Patrick, I think you are being overly conservative as you said. I see where you're coming from, but personally, I think it is better to take a longer-term view than one hand at a time. Yes, you could lost $20 instead of $10, but over time, you are likely to win more than you lose by doubling your bets in the right situations. If you're not capitalizing on the situations where you could (and arguably should) double down or split, then you're only increasing the house edge. My theory is that if I'm not willing to double/split on the hands where it's theoretically advantageous to do so, then I probably shouldn't have bet that $10 in the first place. (Again, just my personal preference.) I have a blackjack reference card that I generally use to determine my strategy on any given hand. It says to not double on 11 if the dealer shows a 10 or A. It says to double on 10 if the dealer shows anything except 9, 10, or A. In terms of splitting 9's, it recommends to usually split them, except when the dealer shows 2, 7, 10, or A (I know, that seems like a pretty random strategy). Your betting strategy does sound interesting though. What are the rules you follow for increasing/decreasing bets?