Smart Betting in Blackjack Improves Winning Chances

Smart Betting in Blackjack

After understanding the significance of the basic strategy on the game of Blackjack, You will find these tips helpful to improve your chances by Smart Betting in Blackjack.

Smart Betting in Blackjack: Play Flat Betting

A player who bets the same amount is called a “flat bettor”. Irrespective of what proportion he wins and loses, he would always bet the same on each hand. This is a strategic way to bet at blackjack. However, if you’ve got a limited amount and you would like to maximize your playtime, flat betting is the way to go.

It’s easy to compute your theoretical hourly loss when you flat bet. You merely multiply the quantity of hands you’ll play per hour (let’s assume 100 hands) multiplied by the amount you bet per hand (assume $10) multiplied by the 0.5% house edge, yielding $5. If you play for 4 hours, you should lose $25.

The big advantage of flat betting is that you simply decrease the amount of swings your bankroll takes. Meaning you won’t win plenty nor will you lose plenty of cash in each session. However, although you’ll have winning and losing sessions once you flat bet, within the future your losses will exceed your wins.

Smart Betting in Blackjack

Betting Tactics

Many casual players need a little more excitement when they play so they use a betting progression. It means they’ll vary their bets to support the results of the previous hand. Some players use a “win progression” where they slowly increase their bets following a winning hand ($10 to $20 to a maximum of $30). When you lose a hand in the progression, you revert to the starting $10 bet.

Any betting progression won’t change the 0.5% house edge one iota. When a player uses a $10-$20-$30 win progression, his average bet isn’t any longer $10 per hand. Yes, sometimes he will be making a $10 bet but other times he can be betting $20 or $30 on a hand. His average bet is going to be higher (about $15 in our example). Compared to the flat bettor (only averaged $10 per hand), the progressive bettor will lose 1.5 times more cash (about $38 over a four-hour session compared to the flat bettor’s $25 loss).

I do not recommend that player’s use a betting progression. It is because they’ll simply lose more cash within the future compared to flat betting. If you’re hell-bent on desperately using a betting progression, I’d recommend a awfully conservative one (like a $10-$20 progression).

When To Increase Your Bet

This looks like the logical way to increase your bets when you are playing blackjack, once you know that you simply have the mathematical edge on the subsequent hand. The question, however, is this: How does one know when the edge is in your favor during the play out? The solution is this: You need to watch the cards as they’re played from one round to the next.  You will also need to increase your bets. Increase it only when you’ve seen plenty of small cards (2 through 6) in the previous round compared to big cards (10, aces, and picture cards). 

Card counting started in the 1960s, the mathematically proven way to have an edge at blackjack. Most recreational players don’t have the time or energy to spend learning a full-blown card-counting system. What I’m proposing may be a lot simpler and easier. Learn Ace-Ten Front Count, or the Speed Count . You’ll be able to learn either counting system in about the same time it took you to find out the essential playing strategy. Once you use them, you’ll completely wipe out your theoretical hourly loss by flat betting or employing a progressive betting system and replace it with a theoretical win every hour you play blackjack. (You’ll have the slight edge once you play blackjack.)