I do not consider myself a gambler but I have for years enjoyed friendly, low stakes poker games with friends over the winter months.

A friend pricked my interest in blackjack about 10 years ago and I took the time to learn basic betting strategy. Shortly thereafter he died and I never played the game again until late last summer. A new acquaintance went to the casino regularly to play slots which have no appeal for me. I decided to sometimes accompany him but I would play blackjack. I had to take some time to commit basic strategy to memory again. While doing so I came up with a discipline to play the game which I tested out on free on line blackjack sites. I became skeptical of those sites when one almost always let me win, another almost always beat me and a third showed me starting cards where I could predict the next card that would be dealt to me.

I decided to try my discipline at the casino and I would start with a beginning/basic bet of $5. I lost $175 my first session which I thought might be partially because sometimes I could not recall fast enough whether I should double down, etc. It took me three more blackjack sessions to get into positive territory and I have never been in negative territory since then. After 50 games I was ahead of the casino by $605, About $12 average profit per game, not much but positive.

My discipline at the local casino could be applied up to a beginning basic bet of $25 due to their $500 maximum bet limit. My discipline does not allow me a choice on how to play a hand. Consequently, had I played a beginning basic bet of $25 I would have wound up more than $3,000 ahead of the boat after those 50 games.

Recently I started a new round of games with a beginning basic better $10. After 20 sessions I am ahead of the casino by $615. It will not stay that way and I am looking for it to average out to about $25 average profit per session after 50 sessions.

I am pretty excited about the potential for this discipline but I have no close friends who are into blackjack and consequently have no one to discuss it with.

My question is at what point should I consider this discipline a proven method to consistently win?

jack g