Readers Write

Dear Reader:

The only progressive betting system that has undergone any kind of testing is Walter Thomason's Four-Step from his book Twenty-First Century Blackjack: A New Strategy for a New Millennium. Even with a few million simulations and thousands of manually dealt decisions, so far the jury is out concerning his claims that the system actually beats flat betting. Still, his results are intriguing and deserve attention from flat bettors looking for some better betting scheme.

With that said, I would caution against using such radical escalations of bets as you describe since that second step can actually put you in a hole if you lose. Instead of doubling or tripling the bet on the second step, why not just go up a half unit. So it looks like this: 1, 1.5, 2, 3 and so on.

The math of gambling and most previous computer studies of betting systems show us clearly that the casino's edge on the total amount of money a player bets in the long run will not change because of the system he uses to place his bets. Of course, in the short run, the pattern of your wins and losses can be drastically altered by various types of betting systems.

All the best in and out of the casinos!
Frank Scoblete