What Does it Take To Be a Professional Blackjack Player? GAMBLERS August 24, 2017 Home What Does it Take To Be a Professional Blackjack Player? Deciding to pursue a brand new career is something that many people consider, especially if they don’t enjoy their job, fancy getting more money, or just want to change their work/life balance. In fact, the average person switches jobs around 12 times during their lifetime. There’s a multitude of reasons why workers sometimes feel dissatisfied, with Forbes listing just 10 of them, but perhaps the biggest incentive for career change doesn’t stem from dissatisfaction; it stems from the chance to get rich doing something you genuinely enjoy! One route that can seem tempting to take in this respect is becoming a pro-gambler. But what is involved in this exactly? Confidence: Know Your Strengths If you feel you’ve got what it takes to be a professional gambler, the first thing to do is find proof that you have the skills needed to turn your dream into reality. If you head to our guide on the world of casino lingo and find yourself thinking “I never knew that”, you’re probably looking at the wrong career path. Knowing the lingo is not the be all and end all of the gambling world, but you’ll need to know your shark from your bluff from your 3 card poker variant if you want to succeed. – IMAGE SOURCE: Flickr.com One game that allows you to balance the challenge of having a bit of luck on your side as well as letting you demonstrate the use of great strategy is blackjack, a game that has always been one of the most popular casino games. Blackjack can see a player’s skill win them life-changing sums of money, just like a recent jackpot winner from Coventry, who won £100,000 on a single side bet. If you think you have the skills needed to repeat this kind of win and make a serious living from one of the most popular card games out there, blackjack, read on. If you’re still a newbie, you might want to start with our A to Z guide to the game, of course. Appetite for Learning: Know Your Version of Blackjack and the Mathematics Behind It With many factors to take into consideration, it’s clearly not just as easy as seeing the story of Don Johnson and then walking into a casino and emulating his $6 million in winnings. Indeed, one of the most common mistakes in blackjack stems from a player thinking he or she is playing a game of blind luck when in actual fact the odds of getting different card combinations help players to turn a game that has an element of chance into one where they can have a certain element of control. INSERT IMAGE HERE – https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/1911681_821553287859412_342540839_n.jpg?oh=72c5110b838fa32b61daaacdee8778c3&oe=5A1843F2 – IMAGE SOURCE: Facebook.com Knowing the probabilities in blackjack turns casual players into professional winners and sets the serious pros apart from the rest. After all, it isn’t easy knowing what to do when faced with 1,326 two-card combinations when playing with a single deck of cards. This highlights that it isn’t just all about those movie moments that film studios such as Universal Pictures love to portray, with players strolling into the casino and winning big. Instead, it’s all about the more scientific side of the game, where learning the odds helps you know whether this is the time for doubling down with a side bet that could see you win big, or accepting that this is the time to surrender, something that Business Insider talk about in their guide to the basics of blackjack. Blackjack has such enduring appeal because of its relative simplicity, a fact that Betway go out of their way to acknowledge in their introduction to their own suite of blackjack games, but it is the complexity and learning that goes on behind the scenes that lends it its beauty, as well as the chance to narrow down your specialism to one specific variant of blackjack. For instance, deciding to become an expert at a variant like Atlantic City, rather than becoming a more rounded player who takes on three or four more standard variants will allow for greater chances of success. After all, remember the phrase, stemming from the 1500s in Britain: “Jack of all trades, Master of none”. With blackjack in all its forms, the learning opportunities really are endless, and it’s for this reason that blackjack books like The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book (available for purchase for just over £10 with Wordery with an updated section on Atlantic City if that’s of interest to you) have endured in popularity many years later. Balancing Consequences: Know and Embrace the Risks Knowing how to play, knowing what variant to play, and knowing the odds and probabilities are all key factors to take into account when deciding to become a professional blackjack player, but perhaps the biggest factor is knowing the risks. You need to make sure you know that it isn’t just about one hand, or even two hands, but about knowing when to quit and when to gamble and to know your limits. Retaining this element of control is what sets blackjack apart from games where there really isn’t a strategic side to proceedings. With this in mind, being a professional blackjack player can see you win big, but to succeed, you need to know and appreciate that the world of gambling is full of risk and is all about being smart on numbers whilst getting that little bit of luck we all need. Keep this in mind and you can go out and start a new career and possibly be the one who ends up picking your next holiday by telling your private jet pilot precisely where you fancy heading for the weekend!
