roll for the first time, this is your Come
Out Roll. To roll the dice you will need to make a wager on either Pass Line or
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Dont Pass, called Line Bets. Lets assume you wager $5 on Pass Line.
If you roll a 7 or 11 on this roll, you will have rolled a natural for the Pass Line
and you will be paid $5. Go ahead and pick up your winning chip.
If you roll a craps number of 2, 3 or 12, the dealer will whisk your Pass Line
wager away as you have lost the bet.
Online Craps Layout
When naturals or craps numbers are thrown on the Come Out Roll, the shooter
will continue to roll the dice and the next roll will also be a Come Out Roll. Lets
assume you roll a 7, followed by a 2, then roll an 11. All of these rolls are Come
Out Rolls since you have not yet rolled a point number of 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10.
Lets assume your next roll is a 6, which is a point number. Now the game moves
into a different phase. Rolling a craps number will no longer cause your Pass Line
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wager to lose. Likewise, rolling an 11 will not give you a win with your Pass
Line wager. Once you have established a point, the only numbers affecting your
Pass Line wager are your point number and the number 7.
Since you established 6 as your point, your Pass Line wager will win if you can
roll another 6 before a 7 shows.
Lets assume you roll the following numbers
2 No effect on your Pass Line bet
11 - No effect on your Pass Line bet
6 - You made your point. The Pass Line bet wins
With a Pass Line wager, once you establish a point, you must leave your wager in
place until it either wins or losses. During Come Out Rolls, you can pick up your
Pass Line Wager after any roll unless a point is established. For example, you bet
$5 and the shooter rolls a 7 on the Come Out. The dealer slides a $5 chip next to
your wager as your winnings. You may pick up both your wager and your
winnings after this roll since no point was established.
Dont Pass Wagers

A Dont Pass bet is made before a Come Out Roll. Come Out Rolls occur when:
A new shooter is starting.
After the shooter has started a new Come Out Roll and rolled a 2, 3, 7, 11 or 12
resulting in wins or losses for Pass Line and Dont Pass Wagers
After a shooter has made a point and is rolling the dice to establish another point.
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On Come Out Rolls, Dont Pass wagers

Lose if a natural of 7 or 11 is rolled.
Win if a 2 or 3 is rolled and neither win nor lose if a 12 is rolled. In some casinos,
notably casinos in Northern Nevada, Dont Pass bets win if a 3 or 12 is rolled,
with the 2 barred instead of the usual 12.
The house bars either the 2 or 12 as a win for the Dont Pass wager on a Come Out
Roll. This is done to preserve the house edge on this wager. If the Dont Pass
wager won on all of the craps numbers of 2, 3 and 12 on Come Out rolls, then this
wager would be player favorable as it would have an edge over the house. And
casinos are not known for booking bets favoring the player.
Since 2s or 12s are not usually barred with street craps games, the Dont Pass
bettor always has the best of it (unless of course the game is a crooked game using
gaffed dice or other methods of cheating the players.)
The house edge over a Pass Line bet is 1.414%
Its edge over the Dont Pass bet is 1.402%.
For our purposes, we will treat these wagers as even-money bets. To be successful
using The 80-20 System Strategy at Craps you will only make Pass Line or
Dont Pass wagers. If you want to learn about the other wagers at craps as well as
learn more about the game, you can pick up a book at your local bookstore which
will give you this information. Here we will cover just what you need to know to
be a winner at craps.
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Winning at Craps
Craps is a busy, engrossing and captivating game. It is also a vicious devourer of
bankrolls. Of the casino games of craps, roulette and baccarat, craps may be the
hardest game in which to maintain discipline while you play.
For one thing, watching the other players can be distracting. The player next to
you may be winning more than you by betting on the hardway bets, yet you are
stuck with making boring old Pass Line and Dont Pass wagers. You may be
tempted to toss a nickel chip down to the stickman saying, Give me a hard six.
My advice is dont.
Another distraction at craps is watching the shooters. Heres an example. You
have been following the rules of the Optimzer and you are called on to make a
Dont Pass wager. Just after you place your wager, you notice that an attractive
young woman will be the next shooter. She also appears to be a virgin shooter
at craps. Now, all craps players know that pretty young females shooting the dice
for the first time are lucky and you should bet with them. So what do you do?
Stick with the system and keep your Dont Pass wager. The shooter may be lucky,
she may not be lucky. You dont know. And, you are better off following the
discipline inherent in using the formula.
Heres another situation that will come up when you play craps. Your turn will
come to shoot as the dice pass around the table. The stickman will push five dice
toward you, inviting you to pick a pair to shoot. You notice that your wager is on
the Dont Pass. Do you pick up the dice and shoot from the dark side? Do you
change your bet to Pass Line, so that you can feel better about shooting and
cheering for the point number?
The easiest way to handle this situation is to decide before you begin playing
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whether you will shoot the dice or not.

In general, when you are using the 80-20 System you will be better off not
shooting the dice. This way, you wont have to worry about making a Dont Pass
wager when you are shooting (a move most players and dealers consider strange
and unusual to say the least).
Besides deciding whether you will shoot the dice when it becomes your turn to be
the shooter, there are several other items which should be on your checklist before
you start a game of craps.
Check the minimum wager for the table before you convert your cash to chips.
There is nothing more embarrassing than buying into a table, making a $5 wager
and the being told by a dealer, The minimum wager on this table is $25, sir.
I have had this happen to me more than once playing in Las Vegas. The fivedollar minimum table I played on in the afternoon became a $25 table in the
evening when the crowd picked up.
Casinos are notorious for upping the minimum wagers required when they get
busy. The bosses reason What are you going to do about it. If you want to
play, youll have to come up with the required minimum wagers.
Dont ever let yourself be coerced into playing at a higher level than you are
prepared to play. If you dont want to play at tables with higher minimum wagers,
you may have to stick with playing in smaller, older casinos. If you play in the
newest hot spots, you may have to play in off times, like the mornings, before
the bosses increase the minimum wagers for the evening trade.
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Buy in for the Correct Amount.

Each betting series has a required amount of Game Bankroll. The Game
Bankroll is the correct amount you will use to buy into a game. If you are a $5
bettor and plan on using the $5 Betting Series, you must buy in for $300.
Dont try getting by with buying in for just $200 to save a little. If you do, you
wont have the right amount of money to play the system correctly and most likely
your loss rate will soar.
Set a Target Profit Before Starting a Game.

The time to set a profit target is before you buy into a game. If you buy in for
$300, you should know that your Target Profit is from $60 to $75. However, in
order for this rule to work, you have to actually believe in it and follow it. If you
dont like pulling off when you are winning, heres how you can continue to play
when you have hit your Target Profit and you still want to continue playing.
After reaching your Target Profit, pull out enough chips to make the two lowest
level bets in the betting series. As a $5 bettor you would pull out $15 of chips,
enough to make a $5 and $10 wager. All of your other chips go into your pocket
or at least into the far rail on the table where they will not be touched and will be
considered locked up and untouchable.
Now, you can continue to play as long as you like. If you run out of chips, the
game is over and you quit, with your win locked up. If you continue to win, then
every four or five decisions, you would repeat the lock up process, removing all of
your chips from play except the amount required to make the two lowest bets in
the betting series.
Set a Loss Limit Before Starting a Game.

In addition to knowing how much you expect to win, you will also need to set the
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largest amount you are willing to lose before you begin playing.
The amount of your Game Bankroll serves as one Loss Limit. You will never risk
more money at a table at one session than the amount of your buy in. If you buy
in for $300, then this is the largest amount you could possibly lose.
However, you will want to refine your Loss Limit even more than this. Any time
you dont have the chips to make a wager, then the game is over. If you have $85
in chips and are called upon to make a $90 wager when Split Betting, you will
quit. You wont wager $85 and call it close enough. You will pick up your
chips and walk away.
What You Will Do When a 12 is Rolled on a Come Out Roll.

Most casinos bar the 12 as a winning number for a Dont Pass wager on Come Out
rolls, even though a 12 rolled on a Come Out roll causes a loss for a Pass Line bet.
As discussed earlier, this is done so that the casino can maintain an edge over the
Dont Pass wager, which would have an edge over the house if the 12 were not
barred. In Northern Nevada, as well as in some Native American casinos, the 2 is
barred instead of the 12. This has the same effect as barring the 12.
The different effect of Come Out 12s on Pass Line and Dont Pass wagers can
cause some confusion as to how the 80-20 System is applied. Here is how you
will handle a Come Out 12 (or 2 when applicable):
If you are wagering Pass Line, treat the loss of the Pass Line wager as a Dont
Pass win even though the Dont Pass wager doesnt win or lose. If you lose your
Pass Line wager to a Come Out 12, you will increase your next wager one level,
per the normal betting rules.
If you are wagering Dont Pass when a 12 is rolled, you will record the wager as a
Dont Pass win even though you will not be paid on the bet. You will repeat the
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same level wager on the next roll on the spot determined by the Pattern Method
of Bet Selection.
Take a Break After a Win or Loss.

Win or lose, you need to take a break from play after a game is finished. This is a
good time to pick up your chips, walk away from the table and update your record
keeping.
While you are away from the table, take a walk and stretch your legs. If the casino
is smoky, you should go outdoors for a while and give your lungs a break.
Be Sure to Track the Decisions at the Table.

When you are playing online you can record the decisions as they occur by writing
them down. You can also write them down while playing craps, but most players
would prefer not to do this because it calls too much attention to the fact that they
are playing using a system. I have found that chips work very well for tracking
the table. Heres how I do it.
I use chips to represent decisions. I use $1-chips to represent Pass Line Decisions
and $5-chips to represent Dont Pass decisions. When you buy in, ask for five $1chips and one $5-chip if the dealer doesnt give them to you. After you convert
your cash to chips, place all of your chips in the tray closest to you. This tray is
for your playing chips. As decisions occur, place chips tracking decisions in the
far tray to represent each decision.
Assume that there is a Come Out roll in process when you first start. The shooter
rolls a craps number, a win for the Dont Pass. Take one of your $5-chips and
place it in the far tray to represent the Dont Pass decision. Since you will begin a
craps game betting the Same as the previous decision, you may wager on Dont
Pass.
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Use chips to track your bets.

You can also use chips to track the size of your wagers so that you never
experience the aggravation of not remembering your previous wager and therefore
being clueless as to your next wager.
When you make a wager, place the next smaller and next higher wagers in the
closest tray containing your Playing chips. If your wager wins, then your next
wager will be the smaller bet. If your wager loses, your next bet will be the larger
wager.
Lets assume you are using the $5 betting series consisting of the bets: 5 8 13 20
30.
Your current wager is $8. Place a $5 chip on the left side, representing your next
lower wager and $13 in chips on the right side, representing your next higher
wager. If you lose the $8 wager, just place the $13 in chips on the craps layout as
your new wager. Be sure to consult your tracking chips to see where you will
place the bet (Pass Line or Dont Pass).
If you use this method to track your bets, you will still have to remember when
you win two bets in a row or two out of three wagers, in which case you will drop
your next wager down by two betting levels.
Watch the Dealers, Especially When You Have a Dont Pass Wager.
Using the 80-20 System, you will be frequently switching from wagering on
Pass Line to Dont Pass. Your Pass Line wagers shouldnt be any problem, but
you may have a problem getting paid on your winning Dont Pass wagers.
Heres a situation that has happened to me twice playing at an Indian Casino. I
had wagers on the Dont Pass when the shooter sevened out. This is a win for a
Dont Pass wager. Each time either the dealer on stick or the standing dealer
nearest me swept all Pass and Dont Pass wagers in as losing bets. Each time I
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had to ask the boxman to make a decision as the standing dealer couldnt
remember that I had had a Dont Pass wager. Each time the boxman acted like he
was doing me a huge favor to pay off my legitimate winning bet.
Now that I have vented, let me offer a suggestion. Whenever you switch from
betting Pass Line to Dont Pass, make sure that the dealer sees your wager. Tell
the dealer, I have x amount on the Dont Pass, and make sure he or she
acknowledges you.
Dont Make Side Bets or Hedge Bets.

Assume you dropped $60 in chips as a wager on the Pass Line on a Come Out roll.
You may be tempted to toss $5 to the stickman for an Any Craps wager. Since
this wager wins when a craps is rolled, winning this wager would partially
compensate your loss on the Pass Line. My advice? Forego the Any Craps bet.
Also avoid Horn bets, Whirl or World bets, bets on Big Red, Hardways and oneroll hopping bets.
Dont make Field Bets, Come Bets, Dont Come bets or Place bets. Dont make
Lay bets and never take or lay odds.
Even though you will forgo some of the excitement the gunslingers beside you at
the table are having, the odds are you will win money while they end up losing.
If you are not an experienced craps player and have no idea what these bets I have
mentioned are, then you undoubtedly have an edge over the more experienced
players and very likely will out win them.
Recording a Game at Craps

Using the 80-20 System at craps will give you over a 90% win rate. Just so you
are clear on using this strategy, I am presenting a recent craps game I played
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online for your reference. In this game I won $75 using the $5 Betting Series,
consisting of: 5 10 20 40 50 75 100.
Here is what my game record looked like when I finished playing:
Craps Game Played
Betting Series used:
Level
Bets
1
5
2
8
3
13
4
20
5
30
Craps Game Played Online in Recording Format

Dec
Pat
Bet On
Bet
W/L
Sp Bet
Obj
Cum
Win
P D
S
P
5
L
Dec
Pat
Bet On
Bet
W/L
Sp Bet
Obj
Cum
Win
P
S
P
8
W
P
S
P
5
W
P
S
P
5
W
P
S
P
5
W
39
44
49
5
4
-5
D
O
P
8
L
D
S
D
13
W
P
S
D
8
L
D
O
D
13
W
D
O
P
5
L
D
S
D
8
W
D
S
D
5
W
D
S
D
5
W
P
S
D
5
L
D
O
D
8
W
P
O
P
5
W
D
O
D
5
W
P
O
P
5
W
P
O
D
5
L
-13
-8
13
18
13
21
26
31
36
31
In this game I won $54 over 19 bets. I played this game online which is much
faster than play in land-based casinos. This game lasted nine minutes, during
which time I not only made all of the wagers, but recorded them as shown above.
You should be able to follow the pattern of my wagers and understand why I
placed each wager on either Pass (P) or Dont Pass (D) and why I wagered each
amount. If you have trouble following my wagers, then you need to review this
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manual more before you attempt to try this strategy.

I recommend that you first try this strategy in an online casino, playing in
practice mode. This will give you a chance to practice and learn the strategy
before you risk any money.
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Playing Baccarat
If you would like to learn a game with a low house edge that is very simple to
play, then look no further than baccarat. The house edge for the two bets you will
consider making (banker and player) are slightly over one percent, beating the
best versions of roulette and craps for even-money bets.
There are two versions of baccarat the big table version and the mini-version.
The rules are essentially the same except that Big Table Baccarat has more
elaborate procedures, higher minimum wagers and is played at a slower pace.
The Mini-Baccarat game is the game you are most likely to find in American
casinos as well as in online casinos. This version of the game is played on a
blackjack sized table. The major difference between this version of the game and
the version played on the big tables is that in mini-baccarat all hands are dealt by
the dealer and the players never touch them. Other than that, the rules are same,
except of course, that the mini version has much lower minimum wagers and you
can usually find tables with $5 minimums in most U.S. casinos. Online, you can
find tables with $1 minimum wagers.
The only decision the player makes in baccarat is whether to wager on Player,
Banker or Tie. After the players make their wagers, a round of play begins and
two 2-card hands are dealt from a shoe that contains eight decks of cards. One 2card hand is dealt for Player and one for Banker. The values of the two cards are
added together with the object of the game to get as close to 9 as possible.
After the values of each hand with two cards is determined, a third card may be
drawn by either the Player, the Banker or both. But this decision is not at the
discretion of the players or the dealer. The rules of the game determine whether
each hand draws a third card.
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The name of baccarat comes from the Italian word for zero, and you will see lots
of hands totaling zero in this game. All 10s and face cards count as zero, while
all other hands from ace through 9 are counted at their face values. So, a hand of
King, 7, has a total of 7; 10, 3, has a total of 3; Queen, 6 has a total of 6; and a
hand of ace, Jack, which would be a great hand in blackjack, only has a total of 1.
Also, there is no busting in Baccarat, as the highest card total is 9. If your cards
total more than 9, you subtract 10 to get the value of the hand. For example, 8,7
totals 15, but you subtract 10 to determine its value of 5. So, 8,3 has a value of 1,
and 9,6 has a value of 5. And, 5, 5 has a value of 0.
Since the object of the game is to have a total as close to 9 as possible, after the
first two cards are dealt, if either the Player or Banker has a total of 9, which is a
natural, then that hand is the winner. If neither hand has a value of 9, then the next
best hand is one totaling 8, which is also called a natural and that hand would be
the winner. If both the Payer and Banker end with the same total, then it is a tie
and neither hand wins.
If neither the Player nor the Banker has an 8 or 9, then the rules of the game
determine whether each hand draws a third card. Once that is done, the values of
the cards are added together to determine which hand wins. If both hands end up
with the same total, then it is a tie and neither hand wins or loses.
Banker and Player bets pay off at even money or $1 for every $1 bet. The casino
edge on a Player wager is 1.36% slightly better than pass line or dont pass at
craps.
Because of the rules used in baccarat, if the Banker bet was paid off 1 to 1, it
would have a slight edge over the house. To retain the casino advantage over the
wager, the casino has to make an adjustment to how the wager is paid.
The house has to treat the Banker bet slightly differently than the Player wager to
swing the house edge back in favor of the house. This is done by charging players
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with winning Banker wagers a 5% commission on their winnings. Thus, if you

win a $10 Banker wager, the dealer will put 50 cents in the commission box for
the player winning the Banker wager. When you leave the table or when the cards
are shuffled, commissions are usually collected.
The Baccarat Online Game
When you play baccarat online, commissions on winning Banker bets are
collected by deducting the amount of the commission from your winnings as they
are paid. Thus, if you win a $10 Banker bet, you will receive $9.50 as your
winnings. After deducting commissions on winning Banker wagers, the house has
an edge of 1.17% on Banker bets.
Ties pay off at 8-to-1, or $8 for every $1 bet. This is a big payoff, but is actually a
lousy wager as the house edge is a very high 14.1%. You should never wager on a
Tie.
The only confusing part of Baccarat is trying to understand the rules concerning
the draw of the third card. However, you dont need to know all of these rules to
play as the dealer makes the decisions for you. All you really have to be
concerned about is whether your wager wins or loses.
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Winning at Baccarat
Australias wealthiest billionaire, Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, played in the
baccarat pit in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He took breaks from baccarat and
played a little blackjack at $250,000 a hand. In less than two hours, he left the
casino with $24 million in winnings, money he made off the baccarat tables.
As a result of Packers success, top executives at MGM Grand were fired by
owner Kirk Kerkorian. Before the firing, one of the executives flew to Australia
to deliver the news to Packer that his action was no longer welcome at the MGM
Grand.
Baccarat is by far the simplest and potentially the most profitable game you can
play in the casino.
There are no decisions for the player to make as the cards are dealt. Unlike
blackjack, the rules of play are automatic and the player does not decide on the
draw of cards. The players only decisions are whether to wager on player or
banker and how much to wager.
Baccarat is very exciting because the action is fast, especially at the speeded up
mini-baccarat version of the game. Because there are no decisions to be made, it
is a perfect game for using a system. And the 80-20 System is a strong
performer at this game.
The casino edge is the smallest of all of the casino games. The house edge is only
a fraction above 1%.
The biggest disadvantage of the game is that it is hard to find in smaller casinos.
Most Indian casinos dont offer even mini-baccarat, much less the full sized
version of the game.
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However, with online casinos, it is a different story. Baccarat games are found in
nearly every online casino; therefore it is an excellent game to play online.
One big advantage to playing baccarat is that there is no single event that will
cause both player and banker hands to lose. On ties, neither player nor banker
hands lose. With roulette, the threat of zeros causing all other wagers to lose is
always present. And with craps, we have the single situation of a 12 showing on a
Come Out roll causing a Pass Line wager to lose, but barred as a winning wager
for a Dont Pass wager (casinos using Northern Nevada rules accomplish the same
thing by barring the 2).
With baccarat, you can play either player or banker hands knowing that one of
them is going to win, or at worst, neither win nor lose with tie hands. This is a
huge advantage for a system player and makes The 80-20 System an excellent
choice for playing and winning at baccarat.
Always Start a Game by Betting the Same as the Preceding Decision.

After exchanging cash for chips, your first task in baccarat is to observe two
decisions before beginning play. This is easy to do in land-based casinos where
there are other people at the table and you can watch a couple of decisions before
beginning play. However, most online casinos wont allow you to play out a hand
without a wager. The way to resolve this is to make minimum wagers for the two
decisions you need to observe before starting to use the 80-20 System. This
procedure holds true for playing craps or roulette online as well.
After observing one decision you will begin the game by betting the Same as the
second preceding decision.
Check the Table Minimum Wager Before You Start Playing
I will repeat the same caution I gave you for craps and roulette - Look before you
leap. Check the minimum wagers at a table before you start playing.
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With baccarat played on the full sized table, minimum wagers of $20, $25 or
even $100 are common. With the mini version of the game, you will find many $5
and $10 minimum games in land-based casinos and in online games, $1 minimum
wager games are common.
Practice Playing Before You Risk Real Money.

I recommend that you practice playing before you risk a cent of real money. The
easiest way to practice baccarat or the games of craps or roulette is in an online
casino. As of the date of writing this, you can play any of these games at
Bodog.com in practice mode without having to register or download any
software. The practice version of roulette is a double-zero game, but you can still
learn the system and win at this version of roulette. Just be sure to find a
European roulette game before risking any real money.
Buy In for the Correct Amount Needed to Your Level of Play

I know I am starting to sound like a broken record on this point. However, it has
been my experience that gamblers are notoriously sloppy about anything related to
gambling that requires discipline, such as using the correct bankroll, playing for
target wins, using stop losses to limit losses and keeping good records. All of
these items are essential aspects of winning with the 80-20 System. And, every
aspect of winning is tied to the discipline inherent in successfully managing your
gambling funds.
The starting point of controlling your gambling is to always buy in for the
appropriate amount for your level of play. In practice, this means matching your
Game Bankroll (another name for the amount you buy in with) to your Betting
Level. As you know, each Betting Series has a required Game Bankroll and Total
Bankroll. These amounts are not optional or mere suggestions. To be successful
using the 80-20 System, you must start every game with the correct amount
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needed for your level of play as all other elements of the system are based on
using the correct Game Bankroll.
Set Your Target Win and Loss Limits Before You Start a Game
You should know how much you expect to win or will accept as a loss before you
ever start a baccarat game. Of course, this is fairly easy to do as these amounts are
part of using the 80-20 System.
It all begins with using the correct Game Bankroll. Lets assume that you are a
$10 minimum bettor playing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. You will need at
Game Bankroll of $600 and you will use the following Betting Series:
10 20 40 50 100 150 200
Once you accept these playing parameters, everything else falls in line.
Your Target Win amount is between 20% and 25% of your Game Bankroll.
Simple arithmetic tells you that your Target Win, using a $600 Game Bankroll, is
from $120 to $150.
Lets examine what this means when you play.
Lets assume that you are playing a game of mini baccarat at the MGM Grand and
notice that your winnings just hit $120. You now have several options:
1. You can call the game over and depart the table, winnings intact.
2. You can continue to play and see if you can increase your win.
These are your only choices and the option you chose depends to a large extent on
where you are in the betting series when your winnings first reach or exceed the
minimum Target Win of $120.
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If you have had a longer than normal game and somewhat of a difficult time
winning, you should quit immediately.
If you are at the first or second bet in the betting series and the game has been
short and fairly easy, you will probably continue playing, looking now to hit a
Target Win of $150.
If your next wager is at the third level bet or higher, you should do one of two
things:
1. Quit immediately, recognizing that you are at two high a level in the betting
series to continue playing when you have already hit your Target Profit.
2. Drop your next wager back to the minimum bet in the Betting Series.
Depending upon my mood when I hit the minimum Target Win level, I will
normally lean towards taking the second option. If I am tired, I may opt for
quitting immediately, but if I feel like playing a little longer, I will take the second
option of dropping my wager back down to the first level bet.
Whenever you drop back to the lowest level bet, you are reducing your level of
risk of loss, simply because you would have to lose more wagers before losing the
entire betting series.
In making this move, you are in a sense locking up your profits by reducing
your risk of losing should you continue playing.
This move works equally as well when you are playing craps or roulette, and I
recommend that you incorporate it into your routine.
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Observe Your Loss Limits

Setting Loss Limits is just the other side of the coin of playing for Target Wins.
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Playing Sic Bo
Sic Bo, meaning "dice pair" is an ancient Chinese gambling game. It is very
popular in Macau, and is probably second to only baccarat. In the United States is
often found in the Asian gaming rooms, especially in Atlantic City. The large Las
Vegas properties will usually have one table in the general casino.
The game uses three dice and a table with a variety of betting options on the roll of
those dice. The odds and table layout may also vary from place to place. However,
the payoffs are the same across Atlantic City and Macau, but different from each
other. In Vegas and on the Internet casinos, anything is possible.
One Sic Bo layout.
Following is a list of the bets available. The payoffs vary on some bets, from
casino to casino, so for those bets I indictd a range of viable payoffs.
Small: Wins on total of 4-10, except for a three of a kind. Probability of

winning is 48.61%. Pays 1 to 1. House edge is 2.78%.
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Big: Wins on total of 11-17, except for a three of a kind. Probability of

winning is 48.61%. Pays 1 to 1. House edge is 2.78%.
Total of 4 and 17: Pays 50 to 1 in Macau, 60 to 1 in Atlantic City, and 62
to 1 in Australia.
House Edge for 4 and 17 Bets

Pays
Probability
Return
50
1.39%
29.17%
51
1.39%
27.78%
52
1.39%
26.39%
53
1.39%
25.00%
54
1.39%
23.61%
55
1.39%
22.22%
56
1.39%
20.83%
57
1.39%
19.44%
58
1.39%
18.06%
59
1.39%
16.67%
60
1.39%
15.28%
61
1.39%
13.89%
62
1.39%
12.5%
63
1.39%
11.11%
64
1.39%
9.72%
65
1.39%
8.33%
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to 1 in Australia.
Pays
Probability
Return
18
2.78%
47.22%
19
2.78%
44.44%
20
2.78%
41.67%
21
2.78%
38.89%
22
2.78%
36.11%
23
2.78%
33.33%
24
2.78%
30.56%
25
2.78%
27.78%
26
2.78%
25%
27
2.78%
22.22%
28
2.78%
19.44%
29
2.78%
16.67%
30
2.78%
13.89%
31
2.78%
11.11%
32
2.78%
8.33%

to 1 in Australia.

Pays
Probability
Return
14
4.63%
30.56%
15
4.63%
25.93%
16
4.63%
21.3%
17
4.63%
16.67%
18
4.63%
12.04%
19
4.63%
7.41%
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Total of 7 and 14: Pays 12 to 1 everywhere.

Pays
Probability
Return
10
6.94%
23.61%
11
6.94%
16.67%
12
6.94%
9.72%
Total of 8 and 13: Pays 8 to 1 everywhere.

Pays
Probability
Return
9.72%
22.22%
9.72%
12.50%
Total of 9 and 12: Pays 6 to 1 in Macau and Atlantic City. Pays 7 to 1 in

Australia.

Pays
Probability
Return
11.57%
18.98%
11.57%
7.41%
Total of 10 and 11: Pays 6 to 1 everywhere. House edge of 12.50%.
Two-Number Combination: Bet on any of the 15 possible two dice

combinations (for example a 1 and 2). Bet wins if both numbers appear.
Probability of winning is 13.89%. Pays 5 to 1 in Atlantic City and Macau,
for house edge of 16.67%. Pays 6 to 1 in Australia, for house edge of
2.78%.
Double: Bet on any specific pair (for example two 1's). Player wins if at
least 2 of the number chosen appears. Pays 8 to 1 in Macau, 10 to 1 in
Atlantic City, and 11 to 1 in Australia.
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House Edge for Double Bets

Pays
Probability
Return
7.41%
33.33%
7.41%
25.93%
10
7.41%
18.52%
11
7.41%
11.11%
Triple: Player may bet on any specific trips (for example three 1's).
Player wins if all 3 dice match the number chosen. Pays 150 to 1 in Macau
and 180 to 1 in Atlantic City.
House Edge for Triple Bets

Pays
Probability
Return
150
0.46%
30.09%
155
0.46%
27.78%
160
0.46%
25.46%
165
0.46%
23.15%
170
0.46%
20.83%
175
0.46%
18.52%
180
0.46%
16.2%
185
0.46%
13.89%
190
0.46%
11.57%
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Any Triple: Wins on any three of a kind. Pays 24 to 1 in Macau and 30

to 1 in Atlantic City.
House Edge for Any Triple Bet

Pays
Probability
Return
24
2.78%
30.56%
25
2.78%
27.78%
26
2.78%
25.00%
27
2.78%
22.22%
28
2.78%
19.44%
29
2.78%
16.67%
30
2.78%
13.89%
31
2.78%
11.11%
32
2.78%
8.33%
Any One Number: Bet on any specific number from 1 to 6. If chosen

number appears 1 time bet pays 1 to 1, if it appears 2 times bet pays 2 to 1,
and if it appears 3 times it pays 3 to 1 (in Atlantic City and Macau).
Probability of 1 match is 34.72%, 2 matches is 6.94%, 3 matches is 0.46%.
House edge of 7.87% (in Atlantic City and Macau). In Australia three
matches pays 12 to 1, for a house edge of 3.70%.
Odd: Wins on any odd total, except loses with any three of a kind. This bet
I have only seen in Macau, never in the United States. Probability of
winning is 48.61% and house edge is 2.78%.
Even: Wins on any even total, except loses with any three of a kind. This
bet I have only seen in Macau, never in the United States. Probability of
winning is 48.61% and house edge is 2.78%.
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Following are tables summarizing each bet under the Atlantic City and Macau
rules.
Sic Bo Atlantic City Rules
Bet
Winning
Combinations
Pays
Small, Big
Probability
Return
105
0.486111
-0.027778
4, 17
60
0.013889
-0.152778
5, 16
30
0.027778
-0.138889
6, 15
17
10
0.046296
-0.166667
7, 14
12
15
0.069444
-0.097222
8, 13
21
0.097222
-0.125
9, 12
25
0.115741
-0.189815
10, 11
27
0.125000
-0.125000
Triple
180
0.004630
-0.162037
Any triple
30
0.027778
-0.138889
Double
10
16
0.074074
-0.185185
30
0.138889
-0.166667
1,2,3
75,15,1
0.421296
-0.078704
Two die combination

Any number
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Following is a table summarizing each bet under the Macau rules.
Sic Bo Macau Rules

Bet
Winning
Combinations
Pays
Probability
Return
Small, Big
105
0.486111
-0.027778
Odd, Even
105
0.486111
-0.027778
4, 17
50
0.013889
-0.291667
5, 16
18
0.027778
-0.472222
6, 15
14
10
0.046296
-0.305556
7, 14
12
15
0.069444
-0.097222
8, 13
21
0.097222
-0.125000
9, 12
25
0.115741
-0.189815
10, 11
27
0.125000
-0.125
Triple
150
0.004630
-0.300926
24
0.027778
-0.305556
Double
16
0.074074
-0.333333
Two die combination
30
0.138889
-0.166667
1,2,3
75,15,1
0.421296
-0.078704
Any triple
Any number
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Following is a table summarizing each bet under the Australian rules.
Sic Bo Australia Rules

Bet
Winning
Combinations
Pays
Small, Big
Probability
Return
105
0.486111
-0.027778
4, 17
62
0.013889
-0.125000
5, 16
31
0.027778
-0.111111
6, 15
18
10
0.046296
-0.120370
7, 14
12
15
0.069444
-0.097222
8, 13
21
0.097222
-0.125000
9, 12
25
0.115741
-0.074074
10, 11
27
0.125000
-0.125000
Triple
180
0.004630
-0.162037
Any triple
31
0.027778
-0.111111
Double
11
16
0.074074
-0.111111
30
0.138889
-0.027778
1,2,12
75,15,1
0.421296
-0.037037
Two die combination

Any number
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Sic Bo House Edge Comparison

Bet
Small, Big
Macau
Atlantic City
Australia
2.78%
2.78%
2.78%
4, 17
29.17%
15.28%
12.50%
5, 16
47.22%
13.89%
11.11%
6, 15
30.56%
16.67%
12.04%
7, 14
9.72%
9.72%
9.72%
8, 13
12.50%
12.50%
12.5%
9, 12
18.98%
18.98%
7.41%
10, 11
12.5%
12.50%
12.50%
Triple
30.09%
16.20%
16.20%
Any triple
30.56%
13.89%
11.11%
Double
33.33%
18.52%
11.11%
Two die combination
16.67%
16.67%
2.78%
7.87%
7.87%
3.7%
Any number
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Winning at Sic Bo
Sic Bo is not very popular in the US. Our play at this game confirms that it comes
in dead last in winnings among the casino table games tested. We recommend that
you play this game only if there are no other suitable games available.
Check the Table Minimum Wagers Before You Start Playing

Sic Bo games are offered with minimum bets from as low as 25 cents to as high as
$100. You dont want to feel foolish and try to make a $5 wager at a table with
$10 or $25 minimum wagers.
Buy In for the Amount Needed for Your Level of Play.

I am sure you are aware that using the 80-20 System entails matching your
bankroll to your level of play. Whenever you exchange your cash for chips, you
must buy enough chips to correctly play at the level of your proposed Betting
Series.
If you are using a $1 based betting series, then $60 is all you need for your game
bankroll.
As a bettor using the $5 based betting series, you will need to buy in for $300.
Ten-dollar base bets require that you exchange $600 in cash for chips, while $25
bettors need to convert $1,500 cash to chips before beginning play.
There are no shortcuts allowed here. To correctly play, using the 80-20 System ,
you must have the correct bankroll.
Know How Much You Expect to Win Before You Start Playing
Gambling, using the approach advocated by the 80-20 System, allows you to
fine tune your play to the point of knowing, within a few dollars, how much you
can expect to make in a winning game.
I have given you the formula one sixth of the Game Bankroll is the Targeted
Amount of Winnings. So, if you are a $1 bettor, using a game bankroll of $60,
you know that you are looking for a win of $10..
I suggest that you actually write down your Target Win before you start a Sic Bo
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game. You can write it on the paper you will use for record keeping as you play.
The reason I am suggesting that you do this is not that you are likely to forget the
dollar amount of your win, rather it is to increase the sense of commitment you
will have to sticking with this amount.
Once you write down the amount you expect to win, and do it before you start
playing, it is harder to play the kinds of mind games so many players engage in
which entail changing the target to fit the circumstances. Rather than playing Sic
Bo like a gunslinger, hoping for another kill, I want you to play more like a
cautious banker, willing to accept your percentage, and knowing that as a
percentage player you will not only live longer than the gunslinger, but that you
are likely to make a whole lot more money.
Know Your Loss Limit as Well as Your Target Profit.
While thinking about how much you will win is a lot more pleasant than
considering a possible loss, losing about one game in ten is a known attribute of
using the 80-20 System.
Since you never know in advance when this one in ten event is going to happen,
the best way to play is to always know before you start a game just how much you
are willing to lose in a losing game.
Over my years of gambling, I have observed that a most common sight is
watching my fellow players reach into their pockets and lay more cash on the table
as they play. They may have started by converting just $100 into chips, but by the
time they repeat this process several times, their losses for a single game can grow
quite large.
So here is your first rule about losses. You will never lose more in any single
game than the amount you first convert to chips. And, this amount will always be
equal to the Game Bankroll needed for your level of play.
As a $5 bettor, you will always convert $300 into chips. Three hundreds dollars
becomes by default the maximum amount you can lose.
But, you may end up losing less than your game bankroll and still have a losing
game. Anytime you dont have enough chips to make a wager called for in the
betting series you will have a losing game. Lets say your chips are down to $95
and you are called on to make a $100 wager. What do you do? Which would you
pick?
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Wager $95, since this is all you have.

Convert another $20 in cash to chips so that you have enough to make the bet.
Call the game over and accept a loss of less than the full amount of your game
bankroll.
I hope you chose answer c accept a smaller loss. Here is your other rule for
determining when you have a losing game
If you dont have enough to make a wager, then the game is over. Count up your
chips, and if you are playing with the special chips given to Sic Bo players, be sure
to give the dealer your chips and let her convert them to casino chips before
leaving the table..
Take a Break Whenever a Game is Completed.

Whenever you finish a game, either because you hit your target win amount and
called the game over, or lost most of your chips and had to quit, you need to
remove yourself from play for a short time period.
If you are in a casino, you should take a break from the table and at least walk
around to clear your head and get a little exercise.
If you are playing online where games last no more than six to ten minutes, it may
seem a little silly to get up and walk around every time a game is completed. Here
you will at least log off the casino where you are playing and perform some other
task like checking your email before resuming play.
I have found that while taking a break after a win may help me relax, that taking a
break after a loss is critical. Losing a game is never pleasant and all kinds of
unhappy thoughts may pop into your head if you just keep playing. You may
decide to double up your bets and try to win your loss back. Or you may decide to
change the way you play and go out on your own. That is why it is especially
important that you take a break after a losing game. Usually even ten minutes
away from the table is enough to improve your attitude and allow you to continue
playing without engaging in self-destructive behavior.
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Track Your Decisions as You Play

You will need to record your decisions as you play Sic Bo. The easiest way to do
this is to record them in the format I have suggested. You will record the results
of each spin as it occurs, as well as information on how much you wagered, where
you wagered and the outcome of each spin.
If you prefer to use chips for tracking, you can set up a system similar to the one I
described for craps. However, since there are no rails for organizing your chips at
Sic Bo like there are for craps, it is not as easy to use chips for tracking at Sic Bo
as it is at craps.
Since many Sic Bo players use systems, you will find that there is very little
stigma to writing information down as you play Sic Bo. The dealer will not likely
comment on note taking although a fellow player may be curious. My
recommendation is that you never discuss this system when you are playing. If a
player persists in questioning you just answer that you like to wager on patterns in
Sic Bo and let it go at that. Chances are they wont have a clue what you are
talking about and not wanting to appear ignorant they will not ask any more
questions.
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Betting, Bankroll and Win Rates

You can use the 80-20 System for all levels of play. If you choose to play
online, you will find plenty of games allowing $1 minimum wagers and you very
well may wish to start using the $1 betting series. For this betting level, you only
need a Game Bankroll of $60 and a total bankroll of $180.
This is the ideal level for someone who has little money or gambling experience.
Most online casinos allow play in practice mode so that you can try out the
Gambling Formula without risking a cent of your money.
The betting series using $1, $2, $3 and $5 will commonly be used for online play.
You may have a problem using the higher level betting series online as many
online casinos limit the upper level of bets allowed.
With play in land-based casinos, you probably wont use a betting series smaller
than $5 and in some venues, you may have to use a $10 betting series.
A word of caution: Always make sure that you have the required bankroll before
playing with a higher level betting series. If you use the $10 Betting Series, you
will need at least $600 as your Game Bankroll and a Total Bankroll of at least
$1,800.
The table following summarizes different betting series as well as bankroll
requirements.
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Bet Limits and Target Profits
Base Bet
$1
$2
$3
$5
$10
$15
$25
$35
$50
$75
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
Game
Bankroll
$60
$120
$180
$300
$600
$900
$1500
$2100
$3000
$4500
$6000
$12,000
$18,000
$24,000
$30,000
Target
Bet Limit Profit
$18
$10
$36
$20
$54
$30
$90
$50
$180
$100
$270
$150
$450
$250
$630
$350
$900
$500
$1350
$750
$1800
$1000
$3600
$2000
$5400
$3000
$7200
$4000
$9000
$5000
Total
Bankroll
$180
$360
$540
$900
$1800
$2700
$4500
$6300
$9000
$13,500
$18,000
$36,000
$54,000
$72,000
$90,000
The previous table shows the correct amounts needed to play at each level of
betting. For example, if you are playing in a game allowing $1 minimum wagers,
you can use the betting series for $1 bets, which is 1 2 3 5 6.
In order to use this Betting Series correctly, you will need a Game Bankroll of $60
and a total bankroll of $180. If you decide to play online, you may be able to get
started with even less money than this.
Many online casinos give bonuses from $10 to $50 just for signing up and making
a minimum deposit. If you sign up with a casino offering a $50 sign-up bonus,
you may be able to get started playing for as little as $10 (your Game Bankroll
would consist of your $10 deposit and the casinos $50 sign-up bonus).
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How Much Can You Make Using the 80-20 System?

The win rate using the 80-20 System is very robust. The three major factors
controlling how fast you can win money are:
Which game you play
The speed of the game and
The size of your bets.
We have played 8,507 games of craps, roulette, Sic Bo, baccarat and mini-baccarat
where we kept records of our play. As I have previously shared with you, minibaccarat is the fastest game with roulette and Sic Bo coming in second and craps
taking the longest to complete a game.
With online play, the differences in speed of the games becomes less critical as all
online games are much faster than games played in brick and mortar casinos.
Below is a summary of the results of testing this strategy in both land-based and
online games. All of the roulette games were on single-zero wheels without the en
prison rule. To facilitate comparability, all results have been adjusted to the
equivalent of using $5 Base Bets like the examples used throughout this book.
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Comparison of 80-20 System Play

Game
Bets Made
Games Played
Games Won
Games Lost
Total Won
Game Win Rate
Average Net Amount Won Per
Game
Total Number of Bets
Average Bets per Game
Average Winnings per Bet
Craps
Pass Line- Dont
Pass
2311
2222
89
$83,474
96.15%
$36.12
Roulette
Red-Black
Baccarat
Player-Banker
Sic Bo
Big-Small
2457
2340
117
$83,661
95.24%
$34.05
2736
2622
114
$107,333
95.83%
$39.23
1003
885
118
$12,094
88.82%
$12.06
54,562
23.61
$1.53
66,904
27.23
$1.25
95,148
34.78
$1.11
25,075
25.10
$0.482
We only made even-money bets in each of these games as shown in the table. We
played a total of 8,507 games. The length of a game was determined as follows:
1. A game was considered won once we had hit or surpassed the Target Win
of $50.
2. A game was considered to be lost whenever we lost the amount of the
Game Bankroll or did not have enough bankroll left to make the next bet
called for in the strategy.
We computed the percentage of games won for each strategy. Here, craps was the
winner with 96.15% of the games won, while Sic Bo was the loser with a win rate
of 88.82%.
The win rate for Sic Bo was far lower than we expected and we suspect that the
bet selection method could be further optimized to perform better for Sic Bo.
We also computed the average amount won per game, which is net of both
winning and losing games. Baccarat was the leader here with average winnings of
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$39.23 per game followed by craps with $36.12 won per game, roulette, with an
average win of $34.05 and Sic Bo in the cellar with an average win of only
$12.06 per game.
We computed the average winnings per bet and here craps was the clear winner
with average winnings of $1.53 per bet. Roulette pulled in an average win of
$1.25 per bet, followed by baccarat with $1.11 and last Sic Bo with just $0.48 per
bet.
If we stopped right here we might pick craps as the highest profit strategy since it
has the highest win rate and the highest average winnings per bet.
However, before we could pick the best game in terms of profitability we decided
to compare the hourly win rates for each game played in both land-based and
online casinos.
The following table shows the winnings per hour for each game in land-based and
online games.
Comparison of Winnings Per Hour for $5 Betting

Game
Average Number of Bets per
Hour
Land-based Games Bets per
Hour
Online Games Bets per Hour
Average Amount Won per Bet
Craps
Roulette
Baccarat
Sic Bo
40
60
80
40
250
$1.53
300
$1.25
300
$1.11
250
$0.482
$61.20
$382.50
$75.00
$375.00
$88.80
$333.00
$19.28
$120.50
Win Rates Per Hour

Land-based Games
Online Games
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Craps and Sic Bo are the slowest games online while Baccarat is the fastest
online game. If you were playing in a land-based casino and only concerned with
winnings per hour, you would pick baccarat as your favorite game and roulette as
your second favorite.
Craps is hampered because of its slower speed. With craps, bets on pass line or
dont pass do not win or lose on every roll of the dice. Hence, many of the craps
rolls do not produce wins or losses for bets in these spots. Coupled with the
number of possible players and the time it takes dealers to pay off many bets,
craps is the slowest land-based game and number three in the average hourly win
rate.
With online play, the order changes. Here a single player can play craps very fast
and easily play 250 pass line-dont pass decisions per hour. With the higher rate
of play, the profitability of playing craps shines and it becomes the game of choice
with an hourly win rate of $382.50 an hour.
Online roulette is not much behind craps with an hourly win rate of $375 an hour.
Baccarat is in third place online and Sic Bo is in last place.
Summary of Profitability of Play
For casual play it is close to a toss up between using the 80-20 System for craps,
roulette or baccarat. Sic Bo lags so far behind the other games that it should be
avoided.
If you are playing professionally, you will prefer playing mini-baccarat in landbased casinos and craps or roulette in online casinos.
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Skilful Play
There are a number of decisions you need to make to become a successful 80-20
System player. For example, you must decide where to play and whether you will
tip or not.
You will also need to make decisions on setting up and using a casino credit line as
well as having your play rated. How you handle these situations can have a great
bearing on your long-term success as a winning gambler.
Picking where you play

Your first choice in deciding to become a roulette winner is deciding where to play.
I rate casinos on several different aspects. My first concern is whether the casino
offers games that I find playable.
Every casino sets minimum and maximum bets for its table games. Typical
minimum and maximum bets for roulette games offered by small casinos might be
$5 minimum bets and $500 maximum bets. These limits will be acceptable for 90%
of the players using the Optimzer. But a few players may require higher betting
limits.
A more typical problem faces players in casinos which set minimum bets too high.
Some East Coast casinos set their minimum roulette bets at $10.
Many casinos will change their minimum wagers depending on the time of day and
day of the week. Minimum bets are raised in the evenings and on weekends. If you
are an Atlantic City player looking for tables with lower minimum bets, you will
find more roulette tables with lower minimums if you play during the week instead
of on weekends.
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Besides table limits, I also consider the atmosphere of a casino. I absolutely refuse
to play in casinos with rude dealers. I can tolerate slow dealers, dealers still in
training and dealers who don't talk much. But I refuse to put up with dealers who
make sarcastic remarks to other players or criticize my play. Life is too short.
Change tables or, if necessary, change casinos.
Fortunately, casino employees are reasonable people and problematic dealers are
not seen too often.
Some casinos have other annoying quirks. Can you tolerate a lot of smoke? Some
casinos have poor ventilation systems so that a dull cloud of smoke seems to
permeate the casino area. If this bothers you, don't play there.
Other casinos are dirty or have crowded, uncomfortable playing conditions. For
several years there was a casino less than ten minutes from my house where I
absolutely refused to play because the place resembled a dump (it has been updated
and is now acceptable).
These are choices you must make. If you play in Las Vegas, you have just about
every choice you can imagine available. If you want to play in a real players' joint,
try Binion's Horseshoe downtown. Would you like some real elegance? You'll like
the Venetian or Bellagio's.
One thing I don't do is discuss my system while I play. Some dealers will comment
on it; most don't. You may get questions from other players. If you decide to
discuss your system, keep it simple. You might state that you like to raise bets when
you are winning, but sometimes you raise them after a loss as well.
If you start talking about the system, you will undoubtedly lose your concentration.
In addition, it is almost a given that if you are trying to demonstrate the system to
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someone, you are going to have a loss. Call it bad luck or bad karma, but you can
believe that discussing the system while you are playing is not a good idea.
Tipping
If you don't like to tip, most international play will suit you fine. Most casinos in
Asia, Europe and Commonwealth countries like England, Australia and New
Zealand forbid tipping the dealers.
In the U.S., you really have no choice but to tip. Many players refuse to tip, arguing
that tips come right off their bottom line. I can't argue with the logic, but I will
question the results of a no-tipping policy.
I personally have a great deal of respect for most casino personnel and especially
dealers. I enjoy tipping them in exchange for good service, and once it is
established that I am a "George" (slang for a good tipper), the level of service
increases appreciably.
When I tip, I never just give the dealer the tip. I only tip by making bets for the
dealer.
I tip by making a bet for the dealers if I have been winning. If I continue to win I
will make another bet for the dealer about every twenty to thirty hands of play.
Act like a gambler

Play like a loser. If you are in a prolonged winning streak, don't rub it in the
casino's face by continuing to play at the same table. If you do, make sure that you
consistently make the kinds of moves which will throw the pit off. But your best
ploy is not to overstay your welcome, especially if you are winning a bundle.
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If you have a nice win and a floor person comments on it, you can casually
mention that you dropped a bundle at craps last night and you are still not close to
even. But don't do this if you never play craps. Make your story plausible.
Hide Chips
As a winning player, you will want to look for ways to disguise the amount you are
winning. The easiest way to do this is to pocket chips.
This is harder to accomplish if you are playing alone, and is easiest to accomplish if
you have a playing partner.
How to Survive and Prosper as a Professional Gambler, published by Silverthorne
Publications, has some excellent suggestions on chip hiding routines. With a female
accomplice, it is easy to slip chips to her and let her hide them in her purse.
Sometimes my wife carries a shopping bag with her which is a great place to stash
chips and offers additional cover to help us look like a pair of happy, typical
tourists.
If you are a black chip player, you are better off hiding green chips, as the bosses are
more concerned with watching your stack of black chips. If you commonly wager
$500 or more, then you can get away with hiding $100 chips, but don't try to stash
the $500 chips as the bosses may catch on.
Play for Cash or on Credit?

There are many advantages to establishing credit with several casinos. Once you
have established credit, it is there any time you want to use it. You don't have to
carry cash, arrange for wire transfers or try to talk casinos into cashing checks. You
generally will not be able to even cash a cashier's check in a casino until it has been
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verified. If you show up on a Saturday hoping to cash a cashier's check, you will
be out of luck until your bank reopens on Monday and can verify the check.
Another advantage to establishing credit is that when you use casino credit, you get
to sign markers at the table. You will look like a gambler, since most gamblers who
play with black chips have casino credit lines.
I'll let you in on a dirty secret. Casinos are not in the business of loaning money to
gamblers, at least not now. If you have a bad gambling habit and a weak bank
account, your local friendly loan shark is more likely to accommodate you than your
not-so-friendly casino.
When you establish a credit line, the casino is agreeing to advance you no more than
the average balance in your checking account for the last six months.
Your creditworthiness has nothing to do with getting casino credit. These guys
don't care whether you are employed, just filed for bankruptcy or are dodging your
other creditors. Casino credit is based on how much bread you keep in your
checking account.
Do you feel a little better about the high rollers signing the markers? They are
signing magnetically coded checks which can be run through their checking
accounts. Normally markers are not handled this way as the casino prefers to be
paid by check, but if necessary, the casino markers can and will be deposited by the
casino and will be presented for payment at your bank just like any other check you
have written.
If you are a black chip player, casino credit is almost mandatory unless you want to
carry a large amount of cash with you, which I don't recommend. If you know
where you will be playing, you can arrange to have cash deposited with the casino
cashier and sign markers against your own front money on deposit with the casino.
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Rated Players
Once you start playing with green or black chips, you are going to be asked by a
floor person if you want to be rated. Many novice gamblers resent the intrusion of a
floor person and answer evasively or even negatively. This is a big mistake. By
rating your play, the casino is evaluating your ability to receive comps or freebies
from the casino. Comps can really add to your bottom line and can be very
profitable once you learn to play the comp game. Another reason to become rated is
that being rated and receiving comps from the casino is what gamblers normally do.
And you want to look like just another gambler.
Even if you are a low to mid-range player and want to get full RFB, which stands
for Room, Food and Beverages comped, there are many casinos which will
accommodate you.
Using casino comps, you can travel just about anywhere and get full VIP treatment.
Many casinos will even pay your airfare. But you have to know how to work the
system to maximize these benefits. I suggest that you learn how to get the
maximum amount of comps and let a casino pay for all of your gambling
excursions.
As an 80-20 System player, you are in the perfect position to get and benefit from
comps. No matter what your level of play, you can increase your enjoyment and
profits by availing yourself of casino comps.
Learn to play another casino game
I highly recommend that you learn to play at least one other table game besides
roulette. My number one choice of the game to learn is craps.
Craps is still a favorite game of many high rollers. Just by making pass line bets
with double odds you can play almost even with the house. If you add a winning
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strategy on top of learning craps, such as the unique betting system revealed in the
Power Craps Strategy, then you are on the way to having a second casino game
you can beat.
Craps, using the Power Craps Strategy, is an excellent game for using hit and run
tactics. If you have been playing roulette and are tired of concentrating on your
wagers, craps may give you just the break you need. This can't hurt your reputation
with the casino. Because many high rollers now favor craps, you will enhance your
appearance as a high roller when you add this game to your repertoire. By mixing a
little craps play in with your roulette play, you will look more and more like another
gambler to the casino bosses.
You may be surprised how well you do at craps. On a typical casino visit, I usually
make almost as much money playing craps as I do playing roulette. Silverthorne
Publications is the premier publisher for winning craps systems. You can check out
the Power Craps Strategy at www.silverthornepublications.com/PowerCraps
And so, you are almost ready to start beating the casinos, but . . .
You are almost ready to take on the casinos. I have presented a complete strategy
which has been proven to win against casino roulette. Perhaps you have been
practicing the Optimzer. You have figured out how to put together your bankroll.
However, the greatest battle still awaits you. The casinos have even more powerful
weapons at their disposal than the house edge. They are masters at a whole number
of psychological traps set to ensnare you, with the end goal of relieving you of as
much of your money as they can in the shortest and most pleasant way possible.
Let's take at look at the casino's battery of weapons and see what you can do about
them.
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Discipline and Control

At this point, you should have a good understanding about how to use the 80-20
System to win money at roulette. You should know when to bet, how much to
wager, and when to quit. You know about how your bankroll determines the size of
your wagers and about using Game Bankrolls. You should have some definite
ideas about how you want to interact with casino personnel. You have learned some
ways to improve playing conditions by interacting with and tipping the dealer. You
also have been introduced to the idea of playing on casino credit and playing for
comps.
Now you have to deal with the largest obstacle to your success. The greatest single
threat to your success is not the casino personnel. It is not a bad run at the tables. It
is not the risk of consecutive losses eating up your bankroll. It is not the wine, the
women, and the atmosphere. The greatest single threat to your playing career will be
you. Surprised? Read on.
Self Control
Ultimately, success at casino gambling, business, romance or life, for that matter,
largely depends on self-control. Winning at gambling is all about self-control. It is
about controlling the amount of money used for gambling. It's about reducing
losses. It's about limiting the amount of money used for any session of play. And
ultimately, it's about walking out the door a winner.
Gamblers are a lot like fishermen. They like to talk about the one that got away.
How many times have you been in a casino winning and ended up leaving a net
loser? In the real world, the only wins that count are the ones you go home with.
Actually, it is no great feat to get ahead playing roulette. Probably over 75% of all
roulette players are ahead sometime in their play. But do they walk out the door
winners? No. Probably close to 95% of all roulette players end up losing money.
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The typical casino hold is about 25% for a roulette table. Hold is a term referring
to the amount the casino keeps as its win out of the money dropped at the table
e.g. the drop. If you buy in for a hundred dollars, and play for thirty minutes and
leave with $85, you have lost $15 out of $100. Your contribution to the drop was
$100 and your loss gave the casino a hold rate of 15%.
Winning at gambling is first about controlling yourself. It is about accepting
responsibilities for your own actions. In the long run, you don't win because you
were lucky, and you don't lose because you had a string of bad luck. Using the 8020 System will help you create your own luck. Used properly, you will be able to
play at an advantage over the casino and be a net winner.
If you think about the times you were ahead in a casino and ended up giving it all
back plus whatever additional cash you scrounged, who is to blame? The casino?
The game? The house edge?
Don't get angry with me for pointing this out. What is wrong with setting aside your
winnings when you are ahead? And what is wrong with limiting your losses when
you hit a losing streak? And what is wrong with leaving a losing table?
I hope you answered "nothing." Doing these things requires self-control. They are
easy to think about doing but may be much harder to actually accomplish. I am a
former smoker. I always thought I could quit smoking when I wanted to. But I
failed to quit a number of times. When I finally quit, I realized how difficult the
process really was. It was easy to think about quitting smoking but doing it was
quite challenging. Now that I have quit, I am out of the woods, right? Well, not
quite. I believe that smoking is much like a drug addiction, and as a former addict, I
am never cured. I am only one cigarette away from becoming a smoker again.
Control in a casino may require much the same discipline as that of a reformed
smoker. Having a large monetary loss only requires a temporary loss of control.
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Trust me, winning is habit forming. Losing, especially at a game like roulette
when you know you are using a winning strategy, is tough. Some professional
gamblers, especially traditional blackjack card counters, will lose for months at a
time. I am not sure that I could continue to play blackjack under those
circumstances. The documented losing streaks for the 80-20 System end to be
fairly short. If you play roulette regularly using this strategy, it is highly unlikely
that you will ever encounter two back-to-back losing casino visits. But it can
happen.
Once you are in a losing streak, you will be hard pressed to continue with your set
game plan. You will begin to question everything about the strategy. You may feel
like the dealer has it in for you. You will start to think that no matter how you
wager, your bets will lose. When your larger bets lose, you will begin to question
the betting strategy.
Trends are a dominant factor in gambling. Every roulette or baccarat table has
streaks. If you are in a winning streak, you may begin to feel omnipotent.
However, when a losing streak hits, you may start to question every aspect of your
playing strategy.
Perhaps the best thing you can do whenever you encounter losing tables is to first
change tables. Your next option is to quit playing roulette for a time. Depending
on your feelings, you should either quit gambling altogether during your break, or if
you are still in the mood to play, switch casino games. I have found on many
occasions that a switch of games was exactly what I needed to improve my mood.
Many players seem to become chained to a particular table at some point in their
play. This may be fine when the table is winning, but could spell disaster during a
prolonged losing spell.
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While losing is tough, winning may be even tougher for some people. Many
players subconsciously feel that gambling winnings are "ill begotten gains." Many
times people raised with a strong work ethic cannot adjust to the reality that winning
at gambling requires a great deal of effort too. Gambling winnings may not seem
real or may even seem shameful. Many people feel guilty when they win. For these
people, walking out with some of the casino's money doesn't feel right.
Gamblers never cease to amaze me. Gambling falls into some special category of
human behavior that escapes the normal rules we usually live by. People change
their behavior dramatically in casinos. Consummate misers can't wait to throw their
money away in casinos. People who clip coupons every week to save ten bucks on
groceries think nothing of dropping a hundred, five hundred or even a thousand in a
casino.
Discipline is all about the ability to develop a winning plan. Control is about being
able to follow it.
Ego Needs
We all share a need for recognition. We like to talk about our triumphs. Once you
become a successful, consistent winner at roulette, you are going to feel the need to
talk about it occasionally.
You need to curb the urge to discuss the fact that you are a winner, especially while
you are in a casino. If you have a big win at the craps table, feel free to comment on
your success. The casino is not concerned with craps winners, because they do not
believe that anyone can gain an advantage over them in this game, at least not
without cheating.
Obviously, you should never discuss your roulette winnings with any casino
employees. Your goal is to look as much like another losing gambler as possible.
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Casinos don't like winners, and you are much more likely to get the royal treatment
if you look like another losing gambler.
Occasionally, outside of the casino, I have been asked about how my strategies
work. When I first learned to beat the casinos, I was quite enthusiastic and wanted
to share my enthusiasm with other people. The typical reaction when I have
revealed that I have a winning roulette system is total disbelief. I am simply not
believed. My best advice is to act like the vast majority of casino patrons who don't
have a clue as to how to win.
Play the Part
I have given a number of suggestions about looking like a gambler. Everyone has
his (or her) own style, and I am not suggesting that you disguise yourself physically
or change your identity. However, individuals who look serious, never drink, never
tip, or don't talk to dealers or floor personnel do not look like gamblers and will not
get the full benefit of casino generosity, including comps.
I have tried to give you as much ammunition as I can, but you can add your own
finishing touches. Using casino credit is a must if you are a black chip player. You
simply don't want to walk around with ten thousand dollars or more on your person.
Not only are you literally risking your life should a mugger decide to target you, but
you could run afoul of U.S. laws if you leave the country with more than $10,000 in
cash on you and don't declare it. Using the casino's credit and signing markers will
make you look much more like a gambler, and it actually is a very convenient way
to play.
You should also play for comps. Once you are playing with black chips, you will
have comps offered to you and you might as well enjoy them. Even mid-range
gamblers and low rollers can avail themselves of substantial comps.
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The Casino is Not Your Enemy

The dealers, floor persons, cocktail waitresses, pit bosses, shift bosses and casino
hosts are not your enemy. While pit bosses often scrutinize the play of high rollers,
they are just doing their jobs. Many of the casino employees are actually rooting for
you to win. We have discussed how to get a dealer on your side by being friendly
and using your tips advantageously. But your floor person is not against your
winning. As long as you are not perceived as a threat to the casino's bankroll and are
not engaged in behavior the casino objects to, e.g. card counting, you are free to win
occasionally. Just don't rub it in their faces.
Floor persons are the primary decision-makers on the amount of comps you get, and
I always chat with the nearest floor person. Starting a conversation is easy. Once
you are a credit player, you will interact with the floor person as soon as you buy in,
by signing a marker. After establishing some rapport with a floor person, I will
occasionally ask him or her for advice on certain roulette wagers. It is always better
to down play just how knowledgeable you are. Most floor persons enjoy helping
players and like to show off their own expertise.
In dealing with all casino personnel, your goal is to always be a polite, friendly
person who likes the casino, enjoys talking to pit personnel, is impressed by the
floor person's tremendous knowledge of roulette, makes large wagers and doesn't
quite know how to play roulette correctly. This act will buy you a tremendous
amount of unrestricted playing time, and your comp rate should go up
exponentially. You are the perfect player from the casino's viewpoint, and the
casino bosses will be willing to pay to ensure that you play in their casino.
Things to Avoid
There are some things I just won't tolerate when I play roulette. Top on my list of
"the things I like least" are rude dealers. If a dealer starts making comments about
my play, or is rude to other players, my advice is to just leave.
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You don't need this kind of aggravation. If you have a bad feeling about the table,
trust your instincts and leave.
I also refuse to play with rude players.
Drinking
You've been waiting for this part, haven't you? I have yet to read a book on
gambling where the author does not admonish the reader not to drink. Professional
roulette players, I guess, are too engrossed in observing the game to even lift a glass
to their beleaguered lips. If they do manage a drink, it has to be Evian water. For the
bosses and for most players, having a drink while you play is part of the fun.
Gamblers do it for sure. And you want to look like a gambler, right?
I generally have a few drinks while I gamble. I also drink straight orange juice,
coffee, iced tea and even ice water at the tables.
Drinking something alcoholic at the roulette table is one more signal to the pit that
you are not a threat. I generally go slow on the alcoholic drinks and time my
drinks. In general, the fact that you are a roulette player will go a long way
towards enhancing your reputation as a gambler.
Superstitions
Superstitions really have no effect on the outcome of cards or dice or little balls
spinning around inside of larger wheels or do they? Most gamblers and many pit
personnel are superstitious. Gambling itself seems to breed superstitions.
What happens is that we remember certain events that occurred prior to, or in
connection with other events, and we assume that there is a causal relationship
between two seemingly unrelated occurrences.
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The dice game is rift with superstitions. Lady shooters are lucky, as are virgin
shooters, who have never rolled the dice before. If a die or the dice fly off the
table, many old pros call their odds, place and buy bets off on the next roll, as
everyone knows that sevens come after the dice fall on the floor..
Poker players may wear their lucky hats, and where would a slots player be
without her lucky charm bracelet?
Many casino bosses have lucky and unlucky dealers. A craps crew which loses too
much money may find itself fired, or at least broken up and the members rotated
into different crews. If a roulette player is winning too much money, a boss may
bring in a lucky dealer. In the good old days when Vegas was mobbed up, the lucky
dealer may well have been dealing seconds, with a real reason behind the luck. In
this day of corporation controlled casinos, a cheating dealer is unlikely, as a casino
is not willing to risk its license over one winning player. However, many bosses
believe certain dealers are lucky for the house, just as other dealers are unlucky. If a
boss decides a dealer is unlucky, the hapless dealer is not likely to have a fruitful
career with that casino.
Because gamblers and bosses are superstitious, it makes sense for you to at least
appear to be superstitious too. If you lose, it is because the table is too cold, or in
the alternative, if you win, you are on a hot streak. Hot and cold streaks do occur,
and it doesn't hurt to play them up.
In addition to enhancing your conversation with bosses, you can use your
superstitions to influence dealers as well. More than once I have told a dealer that I
feel that the next wheel spin will be lucky and placed a larger bet when the floor
person was watching.
Use superstitions to justify certain plays when you are talking to the bosses. Just
don't get caught up in believing too many casino superstitions yourself. Your lucky
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hat is not likely to have been responsible for your last win, nor is a particular
casino necessarily unlucky.
I will admit that I partially subscribe to the "unlucky casino syndrome." There are
some casinos where I never seem to do well. I have no rational explanation for
this. However, since I tend to play in Las Vegas where dozens of casinos vie for my
attention, I can easily avoid the casinos that are unlucky for me.
Moving Up Your Betting Levels
If you devote much time to roulette using the Optimzer, at some point you will want
to increase the size of Base Bets jumping from a betting series with a $5 Base
Bet to a higher level, for example. Many players find that an emotional adjustment
is required to make these moves.
Of course, you must adhere to all of the requirements I have described before you
decide to increase the size of your base wagers. You never want to over-bet your
bankroll, and you should only increase the size of your wagers when your bankroll
is large enough to justify it. If you are undercapitalized, then you clearly are out of
your league to jump from green chip to black chip play.
However, once you have built the prerequisite bankroll, you should be able to
increase the size of your wagers. To acclimate yourself to making larger wagers, try
moving in steps. You might increase from being a $5 Base Bet bettor to using $10
wagers as your starting point.
Probably your biggest hurdle will be moving up to black $100 chip play. You will
receive a great deal more attention from the casino than when you were a red chip or
green chip player. Most of the attention will be positive. When you play with black
chips, you automatically join an exclusive club with significant casino comps to be
made available. However, your play will also be under greater scrutiny, and this
bothers many players.
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In addition to being showered with comps, you will also find that black chip play
has other privileges. It is usually much easier to find uncrowded tables as a black
chip player.
I suggest that you start wagering at a comfortable level for you. Your comfort level
may be as a $3, $5 or a $10 player. Stay at this level until you have thoroughly
mastered, not only the technical side of playing correctly, but the emotional side of
dealing with players, bosses and dealers. When you are ready, both psychologically
and with adequate bankroll, try moving up just one step and then playing at this
level for awhile. Continue to hone your casino people skills at each new level and
don't forget to look and act the part. Black chip players do act differently than
nickel chip players.
The Casino As Your New Office
Walking up to a roulette tables the first time can be an intimidating experience. If
you have not played much, you will not fully understand the roles of the dealer, the
floor person, the pit boss, the other casino personnel, and the eye-in-the-sky cameras
following your every move.
If you are unfamiliar with casino surroundings, you may want to progress into your
new role as a winning roulette player on a step-by-step basis.
You can first play using a lower level of play. This is an excellent approach, and
you will win plenty of money using this approach. The best way to practice playing
roulette and using the 80-20 System is to play online in practice mode where
you can play at your own pace and refer to the Optimzer Bet Tracker.
Once you feel very comfortable playing roulette, you can gradually increase your
betting level, using casino profits to build your bankroll. It may take a number of
trips before you feel confident enough to move up to higher-level play.
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Only after you have completely mastered the 80-20 System should you consider
moving up to black chip status. At this point, you should feel that the casino is your
new office, and the casino personnel are your fellow workers.
Remember that the casino is not your enemy. The primary functions of modern
casino personal, including bosses, are to make sure the casino patrons have a good
enough experience that they will become repeat customers.
Once you become known in a casino, you will find yourself interacting with the
casino personnel even more. Dealers will welcome you by name. Cocktail
waitresses will remember your favorite drink. Bosses will invite you to coffee. A
casino host will work with you to make sure that you get all of the comps to which
you are entitled.
Once you sense that everyone in the casino is genuinely rooting for you to win, you
will know that you have done your job well.
In order to reach this level, there is no substitute for putting in your hours. You will
need to demonstrate that you are not only friendly, but reliable, honest and
consistent in your fair treatment of all you encounter.
Too many players complain to bosses, dealers and anyone else who works in the
casino. Grumpy players are all too common, and you want to make sure that you
don't present this face to your "fellow workers." If you are tired or grumpy, don't
play. It is important to take breaks frequently and use the time to relax. You should
be at your peak emotionally when you play, and this includes having a positive
mental attitude and interacting with players and casino personnel on a friendly and
helpful basis.
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Eventually the casino will recognize you as congenial, reliable and dependable.
And, if you decide to make playing roulette your new profession, your relationship
with your new associates will serve as the foundation for your new business.
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Getting Casino Comps

Whether you chose to become a rated player at the casino table games, join a slot
club or both, once you get into the system, you can start getting your share of
comps. There are a number of tried and proven ways to multiply the number of
comps you get. Here are some pointers.
Chose a primary casino and then play there.
A basic premise of the whole comp system is to reward loyal players. Casinos offer
comps to lure new players to their casino and to make sure that their current
customers remain their customers. If you think you have it tough trying to use the
comp system to your advantage, just think what the casinos are up against with new
competition springing up every day.
If you are a whale, you can ignore my advice. Just plan on either bringing or
setting up a credit line of $100,000 or larger, and wherever you decide to land will
be glad to comp you. If you are in the million dollar plus range, the casino will
not only comp you, but anyone else you chose to bring with you. They'll even
charter a 737 and fly in as many of your friends as you want to bring along.
If you are not quite in this range, then it will pay to find a primary casino and
reward it with your patronage. A player with as little as $1,000 can get RFB
treatment in some of the downtown casinos in Las Vegas. A player with a $2,500
bankroll will have an even greater choice of hotel casinos. Move up to the $5,000
to $10,000 range, and a whole other batch of casinos become available.
But, in order to get noticed and adequately comped with a bankroll from $1,000 to
$10,000, you have to be willing to reward a casino with your playing time.
A friend of mine visits Las Vegas about ten times a year. He usually takes $5,000
to $10,000 and manages to lose between half and three quarters of it per trip. I
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won't comment on his approach to gambling. Quite frankly, it stinks. Anyway, the
subject is comps.
Believe it or not, he doesn't get any. He stays at a different casino every trip. I
think he believes the constant changes might improve his luck. This is not
necessarily bad, if he would play at the casino where he stays. He invariably
changes casinos every hour or two and ends up playing in ten to twelve different
establishments over the course of two or three days.
Because of the size of his buy-ins, he is constantly asked if he wants to be rated. He
always declines. He confesses that he doesn't want the casinos to know how much
he is losing. I think that he is trying to kid himself about his losses.
I have explained the comp system to him. As long as he is losing, he might as well
have the casinos kick in $750 to $1,000 per trip. This money is there for the asking
if he would only pick a primary casino and give it a reasonable amount of play.
I can't convince him to change his ways. But, maybe I can influence you.
There are many other benefits to playing more in a primary casino. The first benefit
is the application of the old saw, "If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."
The casino will accelerate the rewards offered you the more you play. Some
casinos formalize this process and actually accelerate the comps to slot club
members as their total number of points increases. Many casinos offer more and
more free rooms and entertainment the more you patronize them.
The key to maximizing your benefits from this whole process is to find a casino that
matches your needs and then start playing there. If you have picked correctly, your
loyalty will be well rewarded.
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Join a slot club and/or get a VIP card.

The start of getting comps is to be into the casino comp system. If you bet $25,000
a hand, the host will find you. If you bet $5 to $25 a pop, you have to get the
casino's attention. And the easiest way to do this is with a little piece of plastic
which looks just like a credit card.
Once you have a card, getting comped will become part of your routine. The first
thing you will do as a machine player is to insert your club card in the card reader.
When you sit down at a craps, baccarat or a roulette table you will present your VIP
card when you buy in.
Your card will go down with your cash at the roulette table when you lay five
hundred in front of the dealer and tell him, "Chips please."
Once you have the cards and use them, all of your play will count towards
something.
Get to know your casino host.
The casino host or the slot host will be your key to getting the most comps in most
casinos.
If you are a member of the casino's slot club, you will get nearly all of your comps
by asking the casino slot host. Many times comps for food, rooms, shows and
merchandise are built right into the slot club payoffs. If you have just joined a slot
club, try giving them some play for an hour or two and then asking the slot host for
a buffet comp.
My experience with comps from playing slots or video poker is that the slot hosts
are much more likely to be generous with comps than the personnel at the slot club
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booths. If you want brochures on the slot clubs or general information on the slot
club, talk to the clerks at the booth. If you want a particular comp, ask the slot
host.
Casino hosts, catering to the table game players, are at the top of the casino pecking
order for granting comps. Their top priority is to cultivate new customers and to
keep the current customers happy.
The casino hostesses are the persons working for VIP Services who help you check
in, arrange your limo service, make dinner and show reservations and so forth.
The hostesses will handle most of your scheduling and reservation needs. The
casino hosts are the people you need to talk to to arrange RFB and airfare
reimbursement.
You can meet a casino host a number of ways. One way is to call a casino before
coming and ask to speak to a host. This is a good way to ask about the casino's
comp policy and to tell the host that you are interested in playing there.
If you are playing with front money, you should meet your host after depositing
your money with the cage but before you begin play.
If you are a cash player and make a large enough buy-in, you may have a chance to
meet a host when the casino sets you up with a VIP card.
After you have played in a casino, you can make reservations through the casino
host. Making a reservation through a host who knows you is a good way to get a
room even if the front desk claims that no rooms are available. Casinos always
reserve a block of rooms for their best customers, and a casino host can get you a
room when a reservation clerk can't.
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I recommend taking a little time to develop a relationship with a host. Part of

developing a relationship is consistency. If you make one casino your primary
casino and visit several times a year, it will be easier to become known to a host
than if he only sees you every other year.
If you are using a casino credit line, the host will introduce himself to you. With
front money or cash, you will want to make a point of meeting the host.
Treat your host with respect and nurture the relationship. He can shower you with
all kinds of freebies, including gifts, food, a free room and VIP treatment. And he
is paid to do this. For your part, you have to convince your host that your action is
sufficient to justify the comps you want. And being a nice person won't hurt either.
Be a nice person.
You can get enormous leverage out of maintaining friendly relationships with the
people who work in casinos.
Start with the dealers and cocktail waitresses. These people have a couple of the
hardest jobs in the casino and are at the bottom of the casino hierarchy. A smile and
a reasonable tipping policy will do wonders to get these folks on your side. I
believe that creating a positive atmosphere starts with how you act towards the
casino personnel. A positive atmosphere is conducive to winning as well as to
getting your fair share of comps.
You might look at it this way. If you are a grump, the dealer will probably
reciprocate. This is contagious behavior, and soon the whole table will act the same
way. The pit personnel not only will not be impressed with your play, the whole
scene at your table probably will put them off. Not only will your rating likely
suffer, you won't have nearly as much fun.
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You can't always control how dealers and other customers act. If I join a table
where no one is talking, and the dealer barely grunts when spoken to, I will make
my departure very quickly. Usually a few cheerful words followed by a toke for the
dealer will turn the atmosphere around. However, if this fails, you can't be faulted
for not trying. Life is too short to play under miserable conditions. It is always
better to change tables than to continue to play with an out of sorts dealer and
crabby complaining customers. Under these conditions, you should just leave.
Visit the casino at off times.
I nearly always schedule my casino trips for the middle of the week. I will typically
arrive on a Monday afternoon and stay until Thursday afternoon. The benefits of
visiting during the week are many. If there are any drawbacks to avoiding the
weekend crowds, I haven't found them.
I don't like waiting and I hate lines. By timing my visits to the middle of the week, I
can usually walk into any coffee shop, make reservations for a gourmet restaurant
just about any time I chose and get show tickets to the shows I want to see.
If you want to really reduce the size of the crowds, travel in the middle of the week
during off-season. Las Vegas is slower during the middle of summer when it is hot
and in the late fall and early winter when it's colder. The slowest time in Vegas is
usually between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But watch out for conventions. If a
large convention is in town, it may be impossible to get a room (unless you are a
rated player or belong to a slot club).
If you like to visit Atlantic City, try visiting during the middle of the week in the
dead of winter. You'll not only avoid the larger crowds, but you'll find that the
minimum wagers on many tables have been reduced.
Visiting during an off time is also an excellent way to get noticed for purposes of
getting rated and getting your comp career off to a roaring start.
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With fewer players to contend with, a host or a floor person is easier to meet and to
visit with. Also, during slow times, casinos tend to be more generous with comps.
After all, they are more likely to have a slew of vacant rooms just waiting to be
given away to qualified players on a Wednesday night in December.
Ask for comps.
If you play $1000 a hand at roulette, you do not have to ask for comps. The casino
will shower you with them. If you are like the rest of us wagering anywhere from
$5 to several hundred a hand, you need to ask for comps.
Slot players have the more systematic approach as the card readers on the machines
are tied into a centralized computer system, and comps are based on points. If you
are a slots or video poker player, getting a comp is pretty straightforward with this
system.
Table game players have to deal more with people. And unless you are a whale, a
boss will almost never offer you a comp unless you have just won big in a smaller
casino which watches every loss. Facing a player who might walk out with their
money in hand, some casinos will start throwing comps at the player. But most of
the time, even rated players can play and play and never be offered a comp unless
they ask for it.
My advice? Always ask for the comp. I have given you several examples of how to
do it.
Maximize your comps.

Anyone who follows the steps I have described can get comps. Your first step is to
pick your primary casino and give it most of your business. Before you pick your
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casino you want to make sure that the casino has a reasonable comp policy and that
it has beatable games. You should also like the casino, as you will be receiving a
lot of invitations there once you get into their comp system.
After picking your primary casino, you need to join its slot club and get a VIP card.
I usually do both. Some casinos, like Rio in Las Vegas, combine rating slot, video
poker and table players on one card. Others track machine and table action
separately. However, it usually pays to join the slot club, even if you are mostly a
table game player.
In many ways, slot club players have an advantage over the table game players.
Their rating is automatic; they don't have to get the attention of some boss. By
joining the slot club, they start receiving mailing from the casino. I have received
offers of free rooms from casinos where I had never played a slot machine, but had
joined their slot club.
If you are just establishing your rating and want to get a room on a crowded
weekend, your slot club membership can be invaluable. After the reservation clerk
tells you there are no rooms available, tell her you are a member of the slot club or
ask to speak to a slot host. Chances are, the casino will find a room for you.
Getting to know the casino personal is critical. The more the casino personnel know
and like you, the more comps are likely to flow your way. This is even true for slot
players with their automated rating system. A slot host can easily "bump up" your
comp from a buffet for two to a coffee shop comp for two, even if your rating is not
quite there.
With table players, interacting with the pit personnel is critical. A boss can make or
break you in terms of your rating. If your average wager is $25, your goal is to be
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rated as at least a $50 to $75 player. It is not enough to increase your wagers when
the boss is looking; you need to be a nice person.
Playing with front money gives the casino a real shot at beating you. When you
deposit the money in the cage, the casino knows that they have a shot at winning all
of your front money. If you are willing to risk $10,000, this will open the door to
full RFB at most establishments.
When you play with front money, be sure to put it all in play. If you deposit
$10,000, draw markers for the full ten grand. This doesn't mean you should lose the
money. If you look like a loser and the casino sees that you have put all of your
front money into play, your rating will increase.
Remember to look like a loser. You can save your bragging for when you get
home. Appear to lose, but lose gracefully. Dealers and bosses hear players gripe
about losing every day. Look like a loser but don't complain.
If you run into a fantastic winning streak, don't worry about disguising the fact that
you are a winner. The bosses will know that you are winning. If you try to hide
enough chips to turn a big win into a loss, they'll know. When you have a big win,
act like a winner. Go ahead and tip a little more. If you are playing craps, shouting
is not out of line. I have had some of my best comps come out of big wins as
casinos hate to see winners walk out the door with their money.
Summary of the Comps Game

Once you know how to play the comps game, you will be able to milk the casinos
for every dime your action entitles you to. I have given you some pointers on how
to get a quarter's worth of comps for a dime's worth of action.
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When you combine getting the maximum number of comps with the 80-20
System Strategy, you are in the best position to maximize your profits from casino
gambling.
If you at least break even, then the comps you receive constitute a profit for your
play. If you are able to win money at the casino games, then your profit will be
even greater.
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Casino Etiquette
If you know how to dine in a fine restaurant without making a scene, or
automatically open doors for others and say thanks when someone holds open a
door for you, you will probably not have any trouble knowing how to conduct
yourself in a casino. I normally don't think much about etiquette until I see some
jerk raising hell with a dealer about his losses, or chewing out a cocktail waitress
for taking too long with an order. Then I have to wonder how the concept of
manners has escaped him completely.
I said him, because boorish, obnoxious behavior nearly always comes from males,
with very few females managing to become the perfect asses that males seem to
delight in being.
Casinos seem to attract a higher than normal number of persons with a need to
blow off at some unfortunate casino employee. The times I have somehow gotten
in the middle of these disputes, I nearly always take the side of the dealer or floor
person, especially if a male patron is unjustifiably berating a female employee for
no reason other than he has poor control over his gambling, managed to lose much
more than that should have, and is now looking for a scapegoat.
For most persons who visit casinos, etiquette is simply a matter of common
courtesy. It's okay to get a little wild in a casino. These are supposed to be places
of fun, and drinking a little too much may be part of the entertainment. But for a
successful 80-20 System player, the rules are not quite the same. The casino is
your place of employment and drinking should be limited. It goes without saying,
courteous behavior should be practiced at all times.
At all casino table games, the rules of etiquette are pretty simple. Treat the dealers
and other players with respect and avoid being loud, pushy or belligerent. If you
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get into a disagreement with a dealer, stay calm and be gracious even if the dealer
really is wrong. It does not make sense to win an argument over a single payoff.
Here are some guidelines for casino play.
1. When you have finished playing, you can ask the dealer to color you up before
leaving the table. If you are playing with the special chips used at roulette
tables only you must exchange those chips for regular casino chips before you
leave the table.
2. Watch your own bets at all times. Your bets are easy to track as you handle the
bets yourself and place them directly in front of you.
3. Don't force your way into a crowded table. If the table is crowded ask the
nearest player if he minds if you join them.
4. Don't slow down the game by constantly asking the dealer basic questions
about how the game is played or how bets are made. There are hundreds of
books on how to play roulette including this one. You should learn the correct
payoffs for the bets you will be making.
5. Try to be discrete about your wins and losses. No one really cares to know
how much you are winning, and it doesn't do you any good to advertise that
you are a consistent winner.
6. While playing, conduct yourself courteously at all times. If you drink, refrain
from overdoing it and never get drunk. You will need to stay alert to correctly
make the wagers required by the 80-20 System Betting Strategy, and contrary
to the opinion of some drunks, alcohol does not make you think clearer.
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7. Toke the dealers. Dealers call tips "tokes" as in a token of appreciation. Many
players don't realize that dealers are not paid much more than minimum wage.
Roulette dealers try very hard to please the public. Most dealers want the players
to win and have a good time. They know that if the players enjoy themselves and
win, they will get toked. I always toke the dealers. If I win more I will toke them
more, but even if I lose, I will make several bets for the dealer. This is not only
the right thing to do but will pay you off in spades if you do it consistently. Even
floor personnel know who the tippers are, and my experience has been that if you
tip, you will be more than repaid by hard working dealers, who will watch out for
your bets and by casino complimentaries, controlled by and large by pit
personnel who rate your play.
___________
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Keeping Records
Along with all of the new habits I am asking you to form, I am going to add one
more. I want you to start keeping written records of how you do playing roulette.
Actually, you want to keep a written record of all of your gambling, but since this
book is about how to win at roulette, well just focus on this game.
There are a couple of reasons you will want to keep records. One is to honestly
measure how well (or how badly) you are doing. Most players wince at this
suggestion. They know that they have been long-term losers.
I am going to ask you to be honest and start writing down how you actually do.
You dont have to show this to anyone else. But, arent you at least a little curious
about your roulette wins and losses?
Another reason I am suggesting that you start keeping written records is that you
will eventually need them for income tax reporting. Ill tell you more about this
later.
I have given you a couple of good reasons to start keeping written records of your
gambling. They are
First, to honestly measure how well (or badly) you are dong, and
Second, to have a record for income tax reporting.
How you set up your records is up to you. You may want to purchase a small
notebook which fits in your pocket or purse. I like to keep records on individual
sheets of standard size 8.5 x 11 accounting paper. I usually carry one sheet with
me, neatly folded in my pocket. After each session of play, I will update the
information I like to record on the piece of paper. Eventually, after I have
returned home, the sheet will be filed in a loose-leaf notebook.
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Whatever system you use is fine; just make sure that you use some kind of
recording system.
Before I start a gambling excursion, I like to record some basic information about
what I plan to do. This information will outline my strategy and would look like
this:
Location
Las Vegas
Profit Goal $1,200
Gambling Bankroll $1,800
Base Bet Size
$10
Game Buy-in
$600
Days of Play 2 days
Number of Sessions 7-8 a day
Target Profit per Game
$100
Loss Limit per Game
$600
The results of each session should be recorded as soon as possible after finishing
play. The following information should be recorded:
Location: (City, casino, etc.)
Date and Time Played
Table Number.
Base Bet Size
Won (Lost): Amount that you won or lost for the session.
Total Won (Lost): A running total of the amount you have won or lost.
Your actual record might look like the record shown below:
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Location
LV Golden
Nugget
LV Golden
Nugget
LV
Orleans
LV
Orleans
LV Orleans
Date & Time

12-9-08
10 to 11 AM
12-9-08
11 to 11:30 AM
12-9-08
2:10 to 2:40 PM
12-9-08
3:30 to 4:10 PM
12-9-08
5-20 to 5:50 PM
Table
No.
31
Base Bet
Size
$10
Amount
Won (Lost)
$205
Cumulative
Won
$205
31
$10
$237
$442
27
$10
$189
$631
27
$10
$203
$834
27
$10
$194
$1028
For US players, the basic rules for gambling are that all gambling winnings should
be reported on your tax return as other income. Gambling losses are deductible
only to the extent that you report gambling winnings and then only as an itemized
deduction. Home ownership with the attendant home mortgage interest is usually
the deductible expense which allows people to itemize their deductions. If you
dont own a home, or if your home mortgage interest is too low, or you have paid
off your mortgage, you may not have enough expenses to itemize deductions.
This could mean that you end up reporting gambling winnings as income but are
not allowed to deduct gambling losses.
As a practical matter, most folks ignore their gambling wins and losses when
filling out their tax returns because all they have is losses, and they couldnt
document them if their lives depended on it. Because of the skill you now have
with the Optimzer you are more likely than ever to have reportable gambling
income.
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The easiest way to meet the IRS guidelines for documentation is to keep a daily
record of roulette play, as well as invoices, receipts and other documentation from
your trip. File this information in an envelope, a file folder or a notebook.
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How to Win With the 80-20 System

Most people approach casino gambling as a lark, and little consideration is given
to the amount of time, money or psychological preparation necessary for winning.
Some attention is given to finding a "system" or "gimmick" and off the player
goes to try his hand at winning. Needless to say, this approach hardly ever works.
Some work and advance preparation are essential to becoming a consistent winner
at roulette, craps, baccarat, Sic Bo or any other casino game.
The advance preparation is fairly easy. First, read and understand this book. The
easiest way to practice is to play in an online casino on your home computer in
practice mode where no money is risked. This will give you a realistic feel for
these casino games as they are played, whether you play online or in a land-based
game.
Practice is essential for two reasons. First, by practicing you will gain a greater
understanding of the system than you ever will by just reading about it. Secondly,
practicing the system will give you a greater feel for it than I can ever convey by
describing it. In practicing this strategy, you will gain a level of confidence in
your play which is important before you ever venture forth to take on a casino.
In a casino, your enemy is not the casino or the dealer. It is your own lack of selfcontrol. If you can control yourself and have a mastery of your approach, you will
become a winner. If you can't, then it is unlikely that the 80-20 System or any
other system can make you a winner.
After you have learned and practiced this strategy, you will want to begin planning
to apply it in a casino. What? you say. Planning? I just spent time learning the
darned thing! What's this planning? Why can't I just jump in my car or get on a
plane, arrive at a casino and start playing? Or, why cant I just get online, pick an
online casino and start playing?
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Planning begins with determining the size of bankroll you will take for your 8020 System practice sessions. The amount you take for an excursion to a casino(s)
is called the Trip Bankroll, and it should be three times the size of bankroll
required to play a game. If you decide to play online, you can use these same
concepts.
It is necessary to use a larger bankroll for a trip to provide for an adequate cushion
against losses. If, for example, you decided that since the loss rate is so low
(except for the loss rate at Sic Bo which we consider unacceptable) you would
only take the amount needed to play one game. What would you do if the loss
occurred in the first session, or even the first half dozen sessions? You would not
have a large enough bankroll to continue to play, and you would be "tapped out"
even with a winning system.
It is far better to plan for the worst and then do your best to prevent it from
occurring. The following table summarizes Base Bets, Game Bankrolls, Bet
Limits and Target Profits for various levels of play.
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Bet Limits, Target Profits and Total Bankrolls
Base Bet
$1
$2
$3
$5
$10
$15
$25
$35
$50
$75
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
Game
Bankroll
$60
$120
$180
$300
$600
$900
$1500
$2100
$3000
$4500
$6000
$12,000
$18,000
$24,000
$30,000
Bet Limit
$18
$36
$54
$90
$180
$270
$450
$630
$900
$1350
$1800
$3600
$5400
$7200
$9000
Target
Profit
$10
$20
$30
$50
$100
$150
$250
$350
$500
$750
$1000
$2000
$3000
$4000
$5000
Total
Bankroll
$180
$360
$540
$900
$1800
$2700
$4500
$6300
$9000
$13,500
$18,000
$36,000
$54,000
$72,000
$90,000
Needless to say, this bankroll should come from money that is extra and will not
be needed for living expenses. If you take the money needed to pay your mother's
medical bill for gambling, the psychological pressure will probably be too much
for you, and in general, this is just not a good way to approach any speculative
venture.
After building your bankroll and practicing the system until you can perform it
flawlessly, you may begin your final preparations for a gambling excursion. You
should have an adequate number of 80-20 System Bet Tracking Forms, a
notebook for recording the results of your play and a game plan for your trip.
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A trip game plan can be very informal consisting of an itinerary with playing
time scheduled in a general way. You don't have to have every minute
scheduled, but I have found that my mental attitude is improved if I have planned
a definite amount of time for gambling as well as other activities.
If you wish to approach using the 80-20 System in an extremely organized and
professional manner, you may want to develop a plan to let the system help build
your bankroll.
Assume that your bankroll is $1,000. You are planning a trip to Las Vegas and
you find out that the minimum bets for your chosen game are $10 bets.
You check with the table presented a couple of pages ago and see that the bankroll
required to use the 80-20 System with $10 unit bets is $1,800. You can see that
you dont have a large enough bankroll to play at this level.
You really only have a couple of choices now. You can postpone using the 8020 System in Las Vegas until you save another $875 and have the bankroll
required. Or, you might wish to see if roulette or craps are offered at lower limits.
Lets assume that you are determined to play mini-baccarat which has $10
minimum bets where you will be staying.
You decide first to play online in a game with lower minimum wagers, where your
$1000 bankroll will be adequate. You can literally build the bankroll needed for
the Las Vegas trip from your winnings playing online.
You see that you have enough of a bankroll to play online making $5 Base Bets
since $900 is adequate to play at this level.
You check with the table presented in a previous chapter (which is repeated below
for your reference) to see what kind of hourly win rates you can expect playing
online making $5 Base Bets.
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Comparison of Winnings Per Hour for $5 Betting

Game
Average Number of Bets per
Hour
Land-based Games Bets per
Hour
Online Games Bets per Hour
Average Amount Won per Bet
Craps
Roulette
Baccarat
Sic Bo
40
60
80
40
250
$1.53
300
$1.25
300
$1.11
250
$0.482
$61.20
$382.50
$75.00
$375.00
$88.80
$333.00
$19.28
$120.50
Win Rates Per Hour

Land-based Games
Online Games
The table above shows average hourly winnings of $333 an hour for a $5 Base
Bettor playing at a rate of 300 rounds per hour. This rate of play can easily be
achieved playing online. In fact, with very little practice, you will be able to play
350 rounds of play per hour.
However, lets assume that you will average about $333 an hour making $5 bets.
Now, the calculations are pretty simple. You need to make $800 to build your
bankroll from $1,000 to $1,800. This may be summarized as:
Bankroll Needed to Make $10 Base Bets (Las Vegas minimum)
Current Bankroll
1,000
Bankroll Shortage $ 800
$1,800
Now, compute how long it will take you to win the $800 needed to bring your
bankroll up to $1,800. Assuming you win an average of $333 an hour, we have:
$800 / $333 an hour = 2.40 hours.
Lets say you have a week before you leave for Vegas. You have plenty of time to
play about two and one-half hours online, pull in $800 and head to Las Vegas.
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When you arrive at your choice of gambling locale, it is important that you arrive
prepared, confident that you have mastered the 80-20 System , determined a
plan of action, brought your needed materials with you, planned the correct
bankroll and developed a playing schedule for your trip.
Come to the gaming table confident about yourself and your game plan. Although
you will undoubtedly enjoy the edge you have over other players, make sure that
your enjoyment never interferes with your plan to beat the dealer.
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Going Home a Winner

The object of playing any casino game is to walk out of the casino with more
money than you came in with. That's what this book has been about. If you want
to have fun playing craps, roulette, baccarat or Sic Bo thats great too. It's
supposed to be fun. But, if you have consistently been losing to the casinos, then I
question how much fun you have really been having.
There is no substitute for winning. Can I guarantee that you will always be a
winner? No. But I will guarantee that your play will improve immensely and that
you will have a better chance of winning than ever before if you follow the
suggestions I have given you. Here is a brief rundown of what you should do to
become a skilled casino winner:
1. You should first read this entire manual. If you dont understand parts of the
strategy you can go back to them later.
2. Before trying to learn the strategy make sure that you understand how to play
your chosen game. You can sign on to an online casino such as Bodog
(http:casino.bodoglife.com) and play in practice mode to get a feel for the game.
3. Learn the 80-20 System Bet Selection Strategy first. This entails learning
where to place your bets. To learn how to use this strategy, you should try it in
practice mode.
4. After learning the 80-20 System Bet Selection Strategy, you will learn the
80-20 System Betting Strategy. This is the strategy that determines the size of
each bet. The easiest way to determine if you have mastered bet sizing is to
review the example games in this book and see if you completely understand how
we determined the amount of each bet.
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5. After you know exactly how to use the 80-20 System correctly, you will
need to add the Money Management Rules to complete the strategy. Be sure
that you understand the concepts of Base Bets, Game Bankrolls, Total Bankroll,
Bet Limits and Target Profits.
6. Review all of the example games in this book. Be sure that you completely
understand how to determine each bet and why we stopped play in each game.
7. Play in your favorite casinos for free in an online game. At first, dont try to
apply the strategy. Just make flat bets such as $5 bets.
8. Play a series of games in practice mode using the 80-20 System Bet Tracker.
This is the form used for all of the Sample Games in this book.
9. Keep good records of your practice games. Be sure that you are consistently
winning before starting to play for real money.
10. Get ready for real play. The easiest way to do this is to deposit money in the
online casino where you have been practicing and start playing for real. You will
have to adhere to our bankroll requirements. If you decide to start with $1 bets,
you will need only a $60 buy-in. Since many online casinos offer 100% match
bonuses, you can get started with as little as $30 and use the casinos bonus of $30
to complete your bankroll.
11. Be sure that you keep accurate records. You will employ record keeping
mainly to keep score. If you have a Profit Goal in mind, you want to know when
you have reached it. Most gamblers underestimate the amount of their losses and
overestimate how much they are ahead. Record keeping will not only keep you
honest, but it will also improve your winnings.
12. Set modest goals when you first start playing for real. It is always better to
start playing with a lower bankroll so that if you do make mistakes your losses
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will be smaller. Only move up in play after you have built up the bankroll
needed out of winnings. If your winnings are not growing, then you are not using
the strategy correctly.
13. Finally, use the 80-20 System with several different casino games. Try
craps for a real change. Youll get the chance to stand while you play and even
cheer the shooter if you like. If cards are more your cup of tea, try baccarat.
14. Play for blood. The best way to do this is to start out small and then increase
the size of your wagers as your bankroll grows. While the casino may not pay
much attention to your wins as a $5 bettor, the casino bosses will definitely take
notice when you start beating them making $100 Base Bets.
We hope you enjoyed this book and picked up some useful pointers. It's tough to
win at gambling. But the real trick is not to lose too much. If you keep your
losses low, then when the large payoff comes, you will end up a net winner.
I know how hard it is to use discipline in a casino environment. But once you
leave the casino and arrive home with real winnings, you will see the value in the
strategies. We wish you the very best in your gambling endeavors.
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80-20 System Bet Tracking Forms

There are examples throughout this book of two different versions of tracking
forms you can use to track your play. In the section on craps a chip tracking
technique is presented which you may wish to use when you play in land-based
casinos, rather than writing down each decision.
However, when you play online you will probably want to use a Tracking Form. I
prefer to use the horizontal format as it is more compact and writing from left to
right is more natural than moving down a page. However, some players prefer the
vertical format.
The choice is yours. Blank copies of each form are presented for your use. You
may print out these forms and use them as you will.
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80-20 System Bet Tracking Form

Casino __________________ Date____________ Game_____________ Game Bankroll___________
Bet Limit _________ Base Bet____________ Net Win________
Dec
Pat
Bet On
Bet
W/L
Sp Bet
Obj
Cum
Win
Dec
Pat
Bet On
Bet
W/L
Sp Bet
Obj
Cum
Win
Casino __________________ Date____________ Game_____________ Game Bankroll___________
Bet Limit _________________ Base Bet____________ Net Win________
Dec
Pat
Bet On
Bet
W/L
Sp Bet
Obj
Cum
Win
Dec
Pat
Bet On
Bet
W/L
Sp Bet
Obj
Cum
Win
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Casino __________________ Date____________ Game_____________
Game Bankroll___________ Base Bet____________ Bet Limit______
Ref
Dec
Pat Bet On
Bet Split Bet
W/L Cum Win
Objective
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
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Martin J Silverthorne

The 80-20 System

Silverthorne Publications, Inc.

The 80-20 System

Address all inquiries to the publisher:

Published in the United States of America

The 80-20 System

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The 80-20 System

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The 80-20 System

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One thing you can be sure of

Sky-High Profits Others Can Only Dream About . . .

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The 80-20 System

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The Players Edge

When you are losing, you can quit.

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The 80-20 System

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The 80-20 System

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The 80-20 System

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Comparison of Bet Selection Methods

W= Win, L= Loss of wager

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The 80-20 System

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3. Negative Progression: A Martingale type of progression is used where bets are

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2,000 Session Computer Run Testing

Flat (1 unit is the average size bet)

Positive (3.8 units is the average size bet)

Negative (5.2 units is the average size bet)

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The 80-20 System

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