Sure, you could sit down to play Blackjack and just throw your money around. But, did you know that you’re most likely to lose money even if you have more winning hands than losing ones? Before playing Blackjack, it’s best to come up with a battle plan. You’ve got to attack the game.

Today, I’ll show you one attack plan. It’s a progressive (or ladder) system that changes your wager just about every hand. This is not a plan that increases your wager when you lose, because that’s the wrong way to do things. Rather, we’ll increase the wager with each winning hand.

You need to decide on the numbers and how many progressions to use. I’ll give you a guide to start from. Let’s imagine that you have $100 to play with. You should play $2-$5 hands normally. So, we’ll base our start at $5.

The plan is simple. When you lose, your next hand is $5. You never increase your wager after a losing hand. Instead, you start over again. When you win, you’ll be increasing your hand as follows:

5 – 10 – 20 – 40 – 80

I’ve set up five levels. If you win five hands in a row, rather than having $25, you’ll end up with $160 or more-blackjacks. However, if you were to lose say five in a row, you’ve only lost $25.

If you’re a very conservative player, step it down to 3 or 4 levels. Even at 3 levels, you can still pocket $40 instead of $15.

As to double downs, that’s a call you’ll have to make based on your bankroll. Let’s imagine that you’ve won your first four hands. You have $80 on the table and receive an 11. If you double down, it’s a bad move. Why? Adding $80 would mean your entire bankroll is on this one hand. Lose it and you go home. Not smart.

However, let’s say it’s later in the game and your bankroll is now $500 or so. Adding the $80, which is profits at this point, might be a good gamble. It’s a moment-by-moment decision.

No matter how you play it, never risk most or all of your bankroll on any single hand. Also, should you get up by 2-3 times your original bankroll, put that original amount back in your pocket and make sure you leave the casino with it.

Blackjack, and gambling, can be fun, but strategy ensures that you maximize your chances to win and come home with cash.