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GameMasters Secret's Page
The GameMaster's Secrets
The Internet Blackjack Report - Part 2

This should be viewed MORE as a historal document

Streaks

A reader wrote recently that he enjoyed playing Blackjack at various Internet casinos and one of the features he liked best about it was the ability to "jump" his bets pretty much at will. What this means is that it's possible to bet $1 on a hand and then bet $25 on GameMaster's Internet Blackjack Report the next, a move that will likely attract a lot of attention at a brick-and-mortar casino. His question to me was what, if any, strategy should be applied in order to benefit from this.

Hopefully you already know that no method of money management can give the player an edge for very long in a game where the casino has an advantage. Sure, you can win for a time by doubling your bets after a loss (or after a win; whatever floats your boat) but in time, the casino's edge will bite you. But the more I thought about what "Frank" asked, the more I realized that things are a bit different at some Internet casinos. If you read the first part of this series, you saw that I named some casinos which offer a single-deck game where the player has a small edge over the casino on the first hand after the shuffle. Well, since they shuffle after each hand is completed, that means the player who uses proper playing strategy will always have a small edge. The key word here is "small", but it is an edge and so it follows that a player who can finance his or her bets will, in the long run, show some sort of profit.

Playing with the same small edge on every hand has its own set of problems as well as opportunities. The first problem is, of course, that you can still lose even though you have an edge. Casinos have bad days and so can you. Now, imagine that you're the unluckiest person in the world and you play Blackjack by betting either $1 or $25 per hand. It's easy to see that you could win most of the $1 bets and lose most of the $25 bets and after a week of that, you'd be a substantial loser, even though you have the edge. We "experts" know that can happen and prepare for it through the use of money management techniques, so that has to play a part in any rational plan. The other side of the coin is that if you can make a bigger bet, over time you'll make a bigger profit. But that requires a bigger bankroll in order to survive the inevitable losing sessions, so the total return as a percentage of your bankroll may be so small that you'd be better off investing in a Treasury Bill. But that's no fun. Hell, let's go gamble!

Well.....kinda, sorta. Long-time readers know I'm not a gambler. I'm an investor and if I don't have "the best of it", I just don't play. But that's usually for much higher stakes than a $5 Blackjack bet, so let's loosen up a bit here, GameMaster, and show your readers how to take advantage of the situation offered at these Internet Blackjack games. The way I'd do it if I was going to venture, say, $300 at this would be to bet $5 a hand until I was at least $50 ahead. Of course, I could lose the $300 and that would be that. But, if I got ahead by $50 or so, I'd bet $25 on the next hand and, win or lose, bet $25 on the one after that. If I doubled on the first hand and lost, I'd bet $5 on the second. But let's say I win one and lose one. I'd still have a $50 profit and I'd keep betting until I made more $$$ or got knocked back to $300 or slightly below.

Now, I'm not one of those who thinks, "I'm playing with the casino's $$$" when I get ahead. It's MY $$$ once it comes across the table, but I'm using the profits to finance a bit of over-betting. Yes, it's foolish to overbet, but so long as $300 won't impact on my lifestyle, it's a reasonable "gamble" (oh, how I hate to use that word!) and I can deal with the risk. Don't forget that I'm betting in a "positive expectation" situation, because I have the edge on every hand, so my "violation" is just dumb money management, not an exercise in bankroll destruction. Let's say that the Blackjack gods smile on me and I make a $150 profit. At that point, I'd make three $50 bets, risking it all, but still leaving my $300 balance more or less intact. And so it would go. I'm sorry that I don't have any magic system to make this more exciting, but there aren't any; at least any that are legitimate. Extensive studies have been done on the probability of winning a hand after winning the previous hand and winning after losing, etc. and there's no correlation of one to the other. Remember, streaks cannot be predicted; we can only identify them after they've finished.

So, I'd just "press" the profits (See? I'm talking like a gambler already) and drop back to the minimum when and if the profit's gone. Hey, some of you out there could hit a "streak" and make some serious $$$. Most of us won't, so let's not bet the house payment on this little scheme, okay? Good luck and be careful out there.

See you here next time.

 

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