It's probably best to begin off the top of each deck with a 2 unit wager, then drop to 1 unit if the count is still below "20" at the start of the second hand. In that way, it'll be easier to get to the larger bets without such a glaring change in wager size. Even at that, you should almost never bet more than 4 units -- or the dealer may shuffle abruptly.

This is something you must avoid! It would be much better to have only 4 units riding on a "24" count hand, than to get it shuffled away. In fact, at the higher stakes, any spread wider than 1-to-3 probably won't fly! You will have to be the judge of how much betting latitude you can get away with in these games. That's where the art of the game comes into play.

At this point it's important for you to understand that the probabilities of winning with certain deck config¬urations are really important. No matter how well skilled you are at playing the game, Lady Luck can turn against you and hold funeral services within minutes after you sit down. You can be doing everything right--drawing, doubling down, splitting, and standing on hands exactly as playing strat¬egy tells you to-and still lose! Hey, sometimes it happens ¬it happens a lot!

The composition of the deck or decks just doesn't want to come your way; it's called "bad card fall." I've been in situations where I did everything perfectly. I had a hard 16, the dealer had a ten showing, I'd take a hit and get a four, the dealer would have a ten in the hole, a tough hit for just a Push' If I had a hard 18, the dealer would have a 19, and so on. And I'm not talking about one or two hands, either, I'm talking ten to fifteen straight hands! It's pure misery at its best!