Poker is more like blackjack than what you think
As a former blackjack player then it is striking to me just how many similarities there are between blackjack and poker. Money management is a huge factor in both games as is emotional control and believe it or not you can still tilt very badly in blackjack. Another factor that makes the two games strikingly similar although not immediately obvious to many is that they can both be played using a basic strategy. The basic strategy for any game is the strategy that you adopt that is correct when no other information is present or taken into consideration.
So in blackjack then it is the basic strategy of playing hands that you learn first and foremost and knowing this alone would place you ahead of many of the recreational players who do not know basic. But poker too has a basic strategy although it isn’t as clear cut as it is in poker. Another huge similarity is in how very good players only have a slight edge in terms of return on investment. The variance in both games is very severe and depending on which games you select in both games then the return on turnover can be higher or lower depending on the situation at hand.
One of the big differences though between the two games is in how much potential there is to play the game for profit online. In online blackjack then there is little potential to make profit except perhaps for bonus hustling but even then the online sites have really tightened up in this area too. But in online poker then the potential is certainly there and is enough for some players at the very highest level to earn well into seven figures a year.
This is simply not possible in blackjack whether you play live or online. This is why when people say to me if I recommend blackjack as a profit source then I simply say that I would be looking to put my time and effort into playing Online Texas Holdem poker for profit. Even though blackjack takes less time to learn, there is simply more profit potential in poker than blackjack and in fact depending on where you play then making money from blackjack is more than just difficult……it is downright impossible. So you either have to choose between a very difficult environment in which to make money or an impossible environment if you play blackjack.
I don’t know about you but I do not like that proposition much and was why blackjack became dated for me in 2001 and was why I stopped and switched to online poker. Also when you play online poker then you can play several tables at once and this is another factor as to why you can make more money playing poker. However though the role of position plays a huge part in both games and this is where the house edge really comes from in blackjack. In poker many players abuse their position simply because they never make the connection with blackjack in how important position really is.