This morning I wrote about the Labouchere negative progression betting system that unknowing blackjack players will use in place of a good betting strategy.
The use it because they come across one of those article-generating sites in which the people writing the articles do not always understand the finer points of their subjects. In the case of the article I saw today, it said that the best way to bet in blackjack was to use a betting system.
This is simply not true. Betting systems limit how a player makes their wagers in a game of blackjack. These systems are also based on principles that go against the essence of blackjack.
Now we are going to look at the Paroli betting system.
This is a positive progression system, meaning that it works based on wins. If you win a hand, you would double your wager on the next round. You would keep doubling until you lose a round and then return to the amount of your original wager. Take a look:
If you were to wager $20 and win, you would wager $40 on the next round. If you win that round you would wager $80. But if you lost, you would return to the original amount of $20.
The Paroli betting system is said to make the most of a winning streak. Unfortunately there is no way to predict how long a winning streak will continue. This can result in a very heavy loss if you lose a round after several successful wins. Imagine in the above example winning five rounds and wagering $320 only to lose that $320.
The problem with the Paroli betting system is that it is based on winning, and is meant to be used in a casino game in which the house has the advantage. Players can only expect to win around 48% of their blackjack games.
So if you have less than a 50% to win why would you use a betting system based on winning?
Exactly