Most poker players and even more blackjack players will lose more money than they win in their lives. To be a winning blackjack player or a winning poker player, you will need to be an above average player. You need to practice and improve your play no matter which game you choose.
In blackjack you are going to have to count cards to get an edge over the casino. In poker you will need to get an edge over the other poker players at the table and the edge must be big enough to overcome the rake at the table. Both games involve skill, but luck will also have a deciding factor in the short run. A professional poker player doesn't necessarily make a good blackjack player and a good blackjack player will usually lose at the poker tables.

The list of gambling games that offer a realistic opportunity for player profit is small. Two of the games on the list are poker and blackjack.

Winning at Blackjack and Poker. Most poker players and even more blackjack players will lose more money than they win in their lives. To be a winning blackjack player or a winning poker player, you will need to be an above average player. You need to practice and improve your play no matter which game you choose. Excitement About Is poker more profitable than blackjack? - Quora He was unable to discover any historical evidence for an unique benefit for having the comb. I feel I would make a decent comparison study between BJ and poker since I'm an AP in both. We already know that a good return in BJ per hand is 1%-1.5% of your average bet assuming you're only using straight counting. My hypothesis is that poker is the more profitable game (even with a 10% rake) for the AP and requires a smaller bankroll.

When you play poker, you play against other players instead of the house. This gives you an opportunity to win by being a better player than your opponents. In blackjack, you can count cards and change the size of your bets to get a long term edge.

Is poker or blackjack a better option for long term profits?

Here are 7 reasons poker is better than blackjack. This doesn’t mean you should ignore blackjack, but it gives you some solid information to help you understand why poker is a good choice.

Poker and blackjack both give players a chance to become long term winners. Most casino games have a built in house edge that locks in long term profit for the casino. Casinos make money on both poker and blackjack, but smart players are able to use strategy in both games to change their chance to win.

Not many blackjack players are able to win in the long run, but a few can. In order to change the house edge enough in blackjack to consistently win, you have to combine the proper strategy with counting cards or hole carding or shuffle tracking.

Hole carding and shuffle tracking aren’t possible in every blackjack game, and they can be quite hard to pull off. But card counting is a solid option that almost anyone can learn. A decent card counter can swing the house edge by 1% or more over time. This means that a card counter can turn a 0.5% house edge into a 0.5% profit margin.

Counting cards in blackjack is a skill that’s fairly easy to learn, but the casinos don’t want to provide games to card counters. And the casino can refuse to let you play if they think you’re counting cards. The pit boss and security team watch for possible card counters, and this is often called heat.

Card counters have to be careful about the way they play in order to keep the casino from knowing what they’re doing. When you count cards, the way you make a profit is by betting more when the shoe has more high cards than low cards. When you raise your bet only when you have a good count, it’s easy for the casino to figure out what you’re doing.

Poker doesn’t have this problem. The casino or poker room isn’t worried about your strategy or if you’re a long term winner. The way the house makes money on poker is by taking a small rake from each pot. Your profitability while playing poker doesn’t change the house profit, so winning poker players don’t have heat like winning blackjack players.

One way card counters try to avoid heat is by switching tables and casinos. This cuts into the amount of time they can play. Poker players can stay in the same game for as long as they want.

If you can improve your skills and strategy to the point where you can play poker and blackjack with a long term profit, you can count cards at the blackjack table for a while and then play poker when you feel the heat from counting. This can give you more time playing than when you only play blackjack.

When you can play both poker and blackjack profitably, you need to track your play to learn which game offers you more profit. This doesn’t mean you should only play one game, but it gives you an idea of where you should focus most of your attention.

2 – No House Edge

I mentioned the house edge in the first section, but here’s a more in depth explanation. When you play poker the house takes a small percentage, called a rake, from each pot. The size of the rake depends on the house rules and the size of the pot. A $20 pot might have a rake of $1, while a $100 pot might be raked at $5. The rake has a maximum amount, so large pots are raked at a smaller percentage on average than small pots.

The rake is a form of house edge, but it’s closer to a seat charge than a traditional house edge. It’s a good idea to know roughly how much the rake costs you to play poker, but the key is that you’re playing against the other players and not the house.

You have the opportunity to win more from your opponents than the cost of the rake. If the average rake per hand in the poker game is $3, the average number of players per hand is 8, and the table has 30 hands per hour you can easily determine your cost. In this example your average cost per hour to play is $11.25. This is determined by dividing the $3 average rake by 8 players, and then multiplying times 30 hands per hour.

It doesn’t matter if you play 4 or 10 of the 30 hands; the average rake is the same in the long run. This means that in order to turn a long term profit you need to win over $11.25 per hour from your opponents.

The house edge in blackjack is created by the table rules. Each rule in blackjack either increases the house edge or lowers it.

Here’s an example:

A blackjack game that lets players double after splitting has a lower house edge than a game that doesn’t allow double after split.

The blackjack games with the best house rules available in most casinos has a base house edge of at least .5%, and some casinos only offer games with an edge of .75% to 1% as their best games. The only way to keep the house edge at these low numbers without counting is to use perfect strategy.

Most blackjack players don’t use perfect strategy, so a game with a .5% house edge might still produce a 1% actual edge for the casino.

Good card counters still need to find games that offer good rules and need to have those games deal deep into the shoe for maximum advantage. It’s becoming harder and harder to find games offering these advantages. When you add the need to avoid heat, it’s clear that playing long term profitable blackjack is difficult.

While the rake is a constant cost for poker players, if a poker player is skilled and picks the right games it’s easy to win enough to beat the rake and turn a profit.

Blackjack players look for tables with good rules and deep shoe penetration, but they only have so many options. When they find a good game, they still have to play using perfect strategy and count cards without making mistakes and keep from getting caught.

Smart poker players look for the best poker tables, but when they find one they can play as long as they want. The rules are usually the same from one poker table to the next, but the players are different. This is where smart poker players get the edge.

Here’s an example:

You walk into the poker room and can get a seat at two different tables. The first table is filled with good players and the second is filled with poor players. Which table should you play? The answer is simple; you should play with the poor players.

A few players I know always want to play against the best players. They say that the only way they can improve their game is to play against better players. This is fine, and there’s some truth to it. But I’m more interested in profit, and the way to make the most money is by playing against worse players.

Good poker players understand that in order to make money, they need their opponents to make mistakes. Every time one of your poker opponents makes a mistake it means more long term profit for you. Every time you make a mistake it reduces your profits. So your goal at the poker table is to reduce your mistakes and increase your opponent’s mistakes.

You can increase the chance your opponent makes a mistake by playing a certain way, but he best way to make sure your opponents make more mistakes than you is to play against poor players.

The question you need to answer is how do you find poor poker players? The answer is that you have to pay attention and track everyone you play against. The first time you play against an opponent you don’t know anything about them. But the more you play against them, the more you learn.

Don’t focus on their short term results. Focus on how they play. Short term results can be misleading, but determining if they make the right decisions no matter what the outcome can tell you if they’re good or bad players.

Here’s an example:

After the turn you bet $50 into a $250 pot. You have a set and your opponent has a gut shot straight draw. Your opponent calls and hits their straight on the river.

On this hand, your opponent wins the pot. But the call of the $50 bet was a terrible decision on the turn. In the long run your opponent is going to lose a great deal of money making a call like this. You want to get in this situation as often as possible, because even though you lost this hand, most of the time you’re going to win. Your long term profit in this situation is positive.

If you only play in casinos and poker rooms, your selection of tables is still somewhat limited. You can still find good and bad tables, but what if there was a way to always have a good table?

Though there are a few challenges, one way to always play at a profitable table is to create a game where you’re the best player. You can do this by starting a game and only inviting poor players.

4 – No Counting

Counting cards may sound difficult, but the truth is that most people can learn how to do it. The big misconception is that you have to memorize all of the cards as they’re played. The truth is that you simply add or subtract one from a whole number for each card that you see.

But card counting in a live environment isn’t easy. In most counting systems you have to use your running count to determine an actual count by dividing the count by the number of decks remaining in the shoe. With some practice you can learn how to do this, but it adds another layer of math to counting effectively.

When you play poker you don’t need to worry about counting cards. To be a good poker player you need to be able to calculate and use pot odds and outs, but it’s easier and faster to learn how to do this than to become a good card counter.

On the other hand, it can take longer to learn how to be an overall winning poker player than it takes to learn how to count cards. Deciding which game to focus on isn’t an easy decision. As you’re learning on this page, poker has many advantages over blackjack, but it’s not a clear cut decision.

Most players are afraid counting is too hard, so they should focus on poker. If you’re confident you can learn how to count cards, you should learn both games and see which one offers you the best chance to succeed.

Blackjack is a fairly straightforward game. You receive two cards, the dealer shows you one of their cards, and you decide what to do with your hand. You can stand, hit, split, or double down. Each table has its own set of rules, but there are only so many rules variations. Basically, if you play at one blackjack table it’s much the same as any other blackjack table.

Poker has a much wider variety of options. The most popular form of poker is Texas holdem, but you can also play Omaha high only, Omaha 8 or better, and 7 card stud.

Each of these games can be found in limit and either no limit or pot limit. In addition, you can play cash games, single table tournaments, and multi table tournaments. This gives you a wide range of options. You can also find a wide range of buy in levels for cash games and tournaments.

Good poker players can play well across different combinations of the options listed above. But the smart way to start is to specialize in one game and format. Pick a game and format and spend as much time and effort as needed to become a master.

Once you master one format, like Texas holdem ring games, you can add another. You could start playing Texas holdem multi table tournaments or Omaha ring games. Eventually you can determine which game and format offer you the highest return on your investment and time.

But when you learn how to win at different games and format, you can take advantage of profitable situations.

Here’s an example:

Your most profitable game is Texas holdem in cash game play. But you’re also a good Omaha player. You walk into your favorite poker room and see average to good players filling the Texas holdem tables, but one of the Omaha tables has a couple drunken fish splashing money around.

The most profitable game at that moment is the Omaha game. So you take a seat and play Omaha until it becomes more profitable to switch to one of the Texas holdem tables.

6 – Poker is Easier

Most poker players lose more than they win. So why would I say that poker is easy? Here are the main reasons why poker is easy.

The rules are easy to learn and every hand is played using a set number of cards. Everything you need to know to be a winning poker player can be broken down into straightforward mathematical formulas or equations.

Many players think that poker is a game based on luck, just like slot machines. So the play poker just like they play slots. They put their money in the pot and hope for the best.

Smart players know that nothing to do with poker is luck. They understand that in every situation there’s one most profitable way to play and that the key to long term profit is determining the one best way. They also understand expected value and if they get their money in the pot with positive expected value that the short term results don’t matter.

Here’s an example:

You have a set after the turn and your opponent is drawing to a flush. The pot has $200 in it and you put your last $200 in. The opponent calls.

In this situation your opponent is going to hit the flush 9 out of 46 times. At this point, the math is all that matters. Sometimes you’re going to lose the hand, but most of the time you’re going to win. On average, you win 37 out of every 46 times, and lose 9 out of every 46 times.

This leads to long term positive expected value. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose this particular hand, because if you put yourself in this situation over and over you’re going to turn a profit.

Every decision you make while playing poker either has a positive or negative expected value. It starts with your hole cards and continues throughout every hand. Some starting hands have positive expected value and others are negative. Some hands are positive in late position but negative in early position.

You need to make hundreds of decisions every hour at the poker table. The key is to make as many of them correctly as possible. As you improve your playing ability, you make more correct decisions.

It might seem difficult to make the proper decision because you don’t know exactly what your opponent holds. But you can learn from their actions and what you know about how they play to make educated guesses about how best to play each hand.

Poker can be a profitable game, and it is for some players. It can be a profitable game for you. You just need to learn how to use the simple math behind the game to make more positive expectation plays than negative ones.

You can play poker and blackjack online. Both are available to play for free and for real money on the internet. But the main difference is that it doesn’t help your profit to count cards online.

Real money online blackjack uses a software program to shuffle and deal cards. Unlike live blackjack, the computer program can instantly shuffle the entire shoe after every hand. This is why counting cards online is a waste of time.

The reason card counting works is because you keep track of the ratio of high and low cards remaining in the shoe. When the ratio of high cards to low cards gets high enough you actually play with a mathematical advantage against the house. But when the cards are shuffled after each hand it eliminates the effectiveness of counting cards.

Poker is played online just like you play it live. The 52 card deck is shuffled after each deal in both live and online play, so it doesn’t change your chances to win when you pay online.

You can also use free online poker to help build your playing skills when you start learning how to play. It’s important to understand that most players at the free money tables are terrible. You should learn how to play by reading good books and online resources, not by watching how others play at the free tables.

One thing you miss by playing poker online is the ability to see and hear how your opponents react to live situations. You have to play more straightforward in some instances, but this can be equaled out by the ability to play more hands per hour online as opposed to live play.

Blackjack Or Poker More Profitable Money

Conclusion

Blackjack Or Poker More Profitable Slots

Becoming a winning gambler requires a great deal of work. You can put in the work playing poker or blackjack. Poker offers many advantages over blackjack, and a couple of them are big ones. Being able to play with no heat and being able to pick your opponents can make it easier to be a wining poker player than a winning blackjack player.