Hi all, I've recently gotten into blackjack and after learning basic strategy I started to play in the casinos. That was my first session and I ended up losing my buy in. I've gotten a blackjack book from the library which explains how to count cards and the bankroll requirements you should have. I play min bet $5 so they recommended a bankroll of $500. The problem is that almost all of my bankroll is gone. I was wondering if I lose my last ~$140 should I just accept my loses and move on or is $500 not enough? I've read that counting cards + basic strategy still only gives u a 1% edge on the casino.

The game is 6 decks w/ surrender, double on any, dealer hits soft 17, allow splits up to 4, no hitting on split aces

If you're not beating the game, you have a gambling budget, not a gambling bankroll.

$140 isn't even enough to sit down. It's not even that hard to lose all of that in a single hand, and you want at least enough to weather a bad shoe.

If you are spreading 1-8, which is very conservative for a six deck game, you don't even have four max bets. The count is good and you have your max bet out of $40, get 44 vs. 6, split, pull another 4 on the first one, split, get a 7, double... but you don't have enough money. Actually 44 vs. 6 isn't even a basic strategy split if you can't double after split. By playing with so little money you are giving up some of your edge because you can't cover all your doubles and splits. Also, you are extremely likely to bust out and it will usually be in the middle of a good shoe, which sucks.

If that book is telling you that $500 is a sufficient bankroll for $5 blackjack, I'd get a different book. Without going through any of the math involved, $3000 is pretty much the minimum you want to have to count red chip blackjack tables, and even with that much you have a decent chance of going broke. $500 is what you might bring to the casino for one session.

You need around 10-20k.

I'm just beating a dead horse here by saying this but whatever.

The odds are not in your favour, so the answer is no, you should not continue playing. Your bankroll doesn't matter, if you use the kelly criterion with blackjack you will get the same answer with any bankroll, the odds are not in your favour, there for you should not bet.

Well to OP's credit he does mention counting cards but I agree he is still playing at a disadvantage. What you actually want to do is practice counting at home for 50-100 hours until you can pass a skills test (play through multiple shoes with no betting or playing errors) before stepping foot in a casino.

You need at least 30k to even make card counting worth it also even if you master card counting a casino has the right to not allow you to play. The best site to learn card counting is blackjack apprentice.com these guys were apart of a blackjack team that took millions they also have a documentary out on there team called holy rollers. They had a huge bankroll to begin with though so don't get to ahead of your self. I actually bought a membership and learned how to do hi lo count im a decent counter on 6 decks. Count deviations are a little hard also in real time at the casino it becomes a lot harder. I managed to count a few successful shoes but I'd often lose count because of some guy chatting my ear off or Getting really excited about a high count I never had a bankroll though just did it for fun.


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You read an outdated book. 0.5% is optimistic these days. You are never going to make any money on a $500 bank.

Card counting is really a waste of time nowadays. Save your $140 and do something else.

??? even in mediocre games it's usually a 1% over all edge on all action. i've played plenty of 2% games.

The upper limit of what you can win is more often dictated by longevity, and less often by the game.

Anyone can get a huge edge by spreading 1:100, and if you assumed you never got backed off or flat bet, you can beat 6:5 games. ****, you could even brazenly Wong out and just stand there in between two tables backcounting both.

I don't know what winrates are sustainable. It probably depends a lot on the game and the quality of surveillance and an AP's qualitative look (i.e., an Asian playboy surrounded by club-ready girls could get away with a lot more than a MAWG in a baseball cap playing alone).

But I bet that most people will find it difficult to reach 2%.