How much money to play at a time?

[Jumpfreak888]

For serious card counters, I know that there is no benefit to stopping a session of blackjack early so long as there are good conditions and you are feeling good (aka, not too tired, etc) But my question is - how much money in chips should one get at a time? I will be using a $3,000 bankroll, and for some reason getting three hundred dollars worth of chips at a time just seems to make sense to me. Its goes quite nicely with my betting scheme if i get 225 in green and 75 in red. I figure that this is mostly enough to handle the swings that happen and enough to push out my 'big bet' when the count gets high enough. (My 'big bet' is $50) Also, getting smaller amounts probably makes a counter look less suspicious. (Pit bosses always seem to watch 'high rollers' a bit more closely.) What do you guys think? What has worked for you? (How much money do you play at a time in correlation to your bankroll?)

 

[mdw]

Someone smarter here will have a better answer, but the way to look at a bank roll is loosely based on the table minimum you are playing at. Each flat bet would be considered a betting unit. So at a $5.00 table a bankroll of $3000 would be 3000 divided by 5 or 600 betting units. At a $5.00 table I would think that your bankroll would as is be more than adequate. I usually will decide how many units I bring to the table. Sort of my stop loss limit not my entire bankroll. If you are playing the higher limit tables you can see that your betting units will shrink. At a $100 table you would have only 30 betting units. Not much room for splits and double downs if you have lost a few hands. I prefer to flat bet. Others will increase and decrease their bets based on units i.e. if the count is plus, they may increase their bets as much as 5 units. So as I read back I may not have answered your question. Someone else may add to this.

 

[lagavulin62]

jump,

here is the way I look at the bankroll. not an expert using complicated formulas but this has worked for me. your 3000 dollar bankroll seems more than adequate to me, assuming you are playing 5 dollar tables and using the 5-1 spread you mentioned. even at 10 dollars a unit I think that should be fine. most books I have read mention using a 200 unit buy in. as mdw mentioned with your bankroll that gives you 600 units with the 5 dollar chip. sounds like you might be gambling for a few days since you have set up 10 sessions with the 300 dollar buy in? 300 dollars gives you 60 units. that doesn't sound like much but I have lasted with a lot less when I was clueless about the game. I played with a 40 unit buy in a few weeks ago using a 4-1 spread and an hour later left with 7 units ahead. could have been beginners luck but I felt like I played a solid round. my results really have no meaning here only to emphasize that your 300 dollar buy in should give you enough room for fluctuations and enough for the doubles, splits, for one session. if you get a bad string of losses and it taps you out then just take a break and come back later for session two. you got 9 more. but it could go the other way. the only time I would adjust for this would be if you find yourself in the middle of the shoe with a very high count and you don't think you have enough to put the high bets out, I would buy in for however much I felt I needed to take advantage of the remainder of the shoe, which probably wouldn't be much more. once the shoe is completed I would subtract whatever amount I converted in addition to the original buy in
from session 10. this way I am not going beyond my bankroll. but hopefully by the time you reach that last session you will have won enough money to payback the difference. I don't know how skilled you are at counting but even if you are an expert you still have to account for luck. if you find you are getting killed then clearly the gods of chance are against you for that session and it's just as well you take a break. your buy in from my experience is adequate to give chance and your skill enough room to play out.