• Best Betting Strategy For Blackjack
• Playing Online Blackjack For A Living
• Gambling Blackjack For A Living

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If you are asking the question, you have probably played your fair share of hands at the blackjack tables.

You seem to have been doing pretty well too, so now you are thinking of becoming a professional blackjack player.

Great! We're here to tell you that it's possible to make a living from playing blackjack, as long as you know all the right things and you are lucky enough to win your games.

Very few people can make a living off of blackjack. To win in the long run, you must count cards, watch tables, risk big money, and employ questionable betting strategies. In all cases, it is a matter of statistics and logistics.

The world of online gambling has made life even easier for pro blackjack players. They no longer need to worry about those pesky casino croupiers we see all too often in the movies.

Becoming a pro is more accessible than most blackjack enthusiasts expect. But...

1. How to play blackjack for a living – the Do’s Learn how to play Blackjack properly. The aim of the game is not to get to 21. The aim of the game is to beat the. Basic Blackjack Strategy is your friend. There is a well-documented strategy for playing Blackjack.
2. Free Blackjack Game Overview. Welcome to this online blackjack page where you can play the best free blackjack games. The benefits of playing online are that you can learn blackjack rules in no rush and there is no actual monetary loss if you lose! You can click the menu button on the top right corner to read the rules.

It does take commitment, a stellar ability to count cards in blackjack, solid money management skills, and a lot of luck. That's among many other things.

Playing blackjack games for fun is good, but if you want to make some cash, we have some tips for you.

Feeling Ready for Pro Blackjack Arena?

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How to become a professional blackjack player

So you know how to play blackjack, you know you're good enough to make a full time living, you just need that extra push and a plan.

There are three significant steps in becoming a professional:

• Commit time and energy to understand the game.
• Learn how to count cards. Do it phenomenally.
• Manage your money and do it well.

Let's take a closer look at each of those.

Understanding the game

Look:

If your pockets are full, but you don't know how a 1% edge can benefit you, turning professional might not be the right move for you. At least not just yet.

Luck is a major factor in gambling, but if that's what you've been counting on and winning up until now, that does not ensure success in the pro arena, not one bit.

However, if you're willing to learn the blackjack strategy, then earning a healthy living is doable.

By this point, you should know the basic rules of blackjack, all the variances of the game, and all the different ways to play blackjack with friends.

If you don't, it's about the time to start, and you can do it with this blackjack cheat sheet.

Casinos offer different types of online blackjack games. Practice all of them first to make sure you play the right one when the time comes to commit for the long run.

Knowing the rules of each table you visit is vital. When you hit a card, you should know what you need to get closest to 21 and how to get it.

Counting cards

Compared to most other games played at casinos, blackjack has a small house edge. Turning that house edge in your favour is the most critical way to make money at the blackjack table.

If you have played at a recreational level, chances are you haven't been counting cards. And that's fine, yet that won't work for a pro.

A card counter is someone who can better predict what card is drawn from the deck and doing that takes skill and knowledge. It includes keeping track - in your head - of all the cards that are no longer in play because they were used during the game.

Already Know How It's Done?

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We know what you're thinking; if you get caught card counting, you'll be kicked out of the casino or kicked from your online game.

And that could happen because while it's not against the law, it's against many of the casinos' rules. But that's only if you get caught.

And that's what separates a professional from an amateur - an amateur will evidently behave as if they are cheating and give away signs while a pro will simply be assessing the situation with no grounds for suspicion.

It's important you get to that higher level. You might not need to be as good as the MIT Blackjack Team, but you need to be pretty good at card counting if you are to make a living from blackjack.

Now let's talk numbers.

Don't get all scared by thinking that you need to remember every single card that has been dealt. That's not it.

There is a system that helps you keep it simple.

Assigning numerical values to cards helps a player count cards. For example, value cards 2-6 are put as +1, 7-9 as 0, and face cards and aces are counted as -1.

It's a standard card counting method used by blackjack players, so give it a try and see how it works for you. You won't be able to master card counting overnight, and it can be an expensive lesson. But it's a crucial one.

Don't forget - losing at blackjack from time to time is inevitable, especially when you're practicing something new. It's a tough game to win at, so when you're learning how to count cards, we suggest lower-limit tables to start and a conservative attitudes when it comes to blackjack side bets.

The more you play, the better you become at predicting cards. A card counter can never perfect their craft, but all the best blackjack professionals are pretty darn good at it. And you should be as well.

Since the number of decks in play affects the difficulty of card counting, you should always look for games of single deck blackjack.

In these, you can apply all the principles of the single deck blackjack strategy and increase your winning chances to fight the 'luck' factor.

Managing money

While that might not be the most exciting part of a professional blackjack player's day-to-day routine, it's a mandatory one.

It includes understanding your tolerance for risk so that you don't go broke all of a sudden.

Look at it this way - adjust the size of your bets based on the bankroll you have available for playing and never bet more than you can afford. If you stick to this, you'll have a chance to earn back the money you lost on a couple of bad bets and it will keep you afloat even if the luck is not on your side (which will inevitably happen once in a while).

As your bankroll grows, you'll be able to move up in stakes, and you'll be able to make more money.

It's a process though, so don't just dive in with everything you have or you might as well find yourself opting out of this whole professional blackjack player thing.

You need to take emotion out of the equation and stick to your strategy. Otherwise, you'll spend hours trying to get back what you lost, and chasing is no good for any gambler.

How much do professional blackjack players make

How much a professional blackjack player makes depends on many variables. Factors such as bankroll, table limits, number of hands played, and the counting system all play a significant role in what a gains on a case-to-case basis.

Some professionals make upwards of £150,000 a year at casinos.

Professional blackjack games aren't for the faint of heart. Gambling for a living is one of those professions where you can lose money on a day-to-day basis.

You are not guaranteed a salary, and you have to commit your time and expertise to the game. A professional blackjack player comes in many forms, so try not to get disillusioned by a player making thousands each week.

The reality is that playing blackjack at casinos is a grind, and the same goes for an online casino. Some play upwards of 200 hands per hour, which can be taxing on your mental well being and financial well being.

Tips from professional blackjack players

Every blackjack player offers similar advice on how to become an expert.

We have collected the best tips from professional blackjack players to help you take your game to the next level:

• Find your groove. A table you feel good at will help you keep your emotions in tact.
• Play at casinos that offer excellent odds when blackjack is struck.
• Fewer decks are preferred over more decks. The more decks, the harder it is to count.
• Find tables with the best rules, such as Soft 17, and surrender rules.
• Find the right table limit for your bankroll, especially if you play online blackjack with a live dealer. If you have a small budget, try smaller limit tables at first.
• Don't get frustrated. Keep a level head.
• Don't drink and play. It might seem simple, but professionals don't let outside factors affect their game.
• Don't play based on emotions. The cards won't magically change, so stay within yourself and trust your ability.
• Control your money. Don't double your bet because you lost the previous bet. Keep calm and stick to your strategy.
• Whenever possible, play blackjack surrender.

Best professional blackjack players

Unlike poker, we don't hear much about the best blackjack players in the world. Why? Because it's not a game that is heavily televised, so the media usually doesn't cover the big events.

That being said, there have been some high-quality and hugely successful blackjack players in the history of the game. Let the inspiration sink in.

At the top of the list is none other than Bryce Carlson. A pro since the '70s, Carlson knows all about the ups and downs of blackjack.

He once went on a losing streak that lasted 47 hours. However, through developing custom strategies and perseverance, he has been able to win consistently throughout his career.

Arnold Snyder is another famous name in the world of blackjack. He has authored many books on how to play blackjack, which looks at card counting and shuffle techniques.

He believes there's always a new angle to explore, and that's always great when you're looking to bring in some fresh strategies into your gameplay.

Still unsure if you can handle the pressure of pro blackjack arena? Go practice blackjack online at one of the top casinos, test your strategies, mental strength and find out for yourself!

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Having played a fair amount of blackjack (I learned card counting when I was 21), I’ve noticed some interesting patterns in the way people play the game that seem to reflect larger life patterns.

Background Story

Feel free to skip ahead to the “Interesting Observations” section if you just want to read the lessons. This part simply provides some background info for the curious.

When I was 21 years old and living in Los Angeles, some friends and I decided to take a weekend trip to Las Vegas, my first trip there as an adult. I decided to read up on some of the casino games before I went, so I could be prepared.

I quickly learned that most of the casino games were skewed to give the house an advantage — how unfair is that? — but blackjack was supposedly beatable if you learned a technique known as card counting. So I bought a book on blackjack, learned the rules of the game, memorized the basic strategy, and then studied a simple +/- card counting system. It took a heck of a lot of practice and was tedious to learn, but I eventually felt comfortable with it. Then I was off to Vegas to try my luck with a whopping $40 of gambling money. Not much of a bankroll I know….

My friends and I stayed at the Aladdin Hotel (before it was demolished and rebuilt). Since there are many variations on blackjack rules, I scoped out the nearby casinos to find one that had the best player-favorable conditions. That turned out to be the Barbary Coast on the Strip (across the street from Caesar’s Palace), which had a nice double-deck game with liberal rules (the fewer the decks, the better for the player, all else being equal). Plus they offered a $2 minimum, so my $40 had a chance of lasting. $400 would have been a more adequate bankroll for that limit, but at the time I didn’t want to risk $400.

I felt a bit intimidated playing blackjack for the first time in a real live casino. But I trusted I was as prepared as I could be, so I sat down and dove in. The preparation paid off, and after a few minutes I began to feel at ease. Aside from making a few minor etiquette mistakes, I played my hands perfectly and had no trouble keeping track of the cards. After a few hours of playing I had turned my $40 into $165 while betting only $2-10 per hand… making more than enough to pay for my trip expenses. This was during the time when you could still find buffets for about $5.

After that first trip I was hooked on the game, not so much for the money but for the challenge of it. Card counting appealed to the nerd in me far more than the entrepreneur. I made many return trips to Vegas and played in dozens of different casinos all around the city. One of my favorite places to play was the Frontier Hotel, which used to have a single-deck game with generously player-favorable conditions. That was very lucrative until they changed their rules, like many other casinos eventually did, probably in large part due to card counters.

Between Vegas trips I studied blackjack and card counting ever more deeply. I read 10-12 books on the subject and mastered different counting systems (Thorpe, Uston, Revere, etc.). I practiced advanced counting systems that keep a side-count of aces. I drilled myself until I could count down a deck of cards in under 14 seconds. I learned to vary the play of hands according to the count, memorized optimal strategies for different rule sets, and learned the subtleties of the game that would increase my edge even the slightest degree. We’re talking a total edge of maybe 1%.

As I gained experience, I became comfortable doing all these mental gymnastics under actual casino conditions. I learned to play cat-and-mouse with the pit bosses. I even got a lot of comped meals for myself and my girlfriend (now my wife), although we got tired of eating at the same places over and over. Casinos have grown stingier with the comps, but back then you could play $5 blackjack for about 30 minutes and get a free buffet for two without much difficulty (and without being asked to join a players club).

Best Betting Strategy For Blackjack

Card counting isn’t illegal, but casinos will kick you out for it and sometimes ban you for good. Fortunately I was never banished for life anywhere, and I was only kicked out once (from the Barbary Coast of all places). Mostly this was because I played only in the $5-25 or $10-50 range of betting… too small for the casinos to care much. At that level I certainly wasn’t going to get rich, but I was doing this more for fun than for profit.

The funny thing is that now I live in Vegas, I hardly play blackjack at all… I’ve played only twice this whole year for a total of about 45 minutes (and won both times). Even though I found that card counting worked, I never seriously considered trying to make a career out of it. For one it’s very hard work, and for another it doesn’t contribute anything. I still enjoy blackjack as a diversion sometimes, and I like meeting people from around the world at the table, but I wouldn’t want to try to make a living from it.

Interesting Observations

While learning to master the game of blackjack, I made a number of observations in the way players approached the game, especially the contrast between novice and expert players. Most people who play blackjack are novice or intermediate players. During all the times I played blackjack, I felt I had identified another card counter at the same table with me on only two occasions. In both situations we could each tell the other person was counting cards, and we gave each other knowing looks. But card counters are extremely rare as a percentage of total players… way, way below 1%.

Playing Online Blackjack For A Living

1. Novices will make correct decisions most of the time. About 80-90% of the time, novices will play their hands the same way an expert player would. But the house gains a big advantage on the 10-20% of decisions they don’t make correctly. That 10-20% makes all the difference in the world between winning and losing because it’s cumulative. How is this different from other parts of life? An extra 10% makes a big difference. Eat 10% less food, and you lose weight. Save 10% of your income, and you retire a millionaire. Spend 10% of your day on some key goal, and by the end of the year, you’ve written a book, started a business, or found a mate.
2. Novices miss golden opportunities. Novice blackjack players will almost invariably play their hands too conservatively. They’ll stand too often when they should hit, and they’ll fail to double down and split pairs as often as they should. They hesitate to hit 16 against a dealer’s 7 or to split a pair of 2s against a dealer’s 4. They give up a lot more to the house by playing defensively, trying not to bust. But expert players exploit every opportunity to maximize their wins, meaning that they’ll double and split far more often when the odds favor doing so. Expert players will bust more often, but they’ll also hit their big hands more often. You see a similar pattern in life too. High achievers will bust more often, while underachievers play too conservatively, afraid to take calculated risks for fear of losing what they have. In blackjack, it’s those splits and double down hands where you make your real money. Novice players think it’s the ten-ace blackjack hand that’s the best — the guaranteed win. Expert players know it’s those hands where you split pairs 4x and double down on each one and see the dealer bust, winning 8x your original bet (but also risking 8x) instead of the mere 1.5x you get from a made blackjack. The big wins come disguised as garbage hands, like a pair of 3s. So it is in life — real opportunities come disguised as problems.
3. Novices don’t put in the time to fully understand the game. Expert players understand the game inside and out because they’ve invested many long hours studying it. Experts work harder. Novices have a strong understanding of certain parts, but their knowledge is very fuzzy in other areas. They often get confused on how to handle situations that arise infrequently. But eventually those situations do arise, and that’s where novices lose. Novices can’t handle the exceptions as well as the experts. But aside from a lack of understanding, novices also have some false understanding. If you could play blackjack and be dealt an 18 every hand, would you do it? A novice will usually say yes, thinking 18 to be a pretty good hand because a dealer has to hit 19-21 to beat it. But an expert player knows that 18 will lose more often than it will win — if you have an 18 every hand, in the long run, you’ll lose money. Experts have a more accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each hand than novices. It’s the same with life. Novices don’t take the time to master the basics, like goal-setting, time management, motivation, and self-discipline. They do OK most days, but whenever an exception occurs such as the loss of a job, they’re thrown completely out of whack, and it takes them a long time to recover. You can throw a bankruptcy or a divorce at certain people, and they recover quickly and then keep on going. But novices are more likely to allow temporary setbacks to drift into long-term ruin.
4. Experts are more disciplined. Novice players tend to play their hands inconsistently. When the same situation arises, they often make different decisions with no rhyme or reason. They exhibit poor discipline and will often drink alcohol while playing. Experts understand that you can make the correct decision and still lose, but they focus on making correct decisions, not on trying to force a particular outcome. Experts have the patience to know that making correct decisions is all it takes to win in the long run. You see this in real life too, don’t you? Achievers tend to be more consistent in making decisions and taking action; they focus their energy. Underachievers, however, waste their energy, never applying enough force in a consistent direction to bring about a breakthrough.
5. Private victory precedes public victory. Novices learn how to play in the casino. Experts learn how to play at home and then apply their knowledge in the casino. Experts spend a lot more time practicing, which takes tremendous patience. Their real victories are unseen. Talented people who perform in public have often spent many years honing their skills in private.

#2 is the observation I find most applicable to business. Even winning blackjack players will lose most of their hands. They typically win about 48% of the hands they play. That’s just the nature of the game; you’re going to lose more hands than you win. But on average the winning players will bet more money on the 48% of winning hands than they will on the 52% of losing hands. These bigger bets are made in two ways. First, with card counting you can recognize when the deck composition is in your favor and when you’re more likely to win than lose, so you increase the amount of your initial bet. But also you can recognize situations to double down or split pairs where you can increase your bet after you see your first two cards.

Novice players miss opportunities in these same two ways then. They don’t know when the odds are in their favor, so they don’t know when the conditions are right for a bigger initial bet. And secondly, after they see their first two cards, they don’t know when it’s a good idea to put more money out. And by missing these two key opportunities, they lose money in the long run, typically giving the house around a 5-8% edge.

How does this lesson apply to real life? Life isn’t about the quantity of successes and failures you experience. You also have to consider the magnitude. When you perceive the conditions of your life are ripe for success in some area, that’s the time to bet big. Plus there are also situations where you have the chance to see what results you’re getting, and if they show promise, you can raise your bet even higher.

For example, suppose your goal is to find a long-term relationship. When the conditions in your life suggest you have a better chance of succeeding at this goal than you did in the past, that’s a great time to push yourself. Perhaps you have a stable job and money in the bank and your health is great. It’s time to place a big bet by focusing hard on your relationship goal. Go out on a lot of dates. Ask! Don’t sit on the sidelines waiting and miss the opportunity. It will be a lot harder to achieve this goal under less optimal conditions.

Gambling Blackjack For A Living

And then when you find a person who seems compatible with you, double down and raise your bet. Find ways to spend more time with that person, and put your lesser goals on the back burner. Don’t neglect the opportunity to grow closer. Strike while the iron is hot. Have a lot of fun together. Build your relationship when the conditions make it easy to do so.

When the conditions in your life are right to seek out opportunities instead of merely holding your ground, get out there and take advantage of them! And when you start getting promising results in some area that show you the odds are in your favor, push yourself to capitalize on the situation as best you can. Don’t sit around waiting and waiting.

Sometimes the conditions in your life aren’t right for going after opportunities. Maybe it’s a struggle just to hold your ground or to dig yourself out of a pit you find yourself in. Be patient and stay your course. Eventually there will come a time where things are going your way again. And when that happens, do NOT allow yourself to be complacent. Everyone loses when the deck is stacked against them. But the biggest losses come not from the no-win situation but from the could’ve-won-but-failed-to-act situation. Could’ve started the business but didn’t. Could’ve gotten the date but didn’t. Could’ve lost the weight but didn’t.

As in the game of blackjack, the could’ve-but-didn’ts are the biggest losers in life. Don’t join them.

Here’s a related post you may enjoy: Life Lessons From Poker

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