ElI5: how professional gamblers make money?

Question

If the house is favored in the long run how do pro gamblers make money?

In: Mathematics

Answer 1

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.