Is Poker And Blackjack More Profitable

1. Is Poker And Blackjack More Profitable Money
2. Is Poker And Blackjack More Profitable Strategy
3. Is Poker And Blackjack More Profitable Slots
4. Is Poker And Blackjack More Profitable Games

Blackjack Calculator. That the more I played poker, the more money I would make. Situations and be prepared when they come along so as to make those opportunities more profitable to you. Unlike blackjack, one of the problems in poker is that it takes so long to become proficient at any one game because many of them are so complex, and if you are playing in a dealers choice home game, you have to be proficient in more than one game. 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. 3 – You Pick Your Opponents.

Blackjack and video poker are two casino games that share a few similarities. They’re among the most popular casino games. They both involve lots of strategy, and they offer really low house edges under the right circumstances.

Blackjack and video poker have each been among the most played casino games for decades. Fans of these games love using in-depth strategy to improve their odds of winning.

Assuming you use perfect strategy on the right blackjack or video poker variation, you’ll be facing less than a 0.5% house edge. These odds are quite good considering that the average casino game features over a 2% house advantage.

The merits behind both video poker and blackjack are easy to see. But which of these is the better skill-based game? I’ll answer this question by discussing the basics of each game along with their pros and cons.

Basics of Blackjack

Real money blackjack gives you more options than most card games. After receiving your initial two cards, you can either hit or stand.

You also have the ability to double down (rules permitting), split a pair (e.g. two 9s), or surrender (rare rule). Your goal is to beat the dealer’s hand without going over a score of 21.

Assuming your first two cards equal 21 (a.k.a. “natural”), you receive either a 3:2 or 6:5 payout on your original bet. The amount depends upon the table rules.

The only way you won’t receive an enhanced payout is if the dealer also has a natural. Your bet will be a push in this instance.

Learning Blackjack Strategy

Blackjack seems fairly complicated at first glance. The strategy can also be difficult to learn when considering the multiple options facing you at each stage.

Luckily, many blackjack strategy resources are available. You can consult articles, books, strategy charts, and trainers.

Unless you’re counting cards, I don’t suggest spending much time with articles or books. These resources are inefficient for studying basic strategy.

A strategy chart is the simplest and most effective tool for learning the basics. You can simply Google “blackjack strategy chart” and quickly find one.

These charts lay out exactly which moves you should make in each situation. If you have 14 and the dealer’s upcard is 8, for example, then the chart will suggest that you hit.

A trainer is a program that offers suggestions while you play blackjack. Much like charts, you can easily find free programs just by Googling “blackjack trainer.”

The trainer will point out when you make strategic mistakes while playing. If you don’t split aces, for instance, the program will alert you to this gaffe.

Trainers aren’t totally necessary if you’re just playing online blackjack. However, they’re great for naturally learning blackjack strategy before heading to a land-based casino.

Pros of Blackjack

Blackjack isn’t the most popular casino card game without reason. It offers several notable benefits, including the following.

Strategy Is Easy to Learn

Again, blackjack strategy appears complex in the beginning. Each decision presents you with multiple choices.

Do you hit or stand with 12 versus the dealer’s up card of seven? Should you double down on 10 when the dealer shows nine?

Strategy charts are especially helpful when you’re playing online blackjack and have time to learn. Trainers are great for when you’ll be playing land-based blackjack and can’t refer to a chart for every decision.

Low Volatility

Blackjack doesn’t quite give you a 50% chance of winning hands. You actually only have around a 42% chance to win each round.

However, splitting, double downs, and natural payouts raise your odds tremendously. The dealer, on the other hand, can’t split, double down, or earn natural payouts.

With the right strategy and game, you’ll only be facing around a 0.5% house edge. Taking everything into account, you won’t face much volatility with this game.

Profitable Advantage Play Method

You may feel like a blackjack master after thoroughly learning basic strategy. But you can take things even further by studying card counting, too.

Contrary to popular belief, card counting doesn’t require an MIT degree to learn. You can quickly pick up how to count cards within minutes.

The key obstacle is being able to count well enough to keep up with the dealer amid casino distractions. You also need a large bankroll (e.g. $10,000 or more) to survive the variance.

Card counting is easy in theory but far more difficult in person. Nevertheless, it’s worthwhile if you love blackjack and want to gain an edge.

Cons of Blackjack

While blackjack may be one of the greatest casino games ever, it definitely has some flaws. Here are the serious downsides to consider with this game.

Is Poker And Blackjack More Profitable Money

House Edge Varies Widely Between Games

I’ve mentioned multiple times that the blackjack house edgecan be around 0.5%. However, you shouldn’t take for granted that the house advantage will be this low.

First off, the rules change from table to table. One game may feature a 0.5% house advantage, while the next can offer a 2% house edge.

You need to learn the different rules that can alter the odds before playing. Natural payouts have the biggest impact. A 3:2 payoff lowers the house advantage by 1.4% compared to a 6:5 payout.

Your skills also weigh into the matter. If you’re a bad player, then you may be facing a 3% house advantage or higher.

High Bets in Land-Based Casinos

Online casinos are typically the best places to play blackjack. They feature the lowest house edge, on average, and also accept small minimum bets ($1 in most cases).

Brick and mortar casinos are a different story. They must pay dealers to run games and cover higher utility bills.

Therefore, land-based casinos can’t afford to accept $1 wagers. They normally require a $10 minimum bet. If you find anything lower than this, you’re probably sitting at a table with bad rules.

Few Chances to Win Big

Blackjack games do offer progressive jackpots and side bets. However, the average game doesn’t feature these extra frills.

The main way to win big with blackjack is to bet big. Odds are, though, you don’t have $10,000 to bet per hand.

Basics of Video Poker

Video poker comes in a large number of variations. But at its core, this game is simply just Draw Poker. You receive a five-card hand to start each round. You must decide which cards you want to keep and discard.

For every card you discard, you must draw a card to replace it. Here’s an example:

• You’re dealt: Ac-10h-As-4h-7c
• You keep Ac-As.
• You must draw three cards to replace 10h-4h-7c.

Your hand will be complete after the draw round. You’ll receive a payout if your hand qualifies for one.

Qualifying payouts differ based on which variation you’re playing. Jacks or Better pays for as little as a pair of jacks, for example, while Deuces Wild requires you to hold a three of a kind.

Your payouts will also be affected by how much you’re betting per round. Standard variations let you wager between one and five coins per hand. You should wager five coins in order to achieve top return to player (RTP) for any game you’re playing.

Learning Video Poker Strategy

Video poker strategy centers on knowing which cards to keep in each situation. You also have to account for which variation you’re playing, too. For instance, Jacks or Better strategy differs from Deuces Wild video poker strategy.

If you’re looking for a place to begin with strategy, then Jacks or Better (JoB) is a good choice. JoB forms the basis for all other variations.

A great deal of strategy charts exist for JoB across the internet due to its popularity. That said, you should have little trouble getting started with this game.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to find charts for every variation. In these cases, you’ll have to use video poker trainers. Free trainers cover some of the more popular games. However, you’ll have to buy a training program (typically around $50) for other variants.

Video poker trainers are just like those available for blackjack. You play the game and receive suggestions on right or wrong decisions from the trainer.

Pros of Video Poker

Video poker offers a unique combination of large prizes and high payback. You can read about these advantages and more below.

Features Big Payouts

One big benefit that video poker has over blackjack is its top payout. This game pays 4,000 coins for a royal flush on a five-coin bet.

Assuming each coin is worth $0.25, you’ll be risking $1.25 per hand. You’d turn this small amount into $1,000 with a royal flush.

You can also look forward to other solid prizes with a five-coin wager. A straight flush (250 coins), four of a kind (125), and full house (45) also deliver large payouts.

Some Games Offer Over 100% RTP

Video poker is much like blackjack in that it gives you an opportunity to gain an edge. Certain variations offer over 100% RTP to skilled players.

Deuces Wild, for instance, pays back 100.76%. Double Bonus (100.17% RTP) and Double Double Bonus (100.07%) also pay well.

Even if you don’t find one of these games, you can still look forward to high payback with 9/6 Jacks or Better (99.54% RTP).

Simple Rules

Video poker isn’t a difficult game to play. In fact, you can quickly dive into video poker without having ever played.

All you need to do is select your discards and draw. As long as you’re not overly concerned with strategy, then you’ll find this game very easy.

Cons of Video Poker

While video poker may offer you a great chance to win, it also requires you to work hard. You should really consider the following downsides before committing to this work.

Strategy Is Difficult to Learn

Unless you find a chart for your chosen variation, you’re going to have a tough time with video poker strategy. Training yourself to make correct plays takes lots of time and effort.

You may find this undertaking to be worth the effort if you love video poker. But if you’re just approaching video poker from a casual perspective, then you may want to consider the slightly easier blackjack.

Strategy for Each Variation Can Be Hard to Find

Is Poker And Blackjack More Profitable Strategy

As if video poker strategy isn’t already difficult enough, it’s not always readily available for each variation. This is especially the case for full-pay versions of Deuces Wild and Bonus Poker.

9/6 Jacks or Better and 8/5 Bonus Poker are the only variants that are featured in charts and trainers galore. You’ll have to spend extra time searching for strategy on most games outside of this scope.

At worst, you’ll need to put $50 or so into buying a trainer. You really want to be serious about the game before dumping money into learning strategy.

High Paying Variations Are Rare

Want to play full-pay Deuces Wild and make solid profits? If so, then you’d better head to Las Vegas, because you won’t find it elsewhere.

The highest-paying variations are tough to find. Downtown Vegas casinos are the only place to spot variants that offer positive-expected value (+EV).

You can find plenty of online video poker games that deliver over 99.5% RTP. You won’t have as much luck, though, in land-based casino destinations other than Vegas.

Conclusion

Which Game Is Better – Blackjack or Video Poker?

You can see that both blackjack and video poker have their high and low points. So, which game reigns supreme when accounting for the pros and cons?

Blackjack. It offers more accessible strategy, easier strategy, and low volatility. You can win frequently in blackjack without racking your brain to do so.

Of course, I’m just offering my personal opinion after looking closely at the matter. You may have a different take based on your personal preferences.

Video poker has its good points, too. You can look forward to large payouts, +EV games, and simplistic play.

However, my biggest issue with video poker is the strategy. You’ll have a tough time finding and learning the strategy for most games.

Both video poker and blackjack have unique benefits. But I feel that blackjack has stronger advantages that appeal to myself and the average player.

By Yancy Howard

Anyone knowledgeable of casino games knows that the two games that can be beaten consistently are blackjack and poker. The reason being, that if you play other games that have a negative expectation, you will go broke in the long run. This is not to say you can’t have a short run of luck and make a profit at any game where the house has an edge. Notice the key word here is luck, and luck is what you’ll need to make a score no matter how large or small, if the house has an edge.

Although these two games theoretically can show long term profits, careful game selection techniques must be adhered to in either case. Just because you are good card counter, doesn’t mean you are going to have that 1% to 1.5% advantage in all blackjack games. Neither does it mean you will come out ahead in any poker game just because you are a good poker player. There are many factors that come into play that control winning and losing and the most control you have is choosing the proper game to put your money at risk! No matter what you gain from this article, that last sentence is the most important.

There are many factors that come into play
that control winning and losing and the most
control you have is choosing the proper
game to put your money at risk!

Aside from having to put on a good act while playing blackjack for high stakes, if you are good enough to win, you have to play the game like a machine. You are essentially a robot while keeping the count, making the proper strategy decisions, sizing your bets correctly and ensuring the payoff is correct.

Poker, on the other hand, is not played like a machine. Yes, you have to be able to keep track of the cards that have been folded and the ones that are still out, so you know what your hand is worth. In blackjack you know at all times what your hand is worth. All you have to do is look in the betting circle. It’s worth either 1/2, even money, 1 1/2 times, double, or nothing if you lose, and you still have what is in the circle if you push. With a poker hand, you either lose what you have invested in the pot, possibly split some percentage of it or win it all.

Now, winning the entire pot is much different because the contents of the pot is going to be worth what you are able to sell your hand for. You are collecting money from all of the players that are in the pot after all the cards are turned over. In blackjack you are playing against the dealer, thus, you take no money from the other players. It makes no difference how good or bad the other players are.

Both (games) take a lot of time to master,
and one of the problems is that you
can waste much of your time by studying
the wrong material, and lose a lot of money
before you get your hands on the right material.

Unlike blackjack, one of the problems in poker is that it takes so long to become proficient at any one game because many of them are so complex, and if you are playing in a dealers choice home game, you have to be proficient in more than one game. Once you know the game of blackjack, your decisions are cut and dry for the type of counting system you use. Poker requires much more thought. In many cases, deep thought! You may know your counting system well enough to joke with the other players at the table, chat with the dealer, and still make the proper decisions at the blackjack table. In a poker hand, figuring pot odds, effective odds, implied odds, whether to check, call, bet, fold, check raise, raise or re-raise isn’t found on some chart in any book for all situations.

Discipline is one of the keys in both games. Knowing when, and how much, or how little to bet is a drastic decision. By little, I sometimes mean, no bet at all. For instance, say you are in a poker game with a few weak players and you have a poor hand. Would you try to steal the pot by raising? Of course not, no more than you would make a big bet at the blackjack table in a high negative count. Now, the blackjack example is concrete. (Barring the possibility that you were an excellent shuffle tracker and were coming up on a large clump of 10-value cards.)

Poker requires much more thought.
In many cases, deep thought!

The poker example, however, is not concrete. If you were in a very tight game with good solid players, certainly there would be times that you would attempt to steal the pot. Everyone knows that you just don’t try to bluff poor players in a poker game, as some of them will surely call you. As you can see, poker lends itself to a lot more maneuvering by the solid player. The blackjack dealer is nothing more than a mechanized dealing device, as he is bound by a given set of rules, so it’s robot vs robot.

Is Poker And Blackjack More Profitable Slots

In selecting a blackjack game you look for the best rules, the deepest cut, the fastest dealer that makes mistakes, and the largest bet spread you can get away with. In poker you look for a game with lots of weak, loose players that play like maniacs and call lots of bets. There are many other things that you look for in both games, that we will get into in another article.

I thoroughly enjoy both games, and have found each to be very rewarding. Both take a lot of time to master, and one of the problems is that you can waste much of your time by studying the wrong material, and lose a lot of money before you get your hands on the right material.

Is Poker And Blackjack More Profitable Games

Any text or article written by the following authors in their respective fields was the best information you could purchase in the 1990s. Today, there are many more new rising stars which I will leave you to discover.

POKER

• Sklansky
• Malmuth
• Caro
• Brunson
• Zee

BLACKJACK

• Wong
• Thorp
• Griffin
• Snyder
• Uston
• Malmuth
• Roginski
• Revere
• Dalton
• Braun
• Schlesinger
• Sklansky
• Chambliss
• Wilson

[ Copyright © 1994 – 2020 All Rights Reserved ]
[ This article was originally published in the Spring 1994 issue of Blackjack Reviewmagazine. ]