While proper casino money management entails several things including bankroll, buy-in, progression, table rake, and session take. We are going to focus on table play and progressions.
You really have only three choices when you play the table games at a casino, 1- you can either increase your bet when you lose (Martingale System), 2- keep your bet the same, win or lose, or 3- increase your bet when you win.
If you increase your bet when you lose, you are in essence chasing your money, and this way of betting has two major flaws, one is the amount of money it takes; the other is the house limit. This would NOT be my recommended way of playing.
If you keep your bet the same every time, you will likely never win or lose very much and you will certainly increase your playing time. However over the long run the house advantage will eat into your bankroll. But, if you are an ultra conservative player and not looking for a big win, this might be an applicable style of play.
The third choice is to increase your bet when you win. The advantage to this style of betting is if you catch that winning streak and progress your bet properly you will WIN!
With choice #3 you are playing for a winning streak, and in a game of random returns like roulette and/or craps anything is possible in the short run including winning streaks. This is even more applicable to a ‘skill’ game like blackjack.
Let’s examine that philosophy a little closer, using the most obvious 50/50 return; the flip of a coin. The odds say it will come up heads as many times as tails, however if you flip that coin 10 times, it might come up heads 6 times and tails 4 times, or even 7 heads and 3 tails, however flip that coin 1,000,000 times and more than likely you will see both close to 500,000. Over the long run it will play out to a 50/50 proposition, however in a short run anything is possible.
Also, one other thing that will likely never happen is heads, tails, heads, tails, heads, tails, it usually comes up heads multiple times and/or tails multiple times, making winning streaks (as well as losing streaks) more common than most think possible.
So if you are playing for the winning streak increase your bet when you win, and decrease or keep your bet the same when you lose.
If you are playing a bet that is close to 50% chance to win (i.e. odd/even or red/black in roulette, or pass line or don’t pass line in craps) then increasing your bet every time you win is a good strategy, because consecutive wins in a row are more likely than with a bet that has only 2% chance of winning.
On a bet like this your progression might be $5, then $10, then $15, then $25, keep increasing it as you continue to win, if you catch 5 or 6 in a row you will win a significant amount of money, and those 5 or 6 wins in a row do come!
However on the bet that only has a 2% chance of winning (i.e. one number straight up in roulette), a winning streak would probably not be consecutive, it could happen, but EXTREMELY UNLIKELY, it would be more along the lines of hitting that number twice in 10 spins or 3 times in 20 spins, so your progression might be $1, if it wins then bet $2 for the next 10 spins, if it hits again, then bet $3 for the next 10 spins, I would keep doing this as long as it kept coming up, but if after 10 spins it does not come up then revert back to your original bet, you will still have a net gain.
This is why knowing the odds to win a bet and the house percentages are so important to you. It helps you determine what bets to make and what progression to use.
Know your play. Know your way.
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