Labouchère is a generic gambling system for trying to achieve a specific win goal.
Labouchère is also known as Split Martingale and the Cancellation betting system.
It can be applied to most gambling games that offer even money wagers. Some examples are Red/Black/Odd/Even/High/Low in Roulette. Also the Pass and Don't Pass bets in Craps, and the Player bet in Baccarat. You can also apply this to the Banker bet in Baccarat if the house doesn't take a commission.
To implement Labouchère, you start by stating your goal in terms of units. Let's say you want to win 10 units.
Break apart your goal into smaller chunks. The most basic way to implement Labouchère is to make all single unit chunks. So a 10 unit goal would have 10 one-unit chunks. It's also to make your chunks 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Now you want to put your chunks in to an ordered list. That's easy if each of the chunks are 1, but for most instances, the order will be a factor later.
To calculate your next bet, add up the items at the top and the bottom of the list. If your list is [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1], then you'd bet 2 units (1+1). If your list is [1, 2, 3, 4], then you'd bet 5 units (1+4). If there is only one item in the list, then use that as your next bet.
If you won, then cross the top and bottom items off the list and proceed to the next bet.
If you lost, then add your current bet to the end of the list.
If you've crossed all the bets off the list, then you're done and you've achieved your goal! Congratulations! You're done!
Take a look at the list again. Add the top and bottom numbers in the list. If you have enough to continue betting, then proceed to bet again and attempt to cross off the next two numbers.
If you don't have enough money to make the next bet, then you're done and your attempt was a failure.