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There are three parts to blackjack money management:

My brother likes to joke with me whenever he knows I’m headed to Las Vegas (or any casino for that matter):

“Hey bro, if I give you $100 can’t you, like, turn it into $100,000?”

He knows that’s not how card counting works, but movies like “The Hangover” have resulted in many people not understanding what it really takes to beat the game.

I’m going to explain exactly how much of a blackjack bankroll you really need to beat the house? But first…

Your Brains and Your Bankroll

The top 20% of online casinos probably make 80% of the profits. So we probably have 800 online casinos generating the bulk of that money, while the other 3200 casinos make up a relatively small amount of that money. Still, let’s assume that the $1 million a month is the number.

Casino games have been developed solely to make the casino money. In the short term you might get lucky however over the long run the casino is going to make a guaranteed profit. The exception to this rule would be poker where the casino takes a percentage of the winners pot.
IRS Withholding. A game’s profit is more than $600 and is 30 times or greater.Gambling winnings are fully taxable and you must report the income on your tax return. $24,000 and the winner is filing. Table games in a casino, such as blackjack, roulette, baccarat,. 419 Gambling Income and Losses.

I tell people that there are two things they need to beat the casino: brains and a bankroll. While both are essential, many people want to jump to the second issue while taking the first for granted.

Or the other way of putting it is: You could have a $1 billion bankroll, but if you don’t have a PERFECT blackjack game, you will eventually lose the entire thing. The number of betting units is irrelevant if you don’t have an optimal game. Sorry if we sound like a broken record, but we just have to emphasize the most important thing.

Does that mean all you need is brains? No.

What is the Recommended Bankroll for Blackjack?

The Honest Answer

Well, it depends. I’ll give you a neat, clean, mathy answer about it in a minute, but honestly it’s complicated. And while many professional card counters are quick to say, “I wouldn’t bother getting into card counting with less than $20,000,” I cannot give you that same answer. Why? Because that’s not our story.

I started with $2,000. though I don’t think I ever bought in past my first $1,000 stake. Ben started with $800.

Did we start with a perfect game? Doubtful. But we worked our tails off to get perfect at blackjack.

Were we patient? Absolutely. I estimate that I was generating about $5/hr to 7/hr for the first couple months, but we were growing something so it didn’t matter!

Were we lucky? Probably. Our risk of ruin (the odds of losing our entire blackjack bankroll) would give most card counters (not including Ben) severe hypertension.

Were we aggressive? Insanely. We weren’t worried about backoffs, and would play a 1-20 bet spread or higher, always playing the table minimum below a true 1 and leaving the table at a true -1.

While a $20,000 initial stake would be great, that’s not our story, nor is it realistic for many people. But, you’ll have to be patient, aggressive, have a perfect game, and you may need to be willing to take on a little more risk. But then again, never starting your card counting career is also a risk.

The easy answer: Number of Betting Units

Now that that’s out of the way, let me quickly show how the number of units will affect your risk, because that’s probably what people are wondering… how many units do I need to not go broke?

Assuming PERFECT BLACKJACK PLAY, standard rules and a 1-12 bet spread (better rules or pen would have lower risk, worse rules or pen would have higher risk):

200 Units: ~40% Risk of Ruin. That means that 4/10 card counters who play this way will be kissing their bankroll goodbye. The other 6/10 card counters will hit some positive variance and never look back. I wouldn’t recommend playing at this level of risk for long. But if you decide you can handle those odds and don’t have another option, then may the cards fall in your favor.

400 Units: ~20% Risk of Ruin. For any of us who’ve played blackjack professionally, you would never want to run at this level for long, as you wouldn’t want to wipe out your capital once out of every 5 bankrolls. But I know Ben and I started higher than this. So again, you can decide if 20% is appropriate relative to your other options.

500 Units: ~10% Risk of Ruin. Still high for long-term, but 9/10 card counters will be okay if they started with 500 units (of course, once you’ve been winning, you wouldn’t keep re-sizing your bets to stay at 10% risk… it’s assuming you start at that level and keep playing the same stakes as your units increase).

1000 Units: ~1% Risk of Ruin. Once we were living off of blackjack, I preferred 1% or lower. With $2k, I had little to lose. But when card counting was a full-time job making me well over $100/hr I didn’t want to go back to waiting tables!

How to Manage your Bankroll and Calculate Bets

One of the benefits of running blackjack teams for nearly a decade is that I’m an expert at bankroll management: keeping EV as high as possible and risk as low as possible. We offer Bankroll Coaching for $199. Better yet, we throw Bankroll Coaching in FOR FREE to our BJA Members who buy the “Elite Membership“.

Why would we give a $199 product away to people who buy our $497 Membership? Because we aren’t excited to simply arm unprepared people with bet spreads. Remember, it’s as much about the Brains as it is about the Bankroll. We believe people need training, community, and the proper resources to beat the game. And we want people committed to BEATING the game and committed to the community of card counters at BJA.

So, How Much Money Can You Make?

If you’re still with me and are really asking “What kind of money can I make with my blackjack bankroll size”, then keep reading.

Again, all of these are based off of 100% PERFECT BLACKJACK and standard rules with a 1-12 unit bet spread. Worse rules, more decks, poorer penetration will hurt EV and increase Risk. Better rules, fewer decks, or better penetration will increase EV and lower Risk.

Here are a few numbers that might help give you a grasp of what to expect:

$1,000 Bankroll – $10/hr EV; 45% Risk of Ruin. Now that seems like lot of risk, but you also have a 55% chance of never looking back and doubling your bankroll in 100 hours. Does this mean you need $1,000 before you start playing? Not necessarily. If you have $500 and know that you could save another $500 if needed, this is essentially the same thing. For Ben, it was $200 (lost), another $200 (lost), then he risked his last $400 (the rest is history).

$5,000 Bankroll – Using the same bet spread I calculated for the $1,000 bankroll, that would generate the same $10/hr EV, but with only 2% Risk of Ruin. Or, if you’re willing to go up to 10% Risk of Ruin, you could generate closer to $16/hr. That’s a 90% chance of not tapping out and an expectation of doubling your investment in just over 300 hours. At which point that same 10% Risk of Ruin bet spread with a $5,000 bankroll drops to 1% Risk of Ruin once you get to the $10,000 bankroll range! Are you starting to see how well card counting scales?!?

$10,000 Bankroll – You could stay there and keep risk low at $16/hr. But if you’re still comfortable with 10% Risk of Ruin, you can get your EV into the $33/hr range with a 1-12 bet spread. That means you’re expected to double your bankroll again in about 300 hours of play. At which point, your risk drops again to 1% at the $33/hr bet spread!

$20,000 Bankroll – Once you’re getting into this range, you’re maybe wanting to keep risk at 5% or lower. So for a 5% Risk of Ruin game, you could expect to generate $53/hr in EV. Not enough risk for you? 10% Risk of Ruin gives you a game worth $75/hr.

$50,000 Bankroll – Now we’re starting to get into the “Pro” level. And our 1-12 spread is yiel

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