Contents
- Money management in blackjack does not involve setting goals for profit or determining loss limits, neither does it circle around raising or reducing your bets (progression or regression betting). What money management in basic strategy does is to help you achieve the greatest return per dollar gambled.
- It's true – today, there's an app for everything, and blackjack money management is no exception. There are plenty of apps that allow you to compartmentalize your finances into neat, nifty little boxes that make managing money easy as pie. You can check out your spending history, make different budgets, and set goals for big purchases.
- Blackjack strategies are designed to turn the odds in your favor, increase your chances of winning while decreasing your losses. Every decision you make costs you money – hit, stand, split, double down, surrender. To win back your bet as well as some profits, you need an effective playing method.
Very few people can make a living off of blackjack. To win in the long run, you must count cards, watch tables, risk big money, and employ questionable betting strategies.
- Yearly salary of a professional blackjack player
What is the salary of a professional blackjack player? It's a common question I hear, but what would seem like a simple enough question actually has a fairly complex answer. Meridian bet casino atlantic city. First of all, the term 'blackjack player salary' isn't quite appropriate. Professional blackjack players don't make a set amount of money every month like a salaried employee does. Playing blackjack for a living is more like owning your own business or working for 100% commission. Therefore different professional players make different amounts of money based on many varying factors. Some of the more obvious factors being the stakes the played at, the amount of time spent playing and the skill level of the player. There are also many less obvious factors involved in determining how much money a professional player will make. I'm not going to cover all of them here, but just a few of these additional variables include the quality of the blackjack games played, the card counting system used and the size of the player's betting spread.
The 'Salary' (Income) of a Pro Blackjack Player
Blackjack Player EarningsEvery blackjack player has a theoretical 'expected value' of their play. When you bet $100 on a hand, you're going to win or lose $100 (assuming you don't push, double, split, surrender or get a blackjack). However, over time there's an average value of that hand. In card counting, high positive counts create a positive expected value for a card counter and negative counts create a negative expected value. Knowing this, and knowing how to take advantage of this, is the foundation of how professional blackjack players are able to make money.
So exactly what is the total overall expected value for a professional blackjack player? Check out the examples below to get an idea. For simplicity I'm going to do some rounding off and I'll assume only one hand is being played with all counts being played through (no backing out on negative counts).
# of decks: 2
Rules: S17, DA2, DAS, no RSA
Stakes: $100 units
Betting Spread: 1-5 ($100-$500)
Penetration: 68%
Counting System: Hi-Opt II with Full Indices
Hands/Hour: 180
Expected Value = $390 per hour
# of decks: 1
Rules: H17, DA2, no DAS, no RSA
Stakes: $50 units
Betting Spread: 1-4 ($50-$200)
Penetration: 7 Rounds (heads up)
Counting System: Wong Halves with Illustrious 18 Indices
Hands/Hour: 200
Expected Value = $285 per hour
# of decks: 6
Rules: S17, DA2, DAS, LS, no RSA
Stakes: $50 units
Betting Spread: 1-10 ($50-$500)
Penetration: 80%
Counting System: Hi-Lo with Sweet 16 & Fab 4 Indices
Hands/Hour: 220 (heads up)
Expected Value = $275 per hour
Needless to say, changing any of the variables listed would alter the expected value of an hour played. Now let's assume for simplicity that a professional blackjack player played each of these scenarios for 5 hours per week. That's a respectable 15-hour work week (nice, right?). Here's what the 15 hours per week would yield in theoretical expected value…
(5 hours X $390) + (5 hours X $285) + (5 hours X $275) = $4,750 per week
$4,750 X 4 weeks = $19,000 per month
Yearly Theoretical Earnings from Playing Blackjack
Okay, so in this example you're looking at $19,000 per month, which would then be $228,000 per year if you played for 12 months. These numbers are theoretical, meaning that your reality will not be exactly there. You might overshoot your theoretical (gotta love that) or you might fall short (not as fun). However, if you play enough hours it all pans out over time, or at least your results will be in the ball park of your theoretical earnings. Getting it all in cash is nice too.
If you're contemplating a career as a professional blackjack player, you have to understand your own personal circumstances. You might play more or less hours than this. You might play higher quality or lower quality games. You might not have a very high skill level or you might play at higher or lower stakes. You also need to know what kind of bankroll can handle these levels of action, but that's not something I'm going to get into here. Paragon casino cinema. This is just a teaser to show you the potential of a skilled blackjack player rather than a guide on how to actually reach these numbers. If you want to know everything that goes into being highly successful, you're going to need to do more than just read a few pages off a website. You might want to consider my next blackjack class. I apologize for the shameless plug, but whether you want to become a professional player or just make some extra cash on the weekends, my class is definitely a smart investment.
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There are lots of bad blackjack betting systems that can, if they are presented in a way that camouflages their weaknesses, may seem to be a sure money-making method. Sometimes, when the pattern of losses and wins follows a predictable and specific pattern, they can effectively increase player's winnings or minimize the losses. But since predictability is not in blackjack, more frequently the player may get the opposite result.
Progressive-2
'Level two' progressive betting system is the simplest. The player should decide on a maximum and a minimum amounts for bets. The player makes the smaller bet after a loss, and the larger one after a win. For example, you choose $5 as a minimum bet and $15 as a maximum amount. You start with the smaller amount. If you win you bet $15 and then continue to wager $15 until you lose. After the loss you go back to the minimum bet of $5. This is a really simple strategy, but it is considered an advanced betting system.
$4,750 X 4 weeks = $19,000 per month
Yearly Theoretical Earnings from Playing Blackjack
Okay, so in this example you're looking at $19,000 per month, which would then be $228,000 per year if you played for 12 months. These numbers are theoretical, meaning that your reality will not be exactly there. You might overshoot your theoretical (gotta love that) or you might fall short (not as fun). However, if you play enough hours it all pans out over time, or at least your results will be in the ball park of your theoretical earnings. Getting it all in cash is nice too.
If you're contemplating a career as a professional blackjack player, you have to understand your own personal circumstances. You might play more or less hours than this. You might play higher quality or lower quality games. You might not have a very high skill level or you might play at higher or lower stakes. You also need to know what kind of bankroll can handle these levels of action, but that's not something I'm going to get into here. Paragon casino cinema. This is just a teaser to show you the potential of a skilled blackjack player rather than a guide on how to actually reach these numbers. If you want to know everything that goes into being highly successful, you're going to need to do more than just read a few pages off a website. You might want to consider my next blackjack class. I apologize for the shameless plug, but whether you want to become a professional player or just make some extra cash on the weekends, my class is definitely a smart investment.
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There are lots of bad blackjack betting systems that can, if they are presented in a way that camouflages their weaknesses, may seem to be a sure money-making method. Sometimes, when the pattern of losses and wins follows a predictable and specific pattern, they can effectively increase player's winnings or minimize the losses. But since predictability is not in blackjack, more frequently the player may get the opposite result.
Progressive-2
'Level two' progressive betting system is the simplest. The player should decide on a maximum and a minimum amounts for bets. The player makes the smaller bet after a loss, and the larger one after a win. For example, you choose $5 as a minimum bet and $15 as a maximum amount. You start with the smaller amount. If you win you bet $15 and then continue to wager $15 until you lose. After the loss you go back to the minimum bet of $5. This is a really simple strategy, but it is considered an advanced betting system.
5 lose 5 win 15 win 15 lose 5
In theory and in practice, the player who uses this system maximizes his profits on winning streaks and minimizes them on losing ones.
However, the player always makes the larger wager on the losing hands. And overall, the outcome of a 100-hand session that is played by the progressive-2 will depend on how the cards have come out. If the player has often winning streaks, he will come ahead. But, the belief that streaks happen with certain regularity is a superstition.
Progressive-5
The progressive 5-level system is also a simple system, based on a 1, 2, 3, 5, 1 progression (another popular one – 1, 2, 3, 6, 1). For example: you are playing blackjack using this system. Your bet is $5, so you should bet $5, 10, 15, 25 and then $5 again. If the hand loses you will go back to the original $5 bet.
The progressive 5-level is successful when lots of hands win and does not hurt the player if he loses lots of hands as well. For example, you put a $5 starting bet and if your first three hands lose but the next three win, you would be ahead with $15 after 6 played hands.
Hand | Bet | Result | NetGain |
---|---|---|---|
1 | $5 | lost | -$5 |
2 | $5 | lost | -$10 |
3 | $5 | lost | -$15 |
4 | $5 | won | -$10 |
5 | $10 | won | $0 |
6 | $15 | won | $15 |
However, the system fails if certain sequences, like: win, loss, win, loss, win, loss happen. In this case, it would be better to make an equal bet each hand. Nevertheless, there is a risk when you take attempts to earn from three winning streaks or even more. In fact, in spite of the involved risk, the risk is minimal when the player uses the basic strategy and makes an equal bet on each hand. Online blackjack implies winning streaks and also losing streaks, so when using the progressive betting systems you may enhance your chances of profits.
In fact, the five-level progressive system will increase the player's profits on winning streaks and minimize them on losing ones.
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Overall, it is a system the outcome of which will vary unpredictably from a net profit to a net loss depending on how the cards come out.