Winning at Blackjack

Winning at blackjack requires two things: playing to perfect basic strategy and adopting a sound approach to money management. Perfect basic strategy is vital for winning because this is what it takes to level the playing field against the house (or, in other words, to reduce the edge that the house has over you).

Money management is also vital to winning at blackjack because most players try to win with too small a bankroll. Your bankroll is the amount of money that you are willing to put at risk, knowing that there is a reasonable possibility that you could lose that entire amount. Accordingly, you should never gamble with money that you can’t afford to lose.

• Never bring your entire bankroll with you to one gaming session, but instead set yourself a daily gaming budget. Start by dividing your bankroll by the number of days that you intend to play. Then divide your daily bankroll into the number of sessions you intend to play each day. If you do all of this the result will be your single-session bankroll. Use your daily bankroll for today and bet tomorrow’s money only when tomorrow comes.

• Set win goals of between 50 to 100% for a single-session bankroll. Then, when you winning at blackjack, set aside your original bankroll plus half of your winnings. Now play with the remainder and continue to set aside any

• Set loss limits so that if you lose half of you session bankroll, you get up and leave the table. A key to winning at blackjack over the long term is being able to cut your short term losses.

• Use the Winning Progressive method of betting by predetermining a percentage increase for each winning bet and sticking to it. For instance, you might want to increase your winning bets by approximately 50% after the second win. As an example, start with a £10 bet, and then follow it with another £10 bet. If both bets are winners, you can go up to £15, £22, £30, £45, etc. If you were losing you would continuously bet (he table minimum) when losing.

Never double-up your bets after losing hands in an attempt to catch up. Your money would just fizzle away like an Alka-Seltzer in warm water.

Identify the profitable opportunities in gambling by shopping around for the best odds, rules, and playing conditions available where you play.

Winning at blackjack is not guaranteed if you adhere to these principles, but what they will help you to do – as long as you are playing perfect basic strategy – is minimise your losses and in most cases protect your winnings.

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