Oscar’s Grind is a famous betting strategy that first appeared in the 1956 gambling book The Casino Gambler’s Guide by Allan Wilson. It is an extremely famous betting system that is also called Hoyle’s Press and Pluscoup Progression.
As with many strategies or betting systems, players adjust their bet size when using the Oscar’s Grind strategy in the even of winning streaks or losing streaks. The strategy is pretty popular because it can be used on a variety of different casino games, including blackjack, roulette and craps, as well as sports betting.
If you would like to find out more about how the improved Oscar Grind strategy works, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with using it, makes sure to stick around. Below we go through all this and more. We also list the best online casinos available to US players so you can test the strategy if you feel like doing so.
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How Oscar’s Grind Works
The Oscar’s Grind strategy is actually pretty easy to understand although some players who are unfamiliar with gambling terminology may get confused when reading some definitions. So, we will try to explain it the easiest way we know how.
Before every gambling session, gamblers set a betting unit. This is the amount you increment your bet by after a successful or unsuccessful bet. For example, one unit could be $4. This means that every time your bet increases by one unit, it is going up by $4. A bet of two units would be $8, and so on.
Oscar’s Grind basically suggests that your aim is to win a single unit. However, your maximum bet is not a single unit. So, how this works is that when you place your first bet, you begin a session. If your first bet wins, you increase the bet by a unit.
However, if you first bet loses, you keep placing the same bet until it wins. As stated, you increase your bet upon a win, but following the first win, you also increase your bet after a loss. You keep doing this until you reach a predetermined bet limit.
Examples of Oscar’s Grind Strategy – Roulette, Blackjack and Craps
Solid example always makes things a little easier to understand. So, if you are still unsure of how this all works, here is an example that may clear it up for you.
So, let’s say you are playing online roulette and have decided to stick with even money red/black bets during your entire gaming session. Before the session starts, you set your betting unit at $5.
On your first bet (which begins the first session of play), you bet on red and you get lucky and you win. You win $5 and your next bet is $10.
On your second bet, you aren’t as lucky as the first, and your bet on red loses. This means that you now have to increase your bet to $15 (this is three units). This is because your first bet won.
Unfortunately, your third bet loses again, which means you are mandated to increase the fourth bet to $20. Luckily, your fourth bet wins, so, you win $20, which is $5 more than what you started off with.
You keep repeating the cycle until you reach your maximum betting limit.
Advantages of Oscar’s Grind Betting System
So, there is one major advantage associated with the Oscar’s Grind betting system and that it is not a true negative progression betting system. The reason for this is that you do not increase your bet if your first bet is a loss. And, this does kind of limit the amount of money you could lose in a gambling session.
However, this is pretty much the only real advantage we see with using this “tried and trusted” betting system.
Disadvantages of Oscar’s Grind
Although Oscar’s Grind isn’t a full-on negative progression betting system, it has enough elements of it to feature pretty similar disadvantages. So, here are a couple of things to note about this strategy:
- This strategy works if you have a lot of money to spend and most people don’t. After you get your first win, you are going to need to increase your bet after every loss. And, we all know that losing streaks can sometimes seem endless.
- You need to use it in sessions or cycles, which means that you could reach the end of a cycle not having won anything but having spent a lot of money.
Overall, we don’t recommend that bettors use Oscar’s Grind. Or at the very least, don’t use it often. We aren’t denying that some people may have seen big success with it during a session but more often than not people walk out in the negative.
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