just learned basic strategy and somehow doing worse 😭 is that normal

Thought I was being smart finally picking up the basic blackjack strategy chart but I swear, since sticking to it, my sessions are way rougher than when I was playing just by gut. Wasn’t expecting to be up all the time or anything but this is just streaks of hands going south, like constantly breaking 16 against the dealer’s face cards and never seeming to catch any lucky runs.

I mostly play live dealer online and stick to pretty steady bet sizing. Even double checked myself, made sure I was actually following the chart right, but variance seems extra cruel lately. Wondering if it just takes time for the math to play out or if I’m missing something obvious.