Blackjack newsletter and blackjack strategySubscribe to the Blackjack Insider newsletter

BJI recommends these trusted online casinos and offers.

BJI promotions

Our Blackjack Tournament Pro and BJI columnist Kenneth R. Smith has written his first book, How to Win More Blackjack Tournaments, which summarizes the blackjack tournament strategies contained in his articles from Blackjack Insider (plus three new articles not available anywhere else!). $14.95 for the e-book, available immediately after purchasing.

How To Win More Blackjack Tournaments
Be The Dealer online casino

$200 signup bonus! BJI recommends Be The Dealer for online blackjack. Click here to learn why, and how to get your bonus.

play now!
(web ads above removed with paid membership. Click here for advertisement rates)

Friends of Blackjack Insider... great sites from our authors and partners:
Southern Gaming introduces the 'Comps Club': Coupons and more for southern casinos!

YOU NEED MORE THAN RULES OF

THUMB TO SIZE YOUR BANKROLL

By Alan Krigman

Alan Krigman, and his poetic sidekick Sumner A Ingmark, have been illuminating the dark recesses of casino gambling for more than a dozen years. Mr. Krigman is especially well known for sharing his insights into the mathematics underlying the various games (including blackjack), the influence of volatility and skewness as well as edge on bankroll during the course of a session, and the impact of betting as well as decision strategies on expected performance. A searchable archive of Mr. Krigman's prose and Mr. Ingmark's muse is online at http://www.iconworldwide.com/winningways/search.php.

 

Winning in a repetitive bet milieu like a casino game, often requires a big enough bankroll to weather the cold streaks. It's a matter of probabilities, not absolutes. The question isn't what multiple of your average bet is needed to play a certain game. Rather, how big a bankroll will yield some percentage confidence of surviving the normal downswings of the game with a given betting strategy.

Few solid citizens appreciate and understand the influence of bankroll size. Fewer, yet, realize how funding-needs are altered with considerations such as: average bet, edge, volatility, and the number of coups they hope to experience during a session or visit.

Each game, in some cases each way of playing, is unique. But the general effects of the various elements can be broadly applied qualitatively, if not quantitatively. Blackjack affords a useful paradigm for examining the diverse implications.

To start, picture three ways to play following Basic Strategy.

Option #1.

You bet exactly or an average of $10 per round, giving the casino a 0.5 percent edge. Your "expectation" is a theoretical loss of $0.05 per coup. A risk of ruin analysis shows what stake yields 90 percent confidence you won't go bust in some number of rounds.

For example, if you bet a flat $10 on a single spot you'd need at least the following bankrolls for the indicated number of rounds of play to be 90 percent confident you won't go broke .

Bankroll

# Rounds

$304

250

$436

500

$628

1,000

 

 

Option #2

Pretend you vary your bets from...

...enter your member login information below to read the remainder of this article...

Paid Members-Only Article

You have clicked on a link to a Blackjack Insider web page or article for paid subscribers. You must have a paid membership to the Blackjack Insider newsletter to view this content. About 1/2 of the articles in each issue of the Blackjack Insider are for paid members only, while the rest are viewable by everyone. Your purchased membership will allow you to read all Blackjack Insider articles for 12 months.

Enter your user name and password below (they were listed and e-mailed to you after you purchased your Blackjack Insider membership):

User name:
Password: (case sensitive)
Save user name and password in your browser so you don't have to type them again later

Forgot your membership id or password? Click here.

How do I get a membership?

A membership can be purchased online at our secure store with your credit card for only $19.95 per year. You will receive a user name and password immediately by e-mail which you can use to read the all past and future members-only articles for 12 months, as well as the regular free articles.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A ONE YEAR MEMBERSHIP NOW... only $19.95

Do I have to buy a membership?

No. Blackjack Insider will continue to be published as a free monthly e-newsletter. But about 1/2 of the articles each month will be for paid members only. Subscribers without a membership can still view and read the non-members articles for free.

What happens after I buy a membership?

Immediately after you complete your purchase, you will receive a unique login user name and password. These are displayed on the final purchase page, and are e-mailed to you. When you click on a members-only article in our web site, you will be prompted for this user name and password (as shown above). Simply enter them, and enjoy the article! Note: make sure you turn on the checkbox above when you login, to save the user name and password so that you don't have to re-enter them every time you view members-only articles.

Why did you switch to paid memberships?

Blackjack Insider is a professional monthly publication with top-notch articles by world-reknown gaming experts. In addition, we have regular reporters that monitor game conditions and tournament schedules throughout North America. We use a partially paid subscriber model to enable us to continue getting the best content for our readers from leading authors on blackjack and gaming.

10% off America's Premier Print gaming Magazine for BJI subscribers! Subscribe online!

Casino Player Magazine

©2007, DeepNet Technologies. No material to be copied without express permission of DeepNet Technologies.
This site developed by DeepNet Technologies, Ontario, Canada. Contact webmaster @ bjinsider . com if you have problems.
This site is best viewed in a 800x600 graphics mode, or higher.

































BJI Online Casinos
(webs ads below removed with paid membership)


Be the Dealer