Is It Possible To Make A Living From Blackjack
Originally Answered: Is it possible to make a living playing blackjack? Theoretically yes, realistically no. Card counters have been known to be highly profitable if they have the skills to maintain advantage. Is it possible to make a living off blackjack. Thank you for your support! After all, roulettes depend entirely on chance and a strategy, however good it may be, does not change that quality.
Is It Possible To Make Money From Blackjack
The first step to becoming a professional gambler is learning enough about probability to get an edge when betting. Casinos stay in business because they have a mathematical edge over most players. Your goal as a professional gambler is to only bet when you have anedge.
But how do you know if you have an edge or not?
You have to be able to do the math.
Luckily, it’s not hard.
Probability is just a mathematical way of looking at how likely certain events are. A probability of an event occurring is always a number between 0 and 1. If an event has a probability of 0, itwill never happen. If it has a probability of 1, then it will always happen.
Here’s an example:
You flip a coin. You want to know the probability that it will land on heads.
You determine that by dividing the number of ways you can achieve the result you’re solving for by all possible results. When flipping a coin, you only have one way of getting heads. You alsohave two possible results—heads or tails. So your probability of getting heads is 0.5.
That probability can be expressed as a fraction or a percentage, too. 0.5 is the same thing as ½, and it’s also the same thing as 50%.
When you bet on a particular event, you can compare the probability of winning that bet with how much you risk versus how much you stand to win in order to determine the expected value of thatwager. For most casino games, your expected value on each bet is negative—the casino has an edge over you.
Here’s an example:
You bet on a single number at the roulette table. The probability that you’ll win that bet is 1/38. If you do win, you get paid off at 35 to 1 odds.
One other way to express a probability is in odds format. That’s a comparison of how many ways you can fail versus how many ways you can succeed. Since a roulette wheel has 38 numbers, youhave 37 ways to lose and only 1 way to win. That means your odds of winning are 37 to 1.
Is It Possible To Make Money Playing Blackjack Online
If you got paid off at 37 to 1, you’d have an edge of 0, and so would the house. If you could get paid off at 38 to 1, you’d have an edge over the casino. But you only get paid off at 35 to1, so the house has an edge over you.
In all those cases, your probability of winning is low, but if you get paid off enough money, even a low probability bet gives you an edge over the house.
Here’s why:
Suppose you play 38 spins of the wheel. You’re betting $1 on every spin. If you get results that mimic the mathematical probability, you’ll lose $37 and win $35. You lost $1 on 37 spins, and youwon $35 on one spin. That means your expectation is -$2 over 38 bets.
You can divide that expectation by the number of bets to get an amount you expect to lose on average per bet. In this case, your expected loss per bet is $0.0526. You can express that as apercentage if you like, and in this case, that percentage is 5.26%.
Your goal as a professional gambler is to only place wagers where you have an edge. Since your statistical results over a large number of trials should near the mathematical expectation, you canexpect a profit if you play long enough.
That’s the math that works for the casino, and that math can work for you as well.
The allure of turning blackjack into a career is undeniable. It’s no different from kids who dream of becoming pro athletes—who wouldn’t want to get paid for playing their favorite game day after day? But no less so than professional sports, making a living at blackjack is a real job. It takes hard work and practice to reach a level of skill capable of turning a pastime into a livelihood. And to earn truly serious money as a blackjack pro requires not only the drive, business sense, discipline and risk-taking will of an entrepreneur but also the ability to avoid becoming a threat to the casinos that make it possible.
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The View from the Top
Those who have aspirations of playing blackjack as a professional will probably have read Lawrence Revere’s 1969 classic “Playing Blackjack as a Business” several times over. They will certainly have heard of Kenneth Uston, the author of “Million Dollar Blackjack,” and Johnny Chang, manager of the famed MIT blackjack team. Such blackjack “geniuses” proved that it is possible to win millions at the table in a relatively short period of time.
For a more contemporary example of success, look to Don Johnson—not the 63-year-old actor but the 50-something card counter—who took $15 million from three hotel-casinos in Atlantic City within six months in 2011. Then, in February of 2012, he returned to the Jersey shore and beat the Tropicana for another $2 million, clearly demonstrating that it was no fluke. Johnson is the current rock star of blackjack pros, wagering $100,000 a hand, winning consistently and banned at the tables of all Caesars Entertainment properties.
Meanwhile, back on terra firma, the likelihood of quickly becoming a millionaire playing blackjack is remote for most. A much more realistic scenario for earning millions is that it will probably take at least a decade of consistently successful play. It will mean lots of long hours spent at the tables with plenty of ups and downs, gradually building up a bankroll large enough to play exclusively in the high-limit rooms, where the game rules tend to be more liberal and the betting limits pose no barrier to big wins.
Getting There from Here
According to one instructor of professional blackjack, “Playing blackjack for a living is more like owning your own business or working for 100% commission.” He says that how much can be earned is a function of the “expected value” of each hour of play, which is in turn dependent upon such variables as the rules of the game played, number of decks in play, the average wager size and spread (min-max), deck penetration, the counting system used and number of hands dealt per hour, which is typically 180~220 if playing heads up against the dealer. The proficiency of the player must be a given.
Taking all of the above into consideration, a good player might be able to expect to win from $275 to $390 per hour when wagering $50 to $500 per hand. Actual time spent at the table per week might be 15 hours. That would yield a potential weekly income of around $4,750, which amounts to somewhere in the vicinity of $228,000 annually—a professional level income.
However, the player will have expenses similar to those of any sole proprietor. He or she must be responsible for taxes, including self-employment tax as well as state and national income taxes, plus healthcare coverage, a self-funded retirement plan and travel costs to and from casinos outside one’s own area. There will probably be weeks of earning much more than expected offset by ones with net losses. It can be a real rollercoaster ride with no guarantees.
On the upside, the blackjack pro has no boss to report to, sets his/her own schedule, and receives comps for rooms, food, beverages and shows in addition to getting paid in cash. Hopefully, such benefits make up for a smoke-filled work environment and the lack of a regular paycheck. Just as in sports, not all pros become stars, but it is certainly possible to make a solid living by playing the game that you love.
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