Win progressions encourage you to increase your bet size after a winning hand. For example, you make a minimum bet of $10 and if you win, you raise your next stakes on the hand to $20. There are all different kinds of win progressions. The most common is a 1-2-3-5 progression. If you choose this system of betting, you let your winnings ride to increase your next bet. It’s also known as the “pyramiding” or “let it ride” method. Players wager their winnings plus the original bet following a win. Say a player puts up $10. As a player you want to capitalize on a good run of cards and this strategy has some merits. Start with a 2 unit bet. If you win you reduce the bet to one unit. If you win that bet you increase to 3 units. Once the dealer wins you go back to your original 2 unit bet. A run of 10 hands could look like this: Wager Result +/-2 W +2; 1 W +3; 2 W +5. Originally designed for the game of craps, Oscar’s Grind has been successfully applied to Blackjack. The system is a progressive one, which sees bets increase by one unit if the player wins.

These days you can barely find a blackjack game that doesn't have some type of a side-wager, bonus or progressive bet available. That's because players have become very proficient at the standard game of blackjack and the house edge is very small. That's not always the story with side bets!

Blackjack bonus bets are designed to be easy to understand and easy to play. They accompany the standard blackjack bet and must be made before you receive your first two cards. After you find a nice comfortable chair and a friendly dealer, look for the table minimum and maximum sign and then take a seat if the bet levels match your bankroll.

You want to be able to sit back, relax and have fun, so it is always advisable to start at a table that offers a comfortable limit with regard to your gambling bankroll. If you want to start with a one-hundred-dollar buy-in, a $5 minimum bet table might be just right for you. A $25 table limit would probably be too high to start at.

Types of Blackjack Bonus Bets

The dealer will make a change in chips for your cash buy-in and will help you with minimums and maximums on the bonus bets, but most can be made for $1. Bonus bets stand alone from the regular blackjack bet and are sometimes called side-bets; they are optional wagers with brand names like Royal Match, Progressive Blackjack, and Lucky Ladies. To play the bonus bet, place a minimum wage of $1 in the circle for the side-bet next to your regular blackjack bet. The bonus bet is paid independently of whether you win your regular bet or not.

Each bonus bet offered has a payoff table located on the blackjack table. If you don't see one, ask the dealer what the payoffs are for their bonus bets and they will point them out or get you a brochure with all the rules and payoffs.

Bonus bets are a fun diversion and offer added excitement to the game of blackjack. However, because bonus bets usually offer the casino a much higher advantage per dollar bet than the standard blackjack bet, players are advised to play bonuses sparingly.

Most casino bonus bets are available in different variations and the casino advantage is also dependent on the number of decks used. Some bets are available at only one casino and some are available at many because they are sponsored by companies like Shuffle Master and Mikohn Gaming.

The Cost of Playing Bonus Bets

To understand how the casino edge works, remember that the average blackjack player is playing at about a 2.5 percent disadvantage to the house. Over the long run, the player will lose about 2.5 cents for each dollar wagered.

Player-friendly bonus bets like Straight 8's and Sweet Sixteen are on the low end of the casino edge at just 2.7 percent. Higher percentage bets like Royal Match, Match The Dealer, Hi/Low, and Bonus Spin, have a casino edge of 3.5 percent to 8.6 percent. Lucky Ladies, Magic Jack and Wheel of Madness have a casino edge of 17 percent to 24 percent. On the outer edge are games like Perfect Charlie, with a house edge of 38.9 percent.

Card counters operate under the (correct) assumption that even perfect blackjack strategy is a losing proposition. That’s because basic strategy gives no indication of the likelihood of a dealer or player bust. Basic strategy requires you to hedge your bets in certain playing situations, meaning you are just as likely to win as to lose.

Keeping a running count improves on basic blackjack strategy by indicating when you can deviate from that strategy and still have a decent chance of winning. If you know there are more small cards than large ones, you can safely take hits on those pesky 15 and 16 point hands and improve your chances of beating the dealer. You can use a running count to know when to increase your bet size to maximize your profits, and when to decrease your bets to protect yourself from potential losses.

These changes in the bet size are known as a “betting spread,” a tool used by counters to increase profits and decrease losses without drawing the attention of the casino. Ideally, you can make small changes to your bets without the casino figuring out that you’re a card counter and (politely) asking you to leave.

Betting Spreads and Positive Expectation

The name of the game in card counting is turning blackjack into a positive expectation game. Peter Griffin’s book “The Theory of Blackjack” worked out some numbers pertinent to card counters. Using standard Las Vegas rules and a basic High-Low card counting system, a player’s advantage with perfect strategy when the count is zero is -0.56%. According to Griffin, each increase by 1 of the running count improves the player’s advantage by +0.5%. Naturally, every decrease by 1 of the count reduces the player’s advantage by 0.5%.

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Positive Count and Percentages

We know that, statistically, a standard Vegas game of blackjack will only offer certain counts some of the time. Positive expectation only happens with a +2 count, which will only happen about 8% of the time. Truth be told, a positive count can only be expected about 18% of the time you’re playing–that’s why it is important to spread your bets, even if you’re keeping a running count and playing according to basic strategy.

What’s the Best Bet Spread?

People much smarter than you and me have determined that a bet spread between 1 and 5 units is the best way to avoid undue attention from the casino. By this reckoning, you should bet 1 unit for a +1 count, all neutral counts, and all negative counts. A +2 count means 2 units, a +3 count means 3 units, a +4 count means 4 units, and anything over +4 means you bet 5 units. Going over 5 units is likely to attract unwanted casino heat.

Using this system and perfect blackjack strategy, you can expect a positive return of about 0.14%. You’re not going to get rich with small wins under this system, but it will turn a negative expectation game into a positive one.

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Larger Bet Spreads

The only way to increase your expectation is to use a 1-10 unit bet spread, which is sure to get you kicked out of any casino eventually. Still, as long as you can get away with a 1-10 unit spread, you can play with an edge of about 0.57%, or about three and a half times greater than with a 1-5 unit spread.

Since casinos have implemented rules and strategies to counteract card counting, the easy to beat blackjack tables have disappeared. Casinos are now instituting a 6:5 blackjack payout rule, for instance, that automatically makes the game not worth the time it takes to count cards and develop a bet spread. Perfect blackjack strategy is often as good as you can get at today’s blackjack tables, since even the most aggressive counting and bet spreading gives you only about a .5% edge.

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