Is it typically easier to make bank by counting cards in blackjack or rounding poker rooms?

Question

Is it typically easier to make bank by counting cards in blackjack or rounding poker rooms?

Answer 1

Learning to count cards well enough to create an edge is a lot easier than learning the play poker well enough to be profitable. Plus, once you learn to play blackjack properly, there are no decisions. Everything is set in stone. If the count is X and you are dealt hand Y,  you do Z. All you are doing in memorizing proper plays, and using them when specific situations come up.  The hard part of becoming a pro blackjack player is learning to apply it in real world situations with high enough stakes to make it worth your time. You're not going to make a living at the $5 tables, and it's fairly difficult to go unnoticed playing with green ($25) chips. It is NOT, however, impossible as some people who don't count cards would have you believe.

In poker, you're learning a skill, then applying it to a virtually unlimited set of circumstances. There are "better" and "worse" ways to play your cards, but ultimately there is not really a right or wrong way to play. If I were to compare them, I'd say counting cards is strictly a skill, while playing profitable poker is a mixture of skill and artistry. Learning to adapt and play the players at the table rather than your cards is where the real difficulty comes in playing profitable poker.

At the end of the day, neither is a particularly easy way to make money. If you want to play either at a professional level, it's going to take a significant amount of time to get good enough.

My suggestion, is if you play blackjack with any regularity learn to count cards, and if you want to sit at real money poker tables, put in some effort to learn to play well. Counting cards is not as difficult as some non-counters would lead you to believe, and if you're going to spend money playing, you might as well learn to do it. And poker is a game that takes some time to learn to do well enough to beat the big money tables. You're not going to go pro at the penny tables online, but you can start there until you get good enough to learn to play with the big boys.

Answer 2

Poker has the advantage because you are playing against other players rather than the house, which always has an advantage.  If you take an equally skilled blackjack player and poker player, the poker player will do better in the long run.

Answer 3

poker

Answer 4

Definetely poker. Counting cards is hard, and risky. Counting cards only tilts the odds in your favour a little, so you need to play higher stakes. And you could still lose. Plus, you gotta work as a team, and try to avoid security. It's really hard to make a living counting cards.

Poker, on the other hand, is a different story. Forget live, play online. You can play multiple tables, for lower stakes and make a bundle. Plus, you don't have to worry about being banned from casinos.

There are a few really good sites out there. UltimateBet, Poker Stars and Absolute Poker are all good sites. But my absolute fav site, and has been ever since it opened, is Full Tilt Poker. They've got lots of players, fantastic tourneys and cash games, and the best software in the biz.

Answer 5

Id have to predict that bankroll fluxuations would be larger in poker reletive to betting units than they would in blackjack since there are so many other ways to lose.

In poker there may be 12 people at the table so on average you will ahve the best hand less than 10% of the time, where as in blackjakc you will have the best hand at just below 50% of the time.

But then again betting units are much larger in balckjack than they are in poker.

I think in term of success or failur of going broke blackjack is "easier" but in terms of being easier to master i would have to vote for poker being easier to play and learn since to my knowledge there is more common sense.

I enjoy being the underdog of the blackjack tables and getting all the free stuff that accompanies having 500 dollars out on the table at a time, also iv never been a professional poker player so im gogin to say blackjack is easier, becasue i dont understand the player edge of poker entirely, it seems so grey and undefined.