How to Manage Your Bankroll and Maximize Your Profits

Another good strategy on blackjack is the one that focus on your bankroll. To know how to manage your bankroll has almost the same importance as knowing and using a good basic blackjack strategy on your game and using a good basic strategy with a good bankroll strategy is the best way to walk away a winner. A bankroll is a certain amount of money that you set aside at the beginning of the evening, one that you can always afford to lose. Most pro's will tell you to set aside about 2 to 300 times your usual wager. So if you play at $5 blackjack tables, and usually bet in $5's, then your bankroll should be about 1500 dollars. This may seem a little excessive, but split it up mentally into sessions at the table and it seems just right. If your bet spread is 1-4 (meaning your bets are most often 1,2,3 or 4 times your base unit - so at a $5 table you usually bet $5, $10, $15, or $20), take 5% of your bankroll and make it your session limit. This comes out to about $75 bucks. Much more in line with reality. If you play a larger spread of bets, you will want to increase your session limit too. Say your spread is 1-8 instead of 1-4, you will probably want about $400 per session. Now, keep in mind that your session limits have to be stuck with, and that your bankroll has to be large enough to withstand some losing sessions. Bankroll is different from session bankroll, for a reason.


A good way to manage your bankroll and to maximize your profits is to use a betting system. There are a large number of such systems, but below i have described three of the ones I consider to be the best. So, no matter of what method you will choose to nurse your bankroll, always remember to figure out how much money you are willing or able to lose before you leave the Blackjack table, because you will might end up to walk away as a loser.


The martingale system
The martingale system is one of the oldest betting system and it was invented over 200 years ago. This system teaches the gambler to double his wager each time he loses. It is based on the probability of losing infinite times in a row and is usually applied to 'even money' bets. Here's how it works: the gambler makes his standard bet, say 5$ and with every lost he will double his bet. 5$ bet, lose, 10$ bet, lose, 20$ bet, lose, 40$, lose and so on. After a win the gambler drop back his bet to 5$. All bets are reclaimed when you win a hand.


To remove the efficiency of the martingale system in casinos are set table limits, because exists the possibility for the player that after a long losing series to reach the table maximum and so the intention of his system is defeated. For this system to work, the player needs a significant amount of money and the payoff simply aren't worth it. For example, if a player starts with a bet of 5$ and he lose the first four bets and then win the fifth bet ( without to double down or split his cards) he would win only 5$ more. This is simply not worth it, and if the gambler is losing more hands in a row it is time for him to leave the table and not to double his wager. Also losing double downs or splits can empty his bankroll very fast.


Progressive betting system - 1
This betting system is the most simple and effective. What you need to do is to choose on a maximum and minimum bet. You will bet your smaller amount after a loss and the maximum amount after a win. Here's an example: you set your minimum at 5$ and the maximum bet at 15$. First you bet 5$ and if you win that hand than you bet 15$. You will continue betting 15$ until you lose. If you lose, you get back to your minimum bet of 5$. This is a basic system and progressive.


Progressive betting system - 2
This is another simple and efficient system, which is based on a 1, 2, 3, 5 back to 1 progression. For example: for a 5$ player, the betting levels would be 5$, 10$, 15$ and 25$. Using this system you will bet for your first hand 5$ and than you will get forward to the next level in case you win a hand. If you lose a hand you get back to your original bet that was 5$. Also if you win four times in a row you should get back down to your original 5$ wager.


This system increases your bankroll if you will have repeatedly wining hands, but doesn't get you at the edge of Bancroft after more losing hands and is still effective while playing online Blackjack. Let's suppose that you start with a 5$ wager, and you play six hands in which the first three hands you lose and the next three hands you win. In that case you would be ahead with 15$ at the end of the six hands and if u were betting an equal amount on each hand you would be even.


There's a situation in which that betting system falls. That situation is when you: win, loss, win, loss, win, loss. In that case betting an equal amount on each hand would be better for you ... This is the risk you take when you try to maximize profits on streaks of 3 wins or more. In fact is not so risky but simply you use basic strategy and you bet an equal amount for each hand. The nature of blackjack is such that winning streaks and losing streaks frequently exist, and that is where progressive betting systems increase your profits.