• There are many betting strategies that players use when playing Blackjack
• Martingale, 1-3-2-6, and Oscars Blackjack betting strategies are the most popular ones
• In this article, we look at the most famous one to see if they work or not

• Blackjack Positive Progressive Betting Strategy Strategies
• Blackjack Positive Progressive Betting Strategy Odds

Want to play blackjack like a pro? First, you need to know the rules, understand Blackjack odds, and use basic strategy.

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Then, knowing how to sound cards own't hurt either.

And that's not always enough.

You wouldn’t want to run out of money before you get even close to a lucky streak, would you?

So, like with any other Casino game, you also need to know how to manage your bankroll.

And that’s where Blackjack betting systems come into play.

Types of Blackjack Betting Strategies

Most Blackjack betting strategies are progressive betting systems.

They fall into two categories:

• Positive progression – betting more after you win a bet. Aimed to maximize profits during winning streaks and limit losses when things run cold.
• Negative progression – increasing the amount you bet after a loss of a bet. Aimed at recouping losses and winning small amounts of profit very often.

You’ve probably heard about Martingale Blackjack betting system. It’s one of the most famous betting systems used not only in Blackjack but also Roulette and Craps.

And is a perfect example of a negative progression betting system.

You can check the detailed analysis of the Martingale system on this page.

Contrary to popular belief, Martingale is not the only betting strategy you can use for Blackjack.

What other Blackjack betting strategies are there? Let’s take a look.

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Blackjack Positive Progressive Betting Strategy Strategies

1-3-2-6 Blackjack Betting Strategy

Although the name of this system makes it seem complicated, it is actually very simple:

You only trigger the sequence after you win a bet. It ends when you lose a bet.

How does it work?

Below are some examples considering a unit bet of $10

• If you lose 4 bets in a row, all your bets would have been $10. Without a winning bet to trigger the sequence, the bet size stays the same.
• If you win 4 bets in a row your bet sizes would be $10, $30, $20 & $60. The sequence is triggered by winning a bet and continues because there is no losing bet. The sequence ends after you win 4 bets in a row. If you win 5 bets in a row your 5th bet would go back down to $10.
• If you win the first 2 bets but lose the 3rd bet, your bet sizes are $10, $30, $20 & $10. The betting system is triggered because you have a winning bet and continues until you have a losing bet. Since the 3rd bet was lost, you would drop back down to the $10 bet and start again.

Mixing up your bet sizes in this way reduces the risk of blowing out and betting everything you have on one hand.

It provides some structure to your play so that you can enjoy the game as much as possible.

The four-step progression adds some excitement to the game. And it reduces the monogamy of betting the same amount every time.

Keep in mind, though:
This Blackjack betting system will not give you an edge over the house. The house edge remains the same regardless of what amount you are betting. No betting strategy can affect it.

Oscars Blackjack Betting Strategy

The system was originally developed around 1965. Back then it aimed to manage small and consistent profits at the game of Craps.

No matter what game you play, the goal of the Oscars betting strategy is to make one unit of profit for each sequence.

Once you win 1 unit, then the whole progression resets and you start again. So, if you win the first bet, the next bet remains the same as the general aim has been achieved.

If you lose your first bet, then the next bet is also 1 unit.

The difference now is that you are down 1 unit. So, the progression system should begin so you can recoup that loss and generate the 1 unit of profit.

If your second bet wins, the next bet is doubled. Each successive winning hand continues to double in stakes until the aim of winning 1 unit is reached.

Once that occurs the progression is reset again, and we begin from scratch.

Blackjack Positive Progressive Betting Strategy Odds

You need to think of bets in terms of units and not an amount. Select the unit size you want to use and then you can follow the below rules:

• When you lose a bet, your next bet will be down to 1 unit.
• When you win a bet, your next bet needs to be 1 unit higher
• STOP the moment you have a profit of 1 unit on the sequence. The next bet will be 1 unit and you start the process again.

Below are some examples:

How to read the table:

You see, while you’re losing, you keep the bet at the minimum unit size while accumulating losses.

Once you win a bet - the progression begins.

That’s when you embark on a mission to recoup the losses and have a profit of 1 unit.

If you’re still with me, you may wonder -

Why on the last bet the wager is 2 units and not 3?

That’s because your aim is to profit for exactly 1 unit, remember?

At this stage of the sequence, you were losing 1 unit, thus a bet size of 2 units would result in 1 unit of profit.

So, even though you won the previous bet, you don’t need to increase your bet size. You’ve already achieved your goal.

This example shows what can happen when you hit a hot streak.

As long as there are no recorded losses in the sequence, you can continue to add a unit to your bet size as you keep winning.

The idea is to ride the wave until it stops.

It gives you the greatest opportunity to capitalize on a good run. While still locking in some of your profits along the way.

This Blackjack betting system requires a lot of patience.

Image playing Blackjack at brick-and-mortar Casinos. Action can sometimes be already slow at full tables. So, using strategy wouldn't really bring you any significant wins any time soon.

But the point of the Oscars betting system is not to make you rich every time you visit Las Vegas Casinos.

It does help to maximize profits when a good run of hands presents itself.

Stringing together 6 or 7 straight winning hands at the Blackjack table will result in a significant win.

That also makes this betting system popular with Blackjack players who count cards.

When they see that they have a significant advantage in certain situations, betting higher has a positive expected value.

Summary

If you want to improve your chances to win at Blackjack, you need to know the rules and the basic strategy. If you can handle counting cards - even better.

Blackjack systems and betting strategies won’t improve your odds at winning real money. But they can help you to manage your bankroll better.

Disclaimer: Gambling is a game of chance and there's no sure-fire formula that guarantee winnings. You can improve your winning chances by using the right in-game strategies but there is no way to predict when a machine or a Casino game is going to pay. Also, this page contains affiliate links. If you click through and play, we might earn a commission. That’s what allow us to keep CasinoSmash free and bring you the best online Casino bonuses!

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For centuries, the strategic potential of blackjack has defied the chances and reduced the house edge to the point of complete elimination. The advanced card counting strategies were fought off by the casino operators through a gradual increase of the card decks inside the shoe.

Nowadays, it is next to impossible to find a live blackjack variant played with 1, 2, or even 4 decks; instead, 6 and 8-deck blackjack games are dominating the market, thwarting the beginner-level card counters. This, along with the RNG (Random Number Generator) blackjack, has created the need for alternative solutions, and a number of players resorted to blackjack betting strategies that exploit the winning and losing streaks, focusing on money management rather than trying to predict the next card. At the same time, these are much easier to master than some of the advanced blackjack techniques, such as Shuffle Tracking, Zen, or Omega 2.

Where to Start – The Most Popular Blackjack Betting Strategies

The complexity and dedication are not the only reasons people shy away from card counting techniques. Casino operators frown upon any skill that will give you an unfair advantage over other players (and the house), which is why advanced budget management methods are your safest resorts. They can also be arranged according to the difficulty level, starting with the simplest form of betting (flat) and gradually advancing to the complex patterns used by experienced players (Labouchere):

• Flat Betting
• Martingale
• 1-3-2-6 System
• Paroli
• D’ Alembert
• Oscar’s Grind
• Labouchere

Apart from the complexity level, each of the systems can also be classified according to the risk degree and the type of progression it entails – negative or positive.

Flat betting

Flat betting is somewhat of an exception, and many do not even consider it a strategy at all. The only requirement of this “system” is to remain in the game by constantly submitting the same size bet. Ideally, the player needs to establish a budget and divide it into equal portions of up to 5% of the total balance. Clearly, flat betting will not make you rich, but the strategy is deemed successful if you manage to generate around 10-20% profit.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Flat Betting

Apart from the extreme simplicity, the strongest suit of flat betting is the damage control it delivers. The fixed stakes will prevent you from suffering a sudden, substantial loss that some of the other methods are prone to.

On the other hand, the results that flat betting can produce are modest and rest on the assumption that you will win more than 50% of the time. This is why most players outgrow this strategy fairly quickly. The monotony makes it quite easy to abandon this process and move onto potentially more profitable (and riskier) blackjack betting strategies described below.

Risk Rate: Low

Positive Progressive Betting Systems – Definition and Popular Variants

Positive progressive betting systems are designed to get the most of the players’ winning streak, commanding a bet increase every time you score a winning blackjack hand. The stakes are raised systematically and lowered after the first losing hand. The most popular representatives of positive progressive strategies are Paroli and Oscar’s Grind.

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Paroli

Paroli is often defined as a reversed Martingale system, prompting the players to top the stake after every winning hand. Every next bet should be doubled and re-set after three consecutive winning rounds. For example, if we are to start our betting session with a $1 stake, the next two stakes should be increased by 2:

$1 > $2 > $4

For the sake of illustration, let us assume that you have placed a $10 bet and your hand trumped the dealer’s, resulting in an even money payout. Your next bet should, therefore, be $20, which is your base bet + $10 that you have won in the previous round. If you manage to win that hand as well, the follow-up stake should amount to $40 – again, the $10 base stake, plus the winnings from the previous rounds. The third win will result in an $80 bet, after which you will need to go back to the initial $10 bet, regardless of the outcome. Looking at the starting point, we can easily deduce that a $10 starting bet generated a total of $160.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Introducing Paroli Betting System to Your Gameplay

As you can see, the Reversed Martingale is very easy to use, as it requires the player to press the bet only 3 times and revert to the original wager in two cases – after a loss or when a series of three winning hands in a row is completed.

An added value of Paroli is that you do not need to have a substantial budget to implement this strategy, which is the main drawback of some other progressive betting patterns.

On the downside, three linked winning hands are not that easy to land, and the players may find themselves operating at a loss before long.

Risk Rate: Medium

Oscars Grind

A medium complexity system with a low-risk rate, Oscars Grind (aka Hoyle’s Press) starts off with a single unit bet and aims at generating an equivalent profit amount. The losing hands will follow the flat betting pattern whereas the winning hands will be followed by the bet increase – but only if it will result in the desired profit of one unit. Otherwise, the bet size is decreased to assure that the accurate amount is acquired, as shown in the table below:

The desired result is a single unit win on every session as well as the increased damage control during the losing streaks.

Pros and Cons of Oscars Grind

The method is not aggressive which means that you will be able to sustain longer losing streaks without suffering irreparable damage to your finances. The proceeds, although modest, will gradually accumulate, recuperating the losses incurred across ten rounds in no more than 4 wins.

At the same time, you may find the system frustrating as it requires a lot of self-discipline and restraint.

Risk Rate: Low

What Are Negative Progressive Betting Systems?

As opposed to the progressive betting methods, the negative strategies demand that the bets are increased during the losing streaks; the idea is to recover all that you have previously lost and to gain a profit. By default, negative progressions are more aggressive than their counterparts and they carry a somewhat higher risk rate. The representatives of this methodology are Martingale, D’Alembert, and Laboucher systems.

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Martingale Betting System

When you first come across to Martingale, it may seem like a heaven-sent system that simply cannot fail. You will soon discover that not all share your initial enthusiasm; there will be those who might urge you to avoid this strategy, especially if your gambling budget is limited.

As a negative progression system, Martingale mandates that you double the stake after every losing hand and go back to flat betting after a win. In the perfect world, this should generate a series of cumulative winnings and recuperate the losses in a course of a single losing streak.

But what happens if the streak prolongs and you budget dries out? Even if you start wagering with the betting minimum, you are running a risk of leaving the table empty-handed. To illustrate, let us assume that you begin the session with a $5 wager and start losing. To get back on the track, you will now need to double every next wager, which means that it will take no more than 8 consecutive losses to find yourself short of $1,275:

If the trend keeps up, you can soon end up with a considerable debt, which is probably not what you have signed up for when joining the blackjack table and introducing a betting structure to your game. High rollers will, of course, be able to disregard the elevated risk rate of the Martingale system, but average online or land-based casino visitors will probably need to adjust their strategy to the amount of money they can afford to lose. For most of them, this means that Martingale is off the limits.

The benefit of using Martingale is that it can produce excellent results in a relatively short time span.

Pros:

• Can be effective in short-term sessions
• Simple to use

Cons:

• Uncomfortably risky
• More suitable for high rollers
• Possibility of the stake amount exceeding the payout rate
• Table limits can easily stop the progression

As you can see, the cons, in this case, outweigh the pros, which means that you may want to leave the strategy to those with more money to waste.

Risk Rate: Extremely High

D’Alembert

D’Alembert is a great alternative to Martingale, since it offers a reduced risk rate but has the same complexity level, which makes it suitable for beginners. The system has an alternating pattern, urging the players to increase the stakes by a single unit after a loss or deduct one unit from the follow-up wager after a win. So, if you should happen to lose $5 bet, the next amount that you need to wager is $10 and the one after that $15 (as $5 is considered a single unit). Should the $15 result in a win, the subsequent bet should be re-set to $10. Example:

Pros of D’Alembert Betting System

The entire scheme is very easy to follow through – all you need to do is remember your previous bet and act accordingly. Also, since the increase is moderate, you will not risk losing a large portion of your budget. Last but not least, thanks to the controlled variations in bet size, you are less likely to hit the table limits.

Cons of D’Alembert

The main defect of this system is that it’ll take forever to recover the lost bets, not to mention the perils of the long losing streaks that are likely to severely affect your balance.

Risk Rate: Medium High

Labouchere Betting System

In Laboucher, the players start with any sequence of numbers, where the first and the last number in the chain determine the bet total. Let’s say that you select the following string:

2 – 3 – 4 – 6 – 9

When you add up the first and the last number, you will get a total of 11, which should be the initial bet. If you happen to win, the relevant numbers should be eliminated from the sequence, leaving you with 3 – 4 – 6.

Assuming that you win again, the remaining number (4) should be doubled.

If, on the other hand, you lose the initial bet, the total must be added to the chain:

2 – 3 – 4 – 6 – 9 – 11

The bet will now amount to $13 (2 + 11), adding the number $13 to the string if the player loses again, or removing both 2 and 11 if the outcome is favorable.

The sequence total will depend on the target amount, which means that the players whose objective is to make a profit of $20 will create any sequence that can add up to that sum.

Pros of Laboucher

The increased control of both the budget and the progression of your bets is the main perk of Laboucher, but the players should make sure to use it at high limit tables.

Cons of Laboucher

Just like Martingale, this system threatens to hit the table limits, although, not as fast.

Risk Rate: Medium

The “In-Between” Split System: 1-3-2-6 Blackjack Betting System

Seemingly complicated, the 1-3-2-6 blackjack betting strategy is actually much simpler than it looks at first glance. After deciding on the betting unit, the players will just need to make sure that the system is executed correctly, in accordance with the 1-3-2-6 sequence. On a $5 unit bet, the process would look like this:

• Step 1: bet the single $5 unit. If you lose, repeat. If you win, proceed to Step 2.
• Step 2: bet 3 units ($15). If you lose, start over. If you win, proceed to Step 3
• Step 3: bet 2 units ($10). If you lose, start over. If you win, proceed to Step 4
• Step 4: bet 6 units ($30)

Pros of 1-3-2-6 System

The upside of this betting pattern is that you will have no difficulties mastering it – the formula is in the name itself, so it does not get any easier than that. The losses will not be severe, and you will be quite happy with the results this system provides in the short-run.

Cons of 1-3-2-6 System

You might not need a huge bankroll to execute the 1-3-2-6 betting scheme but bear in mind that the system’s “expiration date” is just around the corner. While the maneuver is efficient enough to be included in the list of the best blackjack betting strategies, it will not eliminate the house edge and provide lasting results.

Risk Rate: Low to Medium

Conclusion on the most successful Blackjack betting strategies

Adding some structure and limitation to your gambling routine might be just what you need to handle your money more efficiently. Still, you will need to remember that these systems are flawed, especially in the long run. As they have zero effect on the house edge, the end results they produce will be modest, but some of the low-risk systems mentioned above will prove quite handy in cutting down the unwanted losses.

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