betting strategies

I'm taking a basic strategy blackjack class at UC Berkeley. I know my basic strategy fairly well and I also have started counting. I have a question regarding betting. The instructors of the class suggested betting strategies such as team play where several players scope out tables and wait for a high count and then another player swoops in and bets big. They also taught us how to bet according to the count in order to win big. My question is this: in a craps class that i took some time ago, the betting strategy of doubling bets (ie bet 5 dollars, then 10, then 20...) and always leaving on win was suggested. Would this betting strategy work for blackjack? I know that it takes a lot of capital to bet and good discipline to leave on a win and not keep on playing, but with odds about 50% or higher, wouldn't this be an ideal strategy?

This is a progression system, called Martindale, and it will not work. Sure, you will get many one unit ($5) wins, and your winning sessions will outweigh the losing ones, but when you do get a losing session, it will amount to your entire bankroll. This system has a lot of risk, with very little reward. Think about it. First you lose 5 bucks, then 10, then 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280...After losing 8 hands in a row, you have to bet 1280 bucks to win 5!! Number one, do you have a bankroll large enough to handle situations like these (which can and will happen...I once lost 13 straight hands)? Number two, you will reach the table maximums rather quickly. What will you do then? I'm sure others will have more to add...

--Homer J.

They have a Blackjack class at UC Berkeley? Is this for credit? What department?

ya, its for 2 units and is in the math department. its a student taught class sponsered by a math profesor.

Part of me wants to find out what kind of garbage they teach in a craps class...but a bigger part of me wants to just crash through the window with a bullhorn and yell YOU FOOLS, DO YOU THINK THE DICE SOMEHOW REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST?

Here are some cold, hard facts:

1) A roulette spin, a roll of the dice, a keno drawing, a flip of a coin are INDEPENDENT EVENTS. When you flip a coin, the odds of it landing heads up don't depend on what happened the last time. The same goes for roulette and craps and keno.

2) Because such events don't depend on previous outcomes, changing your bet according to previous outcomes has NO EFFECT on your chances. If you flip a coin three times and double your initial one-dollar bet until you win, seven times out of eight you will come out one dollar ahead, but one time out of eight you will come out seven dollars behind.

3) If there is no bet that is in your favor, there is no combination of bets that is in your favor. Every roulette bet has a house edge of 5.29% (except one that's even worse). You can pick any one bet, any two bets, any ten bets, or any sixteen million bets. The house will, on average, take 5.29% of your money, no matter what you pick. No "system" can change the odds to anything but 5.29%.

4) Anyone who says otherwise is a fool or a liar.

(Some people say they can roll the dice exactly the same way each time, or watch exactly how the roulette dealer releases the ball, and defeat the randomness of the games. Such claims don't fall under number 4 above, although I am HIGHLY skeptical that their technique works often enough to overcome the house edge.)