Does the Not Greedy Blackjack Strategy Actually Work
When it comes to playing blackjack, many people believe that if they quit while they’re ahead, in the long run they’ll end up a big winner. This is known as the Not Greedy strategy, and it got this name simply because people stop when they get a little bit ahead rather than getting greedy and trying to win thousands and thousands.
But, does it actually work? Does quitting while you’re a little bit ahead actually mean you’ll finish up the year with more cash in your pocket than you started out with? BitStarz casino is diving into the strategy to uncover the truth about this strategy.
What is the Not Greedy Strategy?
For those of you that have never heard of the Not Greedy strategy, we’re going to get back to basics and explain exactly how it works. Simply put, the Not Greedy strategy involves you heading to the casino every day with a modest amount of cash based on your lifestyle. A lot of people opt to start with around €100, and we’re going to use this as the value in our example. Once a player using the Not Greedy strategy is up more than they would have earned working their job, they head out of the casino and go home.
Let’s say you’re living in Madrid and you head to the casino with €100, you’re looking to be up around €250 for the day. This will allow you to live a pretty comfortable life, so you would play until you’re up by that amount, cash in your chips and go home. Then the next day you’d return again with €100 and repeat this strategy for the rest of your days.
Does it Actually Work?
On paper, the Not Greedy strategy seems to make a lot of sense, but in practice it’s rather the opposite. The tables don’t reset when you leave, the decks don’t go back to how they were when you walked in. The next time you sit down at a table, you’ve got a brand-new shoe with the cards in a totally random order. This makes it incredibly hard to predict what you’re going to win the next day and can lead to huge losing streaks. Whether you play out a losing streak in the casino or online, you could spend days and days grinding out total losses on that €100 bankroll.
To make things easier to understand, if you’re playing blackjack with perfect basic strategy and card counting, the house still has an edge of around 0.5%. This means you’ve got a 49.5% chance of winning – less than 50:50. On a 50:50 coinflip, you’ve got a 76% chance of being up on day one. After a week, those numbers drop to a mere 15% chance of being up on the house. Over a month, you’ve got a 1 in 3,000 chance of being up – and that’s for a 50:50 coinflip.
How Can I Make Money Playing Blackjack?
It is possible to make an absolute fortune playing blackjack, but you need to play blackjack properly. In order to do so, you can’t use the Not Greedy strategy. If you play perfect basic strategy and can count cards, you’re still going to have good and bad days. The more time you spend at the table, the higher your expected value increases. Simply put, this is the more you expect to win. So, if you’re playing for two hours a day then running away, you’re lowering your expected value.
Now, the expected value doesn’t always mean you’re going to win that much – you can still have bad days and even months. But if you know the proper techniques, you can minimize the bad plays and remain positive. In the short-term, card counters will be down. But in the long-run, you’re more likely to finish well in the green. Quitting while you’re just ahead will only prolong how long it takes to get in the green long-term and will make the bad days twice as long.
Just Play Normally
While we love the idea of the Not Greedy strategy, it’s simply not feasible if you’re looking to turn a profit long-term. It takes too long to break out of the red and you’ll end up packing it in. So, if you want to become a pro gambler, put in the hours at the table, make sure you’ve got perfect basic strategy and card counting skills – it’s the only way to make a ton of money playing blackjack.