I’m not sure most Colorado blackjack players have figured out what to do with the state’s $100 maximum bet limit even now, many months after the previous $5 limit was lifted.
What does the current $100 maximum mean? Is it enough for you? We’ll see.
And what does it mean for your optimum minimum bet level? Are you adjusting this so you benefit to the max, given the limitations?
…You do realize there are limitations even with the $100 maximum bet levels?
It isn’t sufficient for my aspirations for sure. My minimum bet at the lowest level is in the $50-$100 level, and that’s not my desired minimum bet level either. That’s it’s lowest level, for casinos I don’t have total confidence in, or special circumstances too complicated to explain here.
A $50 minimum bet player in Colorado quickly bumps up against the state’s maximum bet level and cannot make his or her normal best at Vegas-style casinos where the maximum is at least 10 times higher than $50.
The bet spread (the difference between your lowest and highest bet) I recommend for beginners and even intermediates is a conservative 1-5 spread. That’s not counting the .5 of a minimum bet I program in by having players set their “basic” (personal minimum) bet at twice the table minimum; they would then go down to the table minimum (.5 of their normal minimum bet) when my Indicators told them they were likely to lose in the next round.
Each level of that spread typically goes up by one unit. That is, if your bet at “1” (your personal minimum) is $10, your maximum at level “5” would be $50.
That’s OK for players whose budgets or emotions don’t let them make higher bets. But that cramps the style of the $50 player. You quickly max out at level “2” and cannot go up to higher levels, for maximum profits when the cards are good.
For $100 players, the game becomes unwise in Colorado. Flat betting is never wise. Especially if you use the old school methods of basic strategy and/or card counting. Even when the game was a single deck game dealt to the very last card Edward Thorp in 1962’s Beat The Dealer was saying basic strategy – under those conditions not found today – offered at best a “.12 percent” edge. In other words, you will lose more rounds than you win playing basic (the “.12 percent” edge includes a 2.5 percent bump you get from blackjack bonuses). That makes flat betting a loser for basic strategy players.
So everyone should prefer to have a healthy betting spread to maximize profits. Radically large betting spreads are not wise, however. Nor are large bet differences from one round to another in some casinos, whose employees are trained to identify and bar “advantage” (winning) players (using an effective system) and a large betting spread, especially from round to round, is a red flag in their eyes.
The old school’s risky “make the maximum bet” approach is always unwise, too, for players whose minimum bets are far less than the maximum. Not so much in Colorado but elsewhere, where a player’s bet under these systems, could go from the table minimum (theoretically $1 or $2 at some casinos nationwide) to $500 or more. How long do you think a $1 or $2 player would take to make up a $500 loss on one of those maximum bets that goes sour?
Worse yet, the old school betting systems were found wanting in accuracy. Julian Braun of IBM, whose computer simulations fueled Thorp’s book and practically every other old school book for decades afterward, had this to say about that in 1980’s The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book (pages 244-245):
“…the maximum would be correctly bet only about 12 per cent of the time in a four-deck game versus approximately 20 per cent with a single deck. This causes greatly reduced yield.”
I designed my betting methods – for three levels of players (beginners, intermediates and advanced/pro) – to be conservative and profitable. Thorp’s admission he encountered “moderately heavy losing streaks” is no surprise given the wildly fluctuating and often irrational betting increases he recommended. And that kind of thing is unacceptable – unless, that is, you have a millionaire (in Thorp’s case Manny Kimmel) who’s funding every penny you play (including your losses).
So what do I recommend for smart Colorado players? A betting spread based upon a $20 minimum bet, which goes up intelligently by $20 increments and gets lowered to $10 or less (whatever the table minimum is, in fact) when my Precision Betting Method tells you the next round will provide a negative return.
This gives you the maximum 1-5 betting spread, for maximum profits for your typical (winning) session. If you follow my entry-level “3-Level Notch-Up Notch Down” betting method, you won’t raise your bet from your personal minimum (your “1” level bet in that 1-5 spread) until and unless you’re confident (using the Indicators I provide you) you’re at a good betting spot (and by that time, you’ll be playing with the “casino’s money” as players are wont to say).
The worst thing you could do is raise your bet level when at a bad betting spot, where the cards are bad. Conversely, playing a $20 bet, for the wise, lets you cut your exposure to losing rounds by greatly reducing your bet when my Indicators tell you you’re likely to lose in the next round.
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Richard Harvey is the acclaimed blackjack strategies innovator, expert player, blackjack coach and bestselling author of Blackjack The SMART Way (the NEW Gold Edition), Cutting Edge Blackjack (the NEW Third Edition), NEW Ways To Win MORE at Blackjack and the audio book Richard Harvey’s Blackjack PowerPrep Session. Have blackjack questions? Send them to rharvey2121@netscape.net. For more info see http://www.blackjacktoday.com.
