Blackjack Betting Strategies

The point of Blackjack, and of gambling in general, is to win money. You won’t be going to casinos with the mindset of losing. You have to WIN, WIN, WIN!

Of course, it goes without saying that you should also have fun in the process. Casinos, after all, were established as a form of recreation, ideally speaking at least.

We go back to the issues raised against gambling, however. Is gambling good or bad? Is it healthy or not? Is it a relaxing pastime or a vile habit?

It really depends on how you gamble. If you exert all efforts possible to minimize your losses and increase your chances of winning, then there’s no way to construe gambling as something destructive. If you know when to have fun and when to stop before you suffer monumental losses that would reduce your budget to ruins, then gambling is a justifiable amusement.

Hence, you should try to gamble intelligently, a point which we have consistently raised in the previous pages.

Gambling intelligently consists of the following aspects:

Knowing when to place a bet;
Knowing how much to bet;
Knowing when to increase your bet;
Knowing when to reduce your bet; and
Knowing when to quit.
Hence, gambling intelligently is gambling to win. But since Blackjack is still a game of chance (though unlike other games of chance, you can exercise a lot of control and formulate some ascertainable predictions,) you will still have to deal with some risks. That’s why it’s called a gamble, after all.

So, you have to do everything in your power to ensure that you’ll make a profit and that you’ll be able to control your losses.

How are you supposed to do this?

Well, it all depends on how you handle your money, dear friend. Yes, how much you wager will play a huge role in determining your success at the table.

There are many betting systems that have been developed to help players ensure some winnings for themselves. Let’s take a look at the most popular and most effective of these methods.

The Progressive Betting System
The progressive betting system is actually a general category of various betting methods. All of these methods share something in common; however, they progressively increase after a couple of games or so.

The rationale behind the progressive betting system is quite simple. It allows you to win some earnings first and use those earnings to increase your original wager.

You have nothing to lose because most of your bet will be your earnings.

And you have everything to gain since increasing your bet will also result in increasing your earnings in the event that you win.

Let’s illustrate this via a practical example.

Suppose that you initially bet $10, and then suppose further that you win. Then you’d have $20, right?

Now, if you bet $10 on the next game and Lady Luck smiles on you and gives you another win, you’d have $30, with $20 as your earnings.

Then it would be time to double your bet.

Wager $20 on the next game.

If you lose, you lose the $20 that is outside your capital anyway. That amount is just your earnings. It’s as if you didn’t lose anything and you’re back to square one.

But, if you win…. oh boy! You win big! You win in one game what you would have otherwise won in two!

And what if you continue this progressive method of betting until you quadruple, double-quadruple, and so on and so forth, your previous bets? Your earnings would increase by just as much!

And all the while, you won’t be deducting the money you brought with you to the casino. Your initial budget is safe and you can enjoy playing without having to worry about messed up financial plans or resorting to loan sharks.

As we have previously mentioned, there are many varieties of progressive betting methods that have been formulated in recent years.

Some of them will ask you to bet in proportions of $5, $10, $15, $20, $25, $30, and so on. Some of them are more conservative and will ask you to wager in intervals of $5, $5, $10, $10, $15, $15, and so on.

One thing is certain, however, any of these methods are better than wantonly betting based on instinct. Instinct may serve you well in certain circumstances, but it runs against the tenets of intelligent gambling.

The Martingale System
The Martingale system, which was developed in the early 1700s, is also called “the brave man's tactic”. Why? Because it takes a lot of courage (and a rather deep budget) to make this method a profitable approach.

The Martingale system requires you to increase your bet every time you lose. It is based on the assumption that you’ll eventually win, and once you do, you’ll be able to recoup what you have lost.

For example, you wagered $5 on a game that you eventually lost.

On your next bet, the method suggests that you wager $10. If you win the game, you’ll recover the $5 you lost. If you lose, well, you’ll have to increase your bet for the next game to $20.

In the event of successive losses, $20 will become $40, and $40 will become $80, and $80 will become $160, and so on and so forth. Eventually, when you do hit pay dirt, you’ll be able to take back all that you have lost.

That is, if you hit pay dirt.

There lies the flaw in this system. It assumes that you will eventually win. But any veteran gambler will tell you that there are bad days when you won’t win as many games, and there are really bad days when you won’t win a single game at all. The Martingale system will just expedite your financial demise when it comes to those really bad days.

Also, the Martingale system may have worked well during the 1700s, but in this day and age, most casinos are employing a maximum bid per hand. You cannot go over the maximum bid; hence, if the Martingale system suggests that you go towards that direction, you can still only wager so much.

I wouldn’t recommend the Martingale system.

The d’Alembert System
Perhaps as opposition to the Martingale system, a French mathematician by the name of Jean d’Alembert formulated his own betting method in the 1800s. The method is safer than the Martingale system, though the basic principle is applied. Let’s take a look at the actions that this system demands from the player:

Every time you lose, increase your bet by one unit.
Every time you win, decrease your bet by one unit.
Do you see the difference?

The d’Alembert system forces you to eventually return to a one unit bet, which is your starting bet. It will help you control your losses, just in case Fate decides to go against you.

Let’s illustrate this method in practice.

Suppose you place a $5 bet, $5 would be your one unit.

If you lose, you have to increase your next bet by another unit ($5,) hence increasing your total wager to $10.

If you win the next round, you have to decrease your next bet by one unit ($5,) reducing your total wager back to $5.

The objective of the increase during the second bet is to cover for the $5 loss you suffered on your first bet. And if you win the second bet, the reason for the decrease is to minimize any subsequent losses you might suffer.

In the end, you will either be in two positions, as long as you know when to quit. You’ll either win or break even. In any case, the fact that the chances of suffering a loss are slim will make gambling a more enjoyable experience for you.

For Blackjack, however, the d’Alembert system, as well as the Martingale system for that matter, will present a very compromising dilemma every time you’re forced to split your wager. It will throw the entire system in disarray, and in the event that the split gamble doesn’t pay off, you’ll end up losing more than what you have initially expected.

I would recommend the d’Alembert system only if you have some cash to spare and NEVER when you’re strapped and are looking to recoup what you have lost.

In general, I’d rather go for the progressive betting system.