We still haven't answered the question that is the title of this chapter. Most players would consider it a waste of time to make $10 bets when they arrive at a casino with $2,500 to play with. In fact, very few players would do this—if you're going to gamble with that amount of money, you generally want to see a meaningful result. My ultra-conservative betting advice above, though, assumes that you have a fixed bankroll of funds that are not easily replenishable. For most players, that's not the case.

A replenishable bankroll has no fixed dollar amount, and most players, in fact, play on replenishable bankrolls. There are various common types of replenishable bankrolls, the most common being a job. If you are currently earning an income from some non-gambling source, and some portion of this income is expendable, in the sense that it is money you would normally spend on recreational pursuits, hobbies, entertainment—your disposable income money—then so long as you stay employed, that's your replenishable bank. If you deliver pizza for a living, then this bankroll may be less than $100 per month, if you're a dentist, it may be quite a few thousand dollars more. Much depends on your lifestyle and obligations—if you are a married dentist with five kids and you're paying off a mortgage, the pizza delivery boy may actually have a larger replenishable bankroll than you do.

I will leave it to you to figure out exactly how much of a replenishable bankroll you have, but here is the important distinction between a fixed bankroll and a replenishable one: A replenishable bankroll is a specified number of dollars that replenishes itself over a given time period. For instance: $300 per month, or $1,000 per week, or $52,000 per year. It does not include your life savings, or some amount of money you can borrow against your credit cards.

Compared to a fixed bankroll, a replenishable bankroll is an absolute joy for a card counter. With the replenishable variety, you can never go broke from negative flux. You may be put out of commission for the rest of the week, but come next month and a couple more paychecks, you're back in business.

• Pseudo-blackjack Games (0)
• Blackjack – So How Much Money Do You Need? Part3 (0)
• Blackjack – So How Much Money Do You Need? Part2 (0)