Online Blackjack Strategies

The Play

If you play the game of Blackjack perfectly using Basic Strategy , the house will win 51 hands out of 100 and you will win 49. That's 2% in favor of the house. But, you can think of it as almost an even game.
Why, then, if Blackjack is an even game, are so many people losing so much? One answer is money management or, the absence of it, to be accurate.

The chapters on Discipline explain the proper timing for walking from a table. This section stresses how to bet.
I have devised a method of play whereby you can lose 50% of the time, and still win money! In fact, you can win as little as 43% of the hands and end up with a profit!!
The theory is extremely simple. It is based on a regression/progression type of wager, rather than an ordinary straight progression method.

To demonstrate, imagine the cards failing according to probability and you win 49 hands and lose 51.
If you bet $5 on every hand, there would be 49 wins for a plus of $245, and 51 losses for a minus of $255. After 100 hands, you lose the vigorish, or $10.
This is the edge the house always has hanging over you and me, and rightly so. The house provides the game and must be compensated for services rendered. Don't get uptight about the vig. Just make sure you play at games having the least vig against you.

Many people in casinos use the Martingale (or doubling) system. When they lose, they double their next bet. They expect to win eventually. The trouble with this idea, is that eventually and now are in two different time zones. You can lose 2, 3, 4, or even 10 consecutive bets "now" bets and "eventually" is still waiting to happen.
The Martingale system has destroyed more players than "Russian Roulette" (which should not be confused with the regular zero, double zero casino brand of Roulette).

I hear people argue: "The dealer can't win forever." They are right. He can't win forever, but he doesn't have to win forever to beat you out of your bankroll.

Let him win only six hands in a row. That isn't very much. What would happen if you bet a measly $5 to start with and double each time you lose?
Your bets will be: $5, $10, $20, $40, $80, $160, $320.

Suppose you win the seventh bet. Well, you would receive $320, but you would have to subtract your previous losses ($5+$10+$20+$40+$80+$160 = $315). So, $320 minus $315, leaves you with a $5 profit.
In fact, no matter which bet you win with the Martingale system, your profit will always be no more than the amount of your original bet.
In this case, it is $5.

Suppose you lose the seventh bet? The Martingale system of bet progression says you must double after every loss. Therefore, you must bet $640. Trouble is, there is a table limit. In this case, it is $500. So, what happens when you bet the table limit? You bet $500, but you have already lost $635. Even if you win, your net is a minus $135. It will take you 27 wins to cancel out this one losing streak.

This is not money management.