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New, intermediate, and experienced poker players are forever looking for new ways to get an edge over their opponents at competitive tables.
Some grind out hours and hours playing the game, others watch YouTube tutorials, and then there is the new wave of poker students who have decided to enhance key poker skills in the much more demanding environment of blackjack.
Like poker, blackjack is a game of cards, skill, and strategy. Naturally, there is an element of luck in both games referring to the cards dealt but, over an extended period of play, strategies, and skill take control of a table. Poker students are discovering that blackjack enhances certain skill sets that are also required in poker, but are needed to a greater degree in blackjack.
As such, the level of certain skills needed to be successful at the blackjack table can be transferred to poker. The extra edge being that the user has blackjack-caliber skills in that area, while everyone else has settled for a grade that simply makes them better at poker.
Many professional poker players have already discovered the perks of learning blackjack first, including Andy Bloch, who has made over $5 million in live poker earnings [3] and was a part of the MIT Blackjack team. Now, new students of the game are joining Bloch in refining their poker skills through blackjack.
Deployment of probability through strategy
Since the 50s, blackjack has appealed to players far and wide simply because, in that decade, it became a game that can be beaten with strategy. Created by a quartet of blackjack enthusiasts now known as the 4 Horsemen [4], ‘Basic Strategy’ changed the way that everyone saw and experienced the classic table game. In the decades since, blackjack players have expanded on blackjack strategy, creating a rich space of blackjack strategic literature.
Most recently, as opposed to fighting the craze of learning the winning strategy as land-based casinos do, online casinos have decided to embrace this love of strategy by introducing a special variant in the ever-popular live casino section. The so-called Perfect Blackjack is the 1st live title [5] that deals players the ideal hand every time, helping to learn flawless strategy.
Of course, not all poker students are completely new to blackjack: they can refer to the 5 games you can try [6] in the live blackjack sector to get the authentic feel as well as the blackjack action. From there, players develop a keen sense of applying advanced probability and statistical thinking, which can then be used at the poker table. When you find yourself in a heads up poker situation, you’ll be happy to be able to apply probability to the cards at hand easily, and it might just save or win you the round.
Peripheral skills learned through blackjack
Being able to learn and apply the skills of probability at a high level, as is required in blackjack, is the core skill learned from the casino card game. However, there are also other very helpful skills that you’ll also pick-up while playing the game at live casinos.
Through playing blackjack, you’ll learn to be vigilant at the table at all times, tracking the dealer, the cards that they deal, and the activity of others in the lobby – particularly if one is on a winning streak. You’ll also learn when it’s best to ramp up your bets and when it’s best to play it easy as, if you follow the strategies of blackjack, you’ll know exactly when it’s time stack some chips. In poker, the probability and vigilance combine to help you with this skill, with the aligning of a probable win creating the perfect time to ramp up the bet.
Poker players can learn a lot form practicing and playing blackjack at live casinos, so much so that it could easily give players the edge that they crave in the game of poker.