Flat Betting

Flat betting is a term that simply describes making the same size bet every hand that you play blackjack. Flat betting is the best way to keep your win/loss variance as small as possible, but it also makes it difficult to recover losses in a session if you suffer a losing streak. Changing your bet size as you play allows you to recover numerous lost bets in one hand, or it can change a losing session into a big winning one with a streak of winning hands.

Traditional casinos watch the blackjack action to see if players are varying the size of their bets. Changing bet sizes is an indication that a player may be counting cards, so casino pit bosses spend their entire shifts looking for odd betting patterns. Players that flat bet never attract any attention from the house, ever when they win.

Playing online blackjack eliminates the possibility that a player is counting cards. Blackjack games online have electronic dealing which re-deals the deck after every hand. The shoe is random every hand, and can never have more big cards than small ones after certain cards gets exposed. So varying bets online can never be a sign of card counting, and no cares if you do it.

Mathematically there are no betting systems that beat flat betting on the blackjack table. Other betting systems will increase your win/loss variance, and can affect one particular session one way or the other, but no system can improve your chances of winning. If you play blackjack for fun, you will get more action for your money if you flat bet an affordable amount. Bigger bets can recover losses but they can also increase them by a big percentage. Varying your bet or flat betting will not change the size of the edge the house holds on you, it can only affect the amount that you win or lose in that particular session.

Whether you flat bet or not depends on how you feel like playing a session. If you want to relax, and play for as long as possible, you can flat bet an amount that you can afford to lose. If you feel like living on the edge and going for a bigger score, you can vary your bet and hope to hit the big ones at the right time.