Professional Blackjack Players – Have You Got What It Takes?
Maybe you’ve already played several rounds of blackjack for the first time. Or maybe you’re a seasoned veteran, with years of experience under your belt. Nevertheless, both of these players would have asked themselves at some point, as to whether they could make a decent living playing professional blackjack. After all, how difficult can it be? To answer that question will require a serious amount of dedication to learning every aspect of blackjack advantage play, including counting cards.
How To Play Professional Blackjack Like A Boss
It’s often said that though blackjack is an easy game to learn, it takes a lot more time and effort to master it. That’s because there is any number of game strategies and amount of game knowledge necessary to actually win money at this casino gaming table. Of course, with the right amount of education, anybody can play like a professional blackjack expert. With the right winning tips and tricks, you can also learn how to improve your game. And then sit yourself down, elbow to elbow, with the best players in the world.
Common sense would tell you the first step to learning how to win at blackjack is to familiarise yourself with the rules. On the whole, you’ll find that many blackjack players tend to stick to the most basic forms of hitting and standing. But once you get to know all the rules of the game, then you can learn how to double down, split, take insurance, as well as when you should surrender. It’s only by understanding all these options and the precise time that each one should be played, that you’ll end up playing like a pro. To get the hang of things, we suggest that you start by simply playing the best blackjack game types to play online.
The Professional Blackjack Player Understands Basic Strategy
Another very important aspect that’s often overlooked by new players is the speed of play. Professionals can make decisions almost instantaneously and certainly without a second thought. This, as well as having a deep knowledge of strategy and gameplay, will help.
You’ll find that the more expert you become as a player, then the easier the strategy will come throughout your playing career. Whatever you do, it’s important to always stick with a basic blackjack strategy. As a given, you should have this memorized. Whatever you do, don’t rely on a gut feeling or a hunch. Always put facts and working strategies in front of any old wives’ tales. Only by making fact-based decisions will you be making the right decisions.
The Art of Card Counting
One of the major skills that many professional blackjack players possess is that of card counting. On the whole, this can be altered to suit each player depending on the game. Card counting itself has a number of strategies attached to it including Red Sevens, Halo, and Knockout blackjack strategies. Here at Blackjackchamp.com, we suggest that you begin with these simple strategies. And only once you’ve mastered them, move on to more advanced ones. These include such strategies as Omega II and Wong Halves. Both of which can improve your card counting accuracy. It’s always a good idea to practice counting cards at home.
Always start by shuffling the deck well and then counting through the entire thing. If you manage to end your account on zero for a balanced system, or on the appropriate number for an unbalanced system, at least you’ll know your counting is going in the right direction.
Not As Simple As It Looks
Of course, we’ve all seen card counting in the movies and on television. Unfortunately, this gives the idea that it’s a simple task, when in fact it’s much more difficult than most people would believe. Straight-up, we must confess that card counting is certainly not the best blackjack strategy. Yes, you’ve probably heard people saying that you can get up to a 20% edge by counting cards. In reality, it is just not true. And you’ll be lucky, if you’re a good counter, to get a 1% advantage over the house edge. Essentially when the composition of cards and the deck fluctuates and then the player’s advantage will also fluctuate.
So if a player knows he has a greater advantage then he bets higher. If he thinks the dealer now has the advantage, then he bets lower. The strategy is very simple, it’s simply about knowing when to bet more and when to bet less. Following this will certainly increase your jackpot winning chances.
A Professional Blackjack Player Comes Armed With A Massive Bankroll
Probably the most important factor in card counting will be the size of the bankroll. The majority of players will not have a bankroll large enough to weather the huge swings that take place while playing blackjack. This is why most beginners end up losing their entire bankroll within a few hours of playing at the blackjack table. We recommend that you don’t approach the blackjack gambling table with anything less than $20,000 in your bankroll. And then be sure that you’ll never bet more than 5% of your total bankroll on any one bet. This applies to both online and land-based casinos. Mind you, if you head over to King Billy Casino, they give all new players a great welcome bonus of €1,000! This will certainly help your bankroll last longer.
Other Strategies to Use
For many amateur players, the idea of card counting is the best strategy you can find in blackjack. Though it’s true that it may be beneficial, it’s certainly not the best. Other players will swear by other systems often elevating the Martingale system to being one of their favorites.
With this system, which we certainly don’t recommend, you simply double your bets each time a hand is lost. You’ll find out some players will enjoy the “betting on everything strategy” as it allows them to have big wins. Conversely, it also allows them to lose their whole bankroll in a short space of time.
Making Use Of Dealer Tells
A good strategy that is particularly useful for more experienced players is the use of tells. This is a non-verbal form of communication and often includes such things as body signals and facial expressions. In fact, the science of body language can be put to great use when playing blackjack. A professional blackjack player called Steve Forte wrote a book called Advantage Play – The Ultimate Way to Play Winning Blackjack.
As a seasoned veteran, he was able to offer some secret blackjack winning tips and tricks on tells. This book allows players to recognize the tells, especially on the dealer’s face. At the end of the day, this should allow you to win more.
What A Professional Blackjack Player Can Earn
Keep in mind that it’s the actual size of the bankroll you start with that will decide if you will have any earnings at the end of the night. Now consider that a professional player will normally bet between 300 and 500 times what the average player does. He will need these bets because the return on each bet is relatively small. Professional gamblers start with a bankroll of at least $50,000. He’ll need this as a minimum amount especially if the bets range between $50 and $100 a hand. Though it’s difficult to know exactly what professional gamblers earn, you can be sure that most professional players will make at least $100,000 a year.
But you have to keep in mind that to win this type of money involves a huge amount of play. Many more hours than if you were just doing an Mc.Job. That’s why it’s known as “the grind.”
Professional Poker vs Professional Blackjack
It’s plain to see that when it comes to playing casino table games professionally, many gamblers fail to completely understand the difference between professional blackjack players and professional poker players. On the whole, the major difference is one of the spotlight. You see, that’s because poker pros want to be treated like celebrities. Of course, even though you have a lot to lose you still get invited to tournaments, you get to book speaking gigs and TV shows. In fact, you can intimidate your opponent with your fame and largess. After a while, you will have both name and face recognition.
Conversely, a blackjack card counter has nothing to gain from being in the public eye. When it comes to poker every player at the table is a competitor. With blackjack the polar opposite. You only play against one player, who is the dealer. Also, it’s immaterial how many people are sitting at the same table.
Poker And Blackjack Pros Are More Similar Than Different
When it comes to professional blackjack players, then you’ll quickly see there are some differences when it comes to utilizing the perfect blackjack strategies, as well as playing the skills they put to use. On the whole, some poker players can become quite successful when using hunches. Yet the same tactic would be absolutely fatal for a blackjack player. More often than not, each poker player will have a different style of playing. Because blackjack revolves so much around strategy, then you’ll see that professional blackjack players will always play the same and try to stick with basic strategy or certain versions of it.
It’s these differences that set the professional poker player apart from the professional blackjack player. It could be said that they are both in reality, professional card players. Though the strategies, skills, gameplay, and knowledge needed to be a winner are completely different.
In Summary: Playing Like A Professional Blackjack Veteran
If you want to play like a professional in blackjack then it’s going to take a lot of practice, patience, and time. But just like everything in life, by putting aside the time and making the effort to learn certain skills like card counting or how to control a bankroll budget, you will already start to become a better player. And having the skills and knowledge base will certainly make you a more confident player. And as you know, as far as winning at casinos table games goes, confidence is half the trick.
