Blackjack and poker are two of the most popular games you will see in any casino. There are even some players, like Andy Bloch and Erica Schoenberg, who have crossed from a professional blackjack player to a professional poker player. However, there are some very important differences between these two games and you need to know what they are if you want to be successful in either one.
Blackjack vs. Poker: The House Edge
Poker is played against other players, not the house, technically there is no “house edge”. However, most poker rooms will take a rake, or a fraction of each pot, as payment for running the game. Therefore, any advantage a player can generate through skill must be large enough to cover the rake. Blackjack, on the other hand, is played against the House, and therefore has a House advantage, which, with the correct use of basic strategy, is usually less than two percent.
Blackjack vs. Poker: Turn Professional
It’s very difficult to become a blackjack pro, simply because the only way to do that is by card counting or some other method of keeping track of specific cards in the deck. It’s a skill that takes some serious effort, especially if the shoe contains six decks or more, and takes a lot of playing time before you make a serious profit, regardless of how card counting is depicted in the movies. Also, calculating online is impossible because the random number generator in the software makes it impossible to know how rich the deck is in tens at any given time. Even though being a poker pro is harder than it looks on TV, your goal is simply to have an edge over the other players at the table, which is much easier than turning a game with a built-in two percent advantage against you into. one where the edge is in your favor.
Blackjack vs. Poker: Celebrity
If your goal is fame and fortune, blackjack may not be for you. Professional blackjack players should remain anonymous, as casinos can ban winning players from their casinos whenever they want. On the other hand, people like to test their skills against successful poker players, so in this day and age, poker players can practice their skills right up front for all to see.