Blackjack Bankroll Strategy
There are a ton of people that study the game of blackjack and they feel like they know the game through and through and are ready to take down the casinos. They may have done a bunch of research and have perfected their game in their own minds, while putting together their perfect strategy, which they plan on following exactly once they get to the table. A great deal of people do so much studying when it comes to the actual game of blackjack, even including counting cards and developing techniques such as this, but one thing they seemingly always fail to do is to consider their bankroll. The reality is, you can know all you want to know about the game of blackjack and you can do all of the research in the world, but if you do not know how to manage your bankroll, you can very well find yourself walking out of the casino with your tail tucked between your legs.
A bankroll is essentially the money that you have, or the chips that you have at the table. This is the money that you possess, which you have to gamble with and there are some ways that you should and some ways that you should not look at this money. What people fail to realize a great deal of the time is that blackjack is still a game, no matter how well versed you believe you are at counting cards, or whatever other blackjack strategy you are utilizing. Even if you have a ten rich deck that you are betting heavily on, you can still get bad luck and will lose your hands, despite playing the way that you had set out to play. This happens in blackjack, but those people that win understand this and can account for these times. This means that they have a bankroll that can withstand these lulls and know how to deal with the conditions that come with these types of losses.
Some people handle losing when they played correctly very badly. This is typically called going on “tilt” which is basically where a person has suffered a bad loss, usually when they still feel that they played appropriately and made the right decisions. This leads those people feeling negative emotions over the game and they take away from the strategic advantage that they had, from all of the preparation that they had done, and it leads them to a place where they are making bad and rash decisions on the way that they are betting. This is the point where a blackjack player throws everything they know out the window and although in their minds they might be thinking that they are about to even up their winnings and dig out of the hole that they have dug, they are far more likely to lose again, likely killing their entire bankroll. Bankroll management is incredibly important and successful blackjack players realize that things happen that are out of their control, because blackjack is a game of betting and no matter how much strategy you employ, the cards will not fall in your favor sometimes.
Proper bankroll management involves not letting these things get to you and not altering your style of play. Maybe you want to back off a bit and play out a few hands with smaller bets while you regain your composer. Perhaps you want to continue betting the way you had set out to in the beginning, but either way, you cannot let the losses that are not your fault get in your way. This is the biggest way that people tend to lose it at the blackjack table, which ends up leading to even bigger losses in the long run. Before you know it, you may have no chips and your bankroll will be completely destroyed, leaving you penniless and likely feeling very depressed about your current situation.
If you are going to play blackjack regularly, want to be good at it or win any substantial amount of money, you are going to hit these positions with regularity. This flat out happens to the best blackjack players in the world on a regular basis and it is something to be aware of, but not something to worry about. Keeping a cool head and not losing your wit is what is going to get you by in the long run. However, there are some things that successful poker players do, as they account for and prepare for these bad luck situations to happen. In essence, they expect that they are going to suffer some losses while they are playing and they bring in a big enough bankroll to cover any periods of substantial losses that they might encounter.
This preparation allows them to stay at the table and fight through these down times, while waiting until lucks turns in their favor and they are back up again. There is a balance in blackjack, especially when you are playing over a long period of time, where you simply need to fight through the times that you are not getting the cards and capitalize on the times when you are getting great hands. It is sort of like getting through the storm and capitalizing when it is bright and sunny outside. This is the mindset that you should possess when you hit the blackjack table, as your bankroll is really going to determine how you can play.
No one wants to get down to the point where they hardly have any money left or chips on the table, as that puts them in a bad position.
You also need to approach the game while realizing that the phrase “it takes money to make money” is essentially true when you are approaching the game of blackjack. It is sort of like investing in real estate, as there are plenty of opportunities out there for people with a ton of money to buy and resell homes for a big time profit, especially when the economy is in the tank. These people would not be able to generate a bunch of money if they did not have the funds, but in the same sense, they would not make wise investments and would not know which houses to pick if they did not have the intellect and the knowledge of the real estate game. This is how you should approach playing blackjack and how you should look at your bankroll. You likely will not win a lot of money without having deep pockets and a decent bank roll, but if you do not have the skills to the game and the insight, you will lose everything you invest.
