THE PARLAY

The parlay is a fairly common wagering play, which involves adding the profit from a bet (that just won) to the original wager, forming a new, larger bet.

This is a good way to capitalise on a winning streak of even money bets, such as those found at blackjack, or outside bets (like red or black) at roulette. Doing so gives one the potential to win two units (in the next bet) without risking any more than the single unit of the previous bet.

For bets that pay any more or any less than 1-1, however this technique is not as effective. The 2-1 bets, for example don't tend to come up in streaks, and in the 1-2 bets don't offer the potential to double the size of your win.

If you stick to 1-1 bets, you can, however, expand your potential for gain by adding another stage to your parlay. That is, if your first parlay succeeds, you can parlay everything you won one more time, giving you the chance to win a total of seven units, while technically risking only the single original unit. This is referred to a multiple stage parlay, but its not an easy bet to win. You have to be either lucky, or have a strong indication from the prior table patterns that such an extended streak is unlikely to occur.

While being a tough bet to win, the profit potential from a multiple stage parlay can be downright seductive. For example, a three stage 1-1 parlay will return 15 units; a four stager will return 31, and a 5 stager will return 3 units. Not a bad return from one unit applied to an even money proposition.

But most pros understand that two stagers are very risky, and that anything beyond that is pretty much a fool's game!