visual persuasion

[notmymoney]

my blackjack fever has recently spread to a friend and i've pointed him to the blackjack school on this site as well as the forums. he seems really interested and is absorbing the lessons rather quickly. he's been playing free blackjack on several programs learning BS and i'm helping him understand counting and what it requires.

for some reason, he's not convinced that martingale's and progressive betting systems are bad. we've talked about it and had several lively discussions in regards to short-term/long-term, possible variations, napkin mathematics and the like.

in a effort to steer him away, i stumbled across this site which has graphs tracking sims of different blackjack strategies. specifically graph 14.5 squashed our debate (although technically it proves a winner and we agreed that yes it's a winner and if he ever found a game with no limit and could spot me 10 million dollars, id be happy to give him 90% of my profits).

it also had several other graphs which were helpful in cementing ideas into my and my friend's brain as to why XYZ is the way it is. hopefully it can help some of you out as well.

http://www.blackjackincolor.com/

 

[Sonny]

(although technically it proves a winner and we agreed that yes it's a winner and if he ever found a game with no limit and could spot me 10 million dollars, id be happy to give him 90% of my profits).

Even then it is not a winning system. The player is still at a disadvantage and will lose money in the long run. It makes no difference how much money the player has because he does not have an edge over the house. He may never lose it all but he will not make a profit if he continues to play long enough. The losses will always overcome the wins. The only way for a martingale player to be a long-term winner is to win some money and then quit forever. The system works best when you stop using it.

-Sonny-