Money Management

Money management can be defined as making the best use of your bankroll for blackjack playing purposes. Your first goal is to make it grow bigger when you are winning. Your second goal is to preserve it in those times when you are losing. Proper money management will allow you to utilize your financial resources in a manner that maximizes your chances for profit and minimizes your chances for loss.

When you're winning, you have to seize those opportunities and stretch them to the maximum safe level and make sure you finish a winner. And when things go against you, you must restrict losses to affordable amounts and protect yourself from ever really getting hurt at the tables.

Discussing money management should not turn into a long winded lecture. Before you even enter a casino, two things need to be decided beforehand:

• How much are you willing to lose before you quit?

Before you become involved in a game, make sure you can afford to lose whatever amount you play with. Never gamble with money you cannot afford to lose either financially or emotionally. If the money you intend to play with is needed for something else more pressing like paying for a rent or a utility bill, skip the game. There is never a guarantee of winning but you can be assured that there will always be game in the future. Betting with "scared money" adversely affects decision-making.

Knowing how much you can afford to lose does not mean that you should keep playing until you lose all your original bankroll when you hit a losing streak. Other considerations need to be taken into account in deciding whether you are to continue playing or you with stand up and leave when you encounter such unfortunate circumstances. Such considerations will be discussed in a separate section.

When you have the bankroll you want to play with, and you have established the fact that you can afford to lose it, you will be in a much better position to pursue that big killing at the tables. Psychologically, you'll have enough nerve to bet BIG when the circumstances dictate that you do so. This is what you need to win big. But when you are playing with "scared money" you'll be intimidated to bet big when you should.

• How much are you willing to accept as your winnings and quit if you are ahead?

If you have any expectation of ever becoming a winning blackjack player, you must set a goal to never give back your hard-earned profits to the casino. Learn to take the money and run! Set a profit target before you buy-in at a blackjack table. If you are successful in reaching your target, just keep playing while you are in your hot streak (you never quit when you are winning) but you should be ready to leave the table as soon as your winning streak ends.

If you are ahead and continue to gamble, the house advantage kicks in and will eventually chip away your winnings and bankroll.

This is money management at its most basic - setting goals of enhancing your casino earnings without substantially increasing your risk. If you have not answered these two critical questions before you enter the casino, you are on a collision course with disaster - you can end up losing more than you can afford.

Caveat: Even the best money management system will not make up for bad luck or bad play. 

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