When it comes to blackjack, there are many strategies out there that can help you win. But when it comes to blackjack strategy, a lot of those strategies can help you win on the short run, but never in the long run. Ask any professional blackjack player and they will likely give you the spiel on that.
Of course there are betting strategies that can help in both respects, however for many players, a lot would be aiming more for immediate wins as opposed to making a big win long-term. If that is your case, then this post will be good as we’ll share the best betting strategy to win blackjack on the short term.
We’re not making guarantees of winning, however with all betting systems there is a sense of logic behind them which only improve your chances of winning. Furthermore these strategies do follow blackjack rules so you won’t get thrown out for using them.
The Two Big Betting Strategies
When it comes to betting strategies, there’s two types: positive and negative progression.
In positive progression you are essentially raising bets after wins. This leaves you betting with your previous wins. In the end this saves your money and is a more conservative approach as long strings of losses don’t wipe yourself out.
With negative progression, it’s the opposite. After losses, you raise your bets. This blackjack strategy sounds a little absurd but that’s not the case. True you can wipe yourself out quickly if you get a string of losses. However because of the larger bets you will be able to recover your losses when you manage to win a game or two.
From these two strategies, there have been many that have taken those into consideration, read into the blackjack rules and created a blackjack strategy that is a combination of both. This was in an attempt to create a “perfect” betting system.
Many have tried this over the years, but the best one of those types to pull it off was first published in 1965 by mathematician Allan N. Wilson. Dr. Wilson called it back then the “Oscar System” named originally after the dice player who created this strategy.
Oscar’s System
The idea with this system is that your first objective is to win any series of bets in order to get one unit. From there you start a new series. After every win, your next bet should always be one unit more than the previous bet, however after every loss the next bet is the same as the last bet you made.
That is the system in its entirety, however it does come with one stipulation. You never place a bet that would lead to a win for the series in more than one unit. For example if you won a 4-unit bet, however you’re down 2 units, you shouldn’t move to a 5-unit bet. You’d instead raise that 2-unit bet to 3 units. That would be all you need to achieve a one-unit win in that series.
As you can see, the Oscar System takes the best of both systems like so many others. You still play a bit conservatively, however the bets are still at a good amount so you can recover quickly if you face losses.
Conclusion
In the end, this particular system works wonders on the short term as you can achieve your target amount with even small sums. That being said, this strategy still doesn’t protect you from strings of losses and they can come back to bite you. Always keep that in mind when applying these strategies.