There are many card counters who choose to optimise what sort of edge they enter the pot with when they increase their bet sizes. Using the basic hi-lo count as an example then I will explain. The house starts with a roughly 0.5% edge if you play basic strategy. Now with a basic hi-lo level 1 counting system then the edge shifts by roughly 0.5% for every one point fluctuation in the true count. So what this means is that if the true count becomes +1 then the house edge has been eliminated but the player still has yet to get the edge and all bets have a roughly neutral EV.
So the true count has to reach +2 for the player to have any sort of edge at all at around 0.5%. This is why just using a running count isn’t very accurate as a running count doesn’t accurately measure your edge like a true count does. But your monetary swings are directly linked to how big your edge is. Clearly if your edge was 100.0% then you would never lose…..likewise if the house edge was 100.0% then you would never win. Having an edge of 0.5% means that you will effectively win 50.25% of bets placed compared to the 49.75% of the house. This is basically only marginally better than even money and consequently then losing runs will be long.
So coming in at +3 means that your edge is slightly greater at 1% but you also miss those 0.5% small edges that all professional players go after. To really maximise your earning potential as a counter then you cannot afford to sit and wait for huge edges because they simply do not come frequently enough. This is no different to a poker player who sits and waits for the nuts or close to the nuts before he commits any chips. He will win those hands that he plays for the maximum or a very high percentage of them but his earn rate will be well below that of many professional players at the same level because he is simply not taking advantage of the large number of smaller edges that are available.
As a blackjack player then you look more like a counter when you only go after large edges just like the poker players who only commit with nut like hands look just like the rocks that they are and astute players simply do not pay them off.
