With blackjack, even an expert player is an underdog in the game the majority of the time. Except for rare cases where the rules are superb and the decks are very few, the card counter only has the advantage when there is a surplus of high cards remaining. During these advantageous periods he basically must put more money in action than he did all the rest of the time in order to become a worthwhile mathematical favorite in the overall game.

Don't think just because you're increasing your bets when the count rises that you automatically have the overall edge. If you're able to use a 1-to-4 betting spread in a typical single deck game, yes, you'll have the best of it. That's because the high/low proportion of remaining cards ranges wildly when there were only 52 cards to begin with! Your opportunities to make those three and four unit wagers will arise very frequently. But that same spread just won't get it done with a 312 card shoe!

As I indicated in the introduction of this book, my intent is to assist you in analyzing some important facts about the game that usually most folks don't pay attention to. You have just analyzed one of the really big ones! Now then, having this information enables you to modify and create your own bet¬ting strategy that you can be comfortable with. If the CLB method appeals to you, then make a model that fits your play¬ing acumen. There are more samples of this strategy coming later in this chapter, and they all have their place because sometimes you may want to switch to different strategies in any one session, depending on