If the house is favored in the long run how do pro gamblers make money?
In: Mathematics
There a a number of ways, in a skill game, like poker, you can simply be better than everyone else at the table.
[This is a great documentary on advantage blackjack players, and how they make money.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NqPJojtM9kA)
Mostly by betting against other players: In games like poker, professional gamblers focus on playing against other players rather than the house. They use skills like bluffing, reading other players, and strategic betting to gain an advantage. In games like blackjack or baccarat, a deep understanding of statistics and card probabilities is crucial. They often use card counting or similar strategies to track what cards have been played and predict what might come up next.
Mostly it’s by playing ‘multiplayer’ games such as stud poker, where most of the money they win is coming from other players, not from the house.
You may have heard of games, such as blackjack, where some pro players can use techniques like card-counting to give themselves an edge over the house. That’s increasingly a thing of the past. Nowadays, most casinos use techniques to defeat the statistical advantages of card-counting, such as using many decks of cards in one shoe, and reshuffling the deck ‘early’, before the cards run out. Some very skilled and dedicated players still manage to eke out an advantage despite these measures, partly by colluding in secret, and partly by being very conservative and only playing at tables whose card count is *very* lopsided… but playing this way demands a lot of work and patience. It’s not exactly easy money.
They win more money than they loose.
It’s either done by playing against other players like poker.
Or
By changing how much they bet when they play depending on the odds. Card counters do this. When they suspect that they are going to win more often they bet more money and when the deck is going against them they bet less money. They still loose some hands, but when they win they win more money then the hands they loose.
Games like black Jack let’s the house beat multiple players all at once when they hit 21, while players only beat the house when they hit. It means that a player might win half the hands they play and come out even but the house winning half it’s hands comes out ahead because sometimes one win beats up to five people.
They play games of much more skill, specifically poker and blackjack.
Starting with blackjack, if you are good at counting cards and in a group, you can turn the ~0.5% house edge into a ~0.5% edge for the player. You can then exploit that edge using multiple people to avoid detection. Note non of this is illegal, just casinos hate it.
Poker is a simpler ordeal, a casino will host a game and you have to pay to enter and then whoever wins get payouts. The payouts for a majority of people is less than the pay in, but the winners make a profit. You just have to be better than everyone else. My father plays online poker, and for the $12 entry games, and about 4000 participants, you will get paid a few thousand for winning, and rewards quickly drop off. You really have to be in the top 20 or so to make any real money.
Two ways. One is by exploiting some sort of flaw in the way the game is run that means the house doesn’t have the advantage they think they do. This rarely works – usually the gambler is wrong and gets taken to the cleaners, on the rare times they’re right the house is going to frogmarch them out the moment they realise what’s going on.
Vastly more common is by playing games (mostly poker) where you aren’t competing against the house but against other players. The house doesn’t care who wins because they get their cut regardless, and if you’re good enough you can make some money – in the long term at least, these games are still random enough that you can have nights where you lose badly even against lesser players. Often these gamblers will have someone with real wealth putting up the initial cash in return for a cut of the winnings.
Some are really good at poker and blackjack which are both partly skill based. I don’t know anyone making a fortune off of roulettes but I can tell you that a lot of them are from super rich families from the get go and others become such big names that they’re paid to appear in certain places or promote gambling websites or what have you. Now that gambling streaming is popular, most of the time the money they’re playing with actually belongs to the company paying them to promote them.
Point being that professional gamblers promote this self made image but pretty much none of them are self made. They were rich and they could afford to absorb losses.
There are many ways.
Poker players don’t play against the house. They play against other players. So, they just need to be better than the other players.
Blackjack players use advanced techniques to shift the game’s edge from the house’s favor to their favor. The most common method is card counting.
Video poker players find games where the edge is in the player’s favor and then follow an optimized strategy.
Slots players find machines where the progressive jackpot has built up enough that the game now has the edge in the player’s favor and they play it until the jackpot hits.
People can also take advantage of promotions where the casino gives you free money by matching your deposits, rebating some of your losses, etc.
People can also play casino games at a small loss, but take advantage of comps for hotel rooms, flights, meals, shows, etc.
I’m a blackjack advantage player. There are a number of ways to gain an edge in the game. The most traditional and easiest way is probably via card counting, which is popularised in the media. It can give players an average advantage of about 1-3% over the house. There are also some lesser known techniques such as shuffle tracking, hole carding, cut carding and ace sequencing which can provide the player up to a 50% edge over the house. As a rule of thumb, every game in the casino is beatable under the right conditions.
There are a number of ways.
1) Skill games
The top example is poker. In poker you are playing against other players, not the house, so as long as you are better than the other players enough to overcome the casino’s fee you can come out ahead.
Other examples include betting sports or horse racing. It is possible to know the sport well enough and to develop a model good enough to do better than the sports books. These people are few and far between and the sports books typically identify them and either limit their betting limits or kick them off the site entirely
2) Advantage Play
This is using the rules to your advantage and realizing where you can gain a small edge. The top example here is blackjack. If you learn how to count cards you can gain an advantage over the house using their rules and their game. Again, casinos will quickly catch on to this and not let you play anymore.
It’s also possible to gain an advantage in games like roulette and slots using various techniques. Older roulette wheels can be slightly biased towards a couple of numbers and by betting those you can come out ahead. Certain slot machines have growing jackpots, which if they get high enough can help you squeak out an edge.
3) Be the house
Create your own gambling game and get others to bet into you.
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