In blackjack, is it possible to break even with the house w/o varying your bet?

Question

as you may well know, it's fairly easy to count cards without being detected, you just need to put on a little act, but its hard to get away with varying your bet based on the count without the casinos noticing.

I know that if you play basic strategy on every hand (in a 6 deck game), you're at about a half percent disadvantage. my question is, is it possible to make up that gap (and make it 50/50) or even push the odds slightly to the player's advantage JUST be altering basic strategy based on the count, and not altering your bet? so, you'd just be playing basic strategy on every hand while still keeping the count and then changing basic strategy in accordance with the count - does this close the gap?

Answer 1

I once read that you could create an advantage at a single deck game with ridiculously high deck penetration without spreading your bets, but that game does not exist in modern casinos.

The only real way to do what you're proposing is by back counting (counting the game by just watching, then jumping in when the count gets good), but this is very conspicuous.

FYI, for most counting strategies I know of, a 3 unit spread is enough to wipe out the house edge with a 6 deck shoe, and you're not going to take any heat with a 3 bet spread. And if you can find a good two deck game (there are a lot off the strip in Las Vegas) then you can wipe out the house edge with a 2 unit spread. You're not going to to create enough of an advantage to make decent money, but you won't lose much either and it's worth the effort if you're a regular player, IMO.

Answer 2

most casinos have an edge of closer to 1.5% to 2% with basic strategy. The only way to over come these odds would be to vary your bet. I here Asia has some casinos where the playing conditions are better.

Answer 3

Nope. For the most part ,in order to break even or to win at blackjack, you must play basic strategy and then increase your bet when the odds are favorable, and decrease it (or not bet) when the odds are not favorable. Your other choice is to find the right combination of blackjack rules to minimize or eliminate the house edge. Very unlikely.

There are some ways to do this that involve counting cards, and some ways that do not involve counting cards.

Here is a link to some good Blackjack strategy:

http://www.thedoverpro.com/blackjack.htm

As for detection of card counting, if you have been banned at your local, it sounds like maybe avoiding detection is not all that easy. Let's hope your ban is just local and you have not made a national list!

As to avoiding detection of your card counting game, here is a link to the Binomial Blackjack page. It is a total approach to blackjack that specifically addresses methods of disguising your card counting play.  

http://www.thedoverpro.com/blackjack/bin...

Answer 4

It iis possible by refusing to play at negetive counts beyond a certain level (which will change based on the rule set)  If you play like this, you will have a tiny positive ev without raising your bet.

It is not possible to do with stategy variations alone, strategy variations represent a very tiny portion of your total gain and it isnt near a large enough amount to negate the house advantage entirely.

Answer 5

What I would do is count them but not act on them until the cards are stacked in your favor, ie, there - alot of low cards out and big cards are due / coming.

If you put a bigger raise out every so often then you are not drawing attention to yourself because lots of people do it.

I wouldn't go from table minimum to x10 the bet unless it was my last hand but x3 or x4 the bet when face cards are behind in the count wouldn't hurt.