How To Win Big Money At Blackjack

And as far as making your living from blackjack goes — well, it's hard to imagine that anyone except the rare minority wins enough money at blackjack regularly enough to make money at it. My best educated guess is that your probability of winning at blackjack in the long run is less than 3%. It might even be as low as 1% or 2%. Remember that a casino blackjack table is not a video game where you're playing for imaginary money. This is real money; your cash that you've worked hard for, so be smart and know your personal limits. Find a limit that you are comfortable with. You will make better decisions if you are not worried about what you are betting.

• How To Win Big Money At Blackjack Poker
• How To Win Big Money At Blackjack No Deposit

Blackjack is, hands down, the game you should play if you're looking for the best casino games to win money. As long as you follow a basic blackjack strategy, you should win about 49% of the hands that you play at the blackjack table. Blackjack is also by far one of the easiest casino games to learn how to play if you've never played it before. If you can do basic addition, you can be a successful blackjack player in no time at all.

Table Of Contents

Are you looking for the best blackjack strategy to maximise your winning odds when you play online? You'll love these tips.

Finding a way to get higher chances to win at blackjack shouldn't be so hard.

• Players will win their hand when their cards total higher than the dealers or lower than a total of 21 if the dealer busts (exceeds the magic 21 value). This is done by totaling the face value of all cards with the ace counting as either a 1 or 11, depending on the casino.
• After all, players have finished drawing cards, the dealer turns over the cards covered in the first round. If the sum of points is less than 17, then the cards are taken until the sum of points is greater than or equal to 17. And also, the dealer does not Double, Split or Surrender. If the dealer busts, all players win.

The basic strategy is the best way to play blackjack — and when you combine it with some strategy tips on bankroll management and what to do after you win, you have really reached the maximum you can.

In other words, if you are looking for the best blackjack betting strategy to increase your chances to win, you'll love this guide.

In the parts that follow you will find:

• And lots more

We also put together a collection of the best bonuses to play online. This way, you can use those freebies to test the blackjack basic strategy and all the tips in this article.

Register a FREE account and claim your bonus to play online blackjack!

What this guide is NOT

• A collection of tips to win at blackjack
• A list of systems that promise to make blackjack profitable
• The illusion that you can beat the game

Blackjack is a gambling game where the casino has an advantage. It doesn't matter what approach you take or what blackjack strategy you follow. In the long run, the casino always wins.

Why Follow a Blackjack Betting Strategy?

Let's face it - we have all been there. We have all looked for the best and the most effective strategy to win at blackjack after we lost our first hands online.

With the right blackjack strategy it's possible to increase your winning chances, and that's because blackjack isn't a gambling game like roulette, video poker, or slots.

If you follow the basic betting strategy and you learn how to use the information you have at your disposal, you can reach optimal play giving yourself the best chances to win include in the game.

Professional players have worked hard to 'solve' the game of blackjack and find how to play each hand to get the best winning odds.

They analysed how the number of decks in play affects your chances to win and how you can make the best decision based on the cards you see on the table.

• That's what they call the 'blackjack basic strategy. A list of dos and don'ts where you find exactly how you are supposed to play each and every hand you are dealt.

This is the best strategy for blackjack.

The goal of the blackjack basic strategy isn't to help you win at blackjack every time you play. That's impossible. Instead, it is to help you maximize your winning chances and to minimize your losses.

That's also the goal of this guide. We don't list all the strategies for blackjack out there. Instead, we focus only on the best blackjack strategies that are known to work and should help you get better results when you play.

Starting from the tips and tricks included in our cheat-sheet.

READ ALSO: How to play online blackjack with friends.

How To Win Big Money At Blackjack Poker

What Is the Blackjack Basic Strategy?

Knowing how to manage your money is as important in blackjack as it is in all gambling games. A correct 'bankroll management' is essential when you play — regardless of the blackjack strategies you apply to your games.

Knowing how to bet (and how much) and how to select the right game when you play online blackjack for real money is extremely important.

Once you have those basics covered, you can move into the basic blackjack strategy and learn how you are supposed to invest your money once the dealer gives you the initial two cards.

As soon as the cards reach you and the dealer opens one of their cards, you have to make your first choice. In a game of blackjack, that means you need to pick one of these options:

• Stand
• Hit
• Double
• Split
• Surrender

Do you know why the basic blackjack strategy is also considered to be the best way to discover how to win at blackjack? Because it uses basic logic.

Would you hit if your first two cards gave you 20 points? Of course not.

Would you stand if your starting hand was worth five points? Not a chance.

While these choices are very simple on hands like the ones I use in my example, things get (a lot) more complicated with different cards on the table.

Let me give you a few examples.

• How do you play soft 17 in blackjack?
• When do you hit on a 16?
• What to do with 15 in blackjack?

This is where the basic blackjack strategy comes in to help you get the best chances to win.

This collection of tips shows you the optimal play for every blackjack hands, calculating your winning odds in combination with the dealer's open card.

The basic strategy to win at blackjack has nothing to do with concepts like card counting or any of those tricks some 'clever' players adopt to beat the house.

This is a simple-to-use guideline that shows you exactly how you are supposed to play every possible hand of blackjack. Use it to know when it is recommended to hit, to stand, or to do something else.

Key:
S = Stand
H = Hit
Dh = Double (if not allowed, then hit)
Ds = Double (if not allowed, then stand)
SP = Split
SU = Surrender (if not allowed, then hit)

A Blackjack Cheat Sheet

To make things even easier for you and help you follow the best betting strategy whenever you play blackjack, we created a quick cheat-sheet with the basic strategy explained in full.

Download the blackjack cheat-sheet (it's free) and print it or save it on your mobile phone to keep it always with you when you play.

The blackjack basic strategy cheat-sheet is 100% legal and you can use it both when you play online and at a brick-and-mortar casino.

A Conservative Blackjack Strategy

Don't play high-stakes games unless you feel ready for them and you have enough money to spend on online games.

If you are reading this blackjack strategy guide and you are a beginner, you should be afraid of high-stakes games.

When you spend too much money on your games, you risk getting the opposite of what you want. You play to have fun and to find out how to get more chances to win at blackjack - and you end broke and frustrated.

The best way to play blackjack is to start with what I call a conservative approach. Because finding the right way top handle betting in blackjack is key to long-term fun.

Like many blackjack strategies suggest, you should increase the stakes only when things go well and any potential losses are compensated by the money you have already won, not the one you might win if you get lucky.

In other words, raise your bet every time you win.

Many players believe wins and losses come in streaks. They think you might lose five or six times in a row — but when you win…you are not going to do it just once.

Obviously, that's not true.

Blackjack is a gambling game and there are no patterns for you to exploit or streaks that you can use to win more money every time you play.

There are, however, smart betting strategies like the basic blackjack strategy that can help you increase the chances of a victory.

With that in mind, a conservative blackjack strategy works like this:

• Start from the lowest bet (e.g. $1)
• Increase your bet by 1 unit only after you win
• Go back to the original bet after you lose

When you use this blackjack strategy, you need to go back to the original bet as soon as you lose one hand. This is the best way to be in control of your money and end a gaming session in the black.

All you need to do is to make the right choices (use the basic strategy) and raise your stakes little by little - but only when you win.

How To Win Big Money At Blackjack No Deposit

READ ALSO: Bets sites to play live dealer blackjack online.

An Aggressive Approach to Blackjack: the Martingale Strategy

The Martingale betting strategy sits at the opposite side of the spectrum. This is the perfect blackjack strategy for those players who:

• Play blackjack to win a lot of money
• Can afford to lose a lot of money
• Don't fear the swing of big losses

In other words, this is the perfect blackjack strategy for big spenders but isn't one that you should try if you are still a beginner who is looking for ways to learn how to play blackjack.

The Martingale blackjack strategy is expensive. This is a blackjack system that will help you win often - but only when I have a lot of money to invest on your games.

If you can't spend at least $500 on your games - the Martingale is not the best blackjack strategy for you.

But if you do — continue reading to discover how to use this betting strategy to increase your chances to win.

In short:

The Martingale strategy is the exact opposite of the conservative approach to betting in blackjack we have just seen.

When you follow this strategy, you need to double your bet every time you lose. Which, in case of a losing streak, can become very expensive very quickly.

The rationale of this audacious blackjack betting strategy is that you will need only one win to go back to square one and recoup all your losses in one hand.

The caveat is: your bankroll needs to be deep enough for you to play and play until that one win comes.

Again, this isn't a betting strategy for beginners. If you decide to try it, make sure your bankroll covers at least 10 consecutive losses from the hand #1.

1-3-2-6 Blackjack Betting System

The 1-3-2-6 blackjack betting strategy is not as exciting as the Martingale strategy, and that's a good thing. This betting strategy doesn't require a huge bankroll and is a lot more suitable for players looking for a way to have better chances to win at blackjack without investing a fortune in the game.

The numbers in the strategy's name indicate the way you should bet after you win a hand of blackjack.

You first winning is the trigger that starts the sequence while your first losing hand is the one that ends everything.

This blackjack betting strategy is built to get the most value out of winning streaks. If you are lucky enough to use it at the beginning of a four-hand winning streak, you are in for a treat.

READ ALSO: How to play blackjack for beginners.

How to Win More Often at Blackjack: A Few Important Tips

We all want to win at blackjack every time we play, but we also know that's impossible.

What is possible, however, is to maximise your chances to win and get better winning odds when you play blackjack online. All it takes a few simple tips.

Follow them carefully, as these blackjack tips are as important as the best blackjack betting strategy.

• Don't spend money on the 'insurance'. The insurance bet is a money-draining option created to confuse beginners. All the best blackjack strategies fail to mention is for one simple reason: no real blackjack player will ever spend their money on it.

• Think about the house edge. Like we said when we went through some of the game's best betting strategies, you can't expect to win at blackjack every time you play.

  Like all other casino games, the house edge is what makes sure that the casino has an advantage over the players in the long run. With that in mind, the next of our blackjack tips is one that can make a great difference for you.

• Set a budget and abide to that. Experienced blackjack players know that you need to set a losing and a winning limit before the first hand is dealt.

  Stop playing as soon as you hit one of them. If you lose and hit your lower limit, take a break and end your session.

  If you win and you hit your highest limit, collects your winnings and leave the table. You can continue to play if you want, but you'll need to set a new bankroll and establish new limits first.

• Don't miss the rules sheet. Trust me, there are more blackjack variations that you will ever play. All of them are based on the same core gameplay — but adopt rules that could break you if you aren't ready for them

  One of the best parts of playing online is that the rules are always available at the table. If you are not sure you know everything about the game you want to play, click on the 'info' icon and read the rules.

• Choose 3:2 over 6:5 payout. Different casinos have different payout policies - and not all of them are great for you.

  Make sure you read the payout table before you begin to play a hand of real money blackjack and always choose the games with the 'regular' 3:2 payout. These are a much smarter choice compared to the 6:5 payout blackjack games you find at some online casino sites.

Use Bonuses to Find Your Favourite Blackjack Strategy

Now that you know what are the best blackjack strategies, there is only one thing left: play a few games online to find out which one works best for you.

Here's what you should fo to get the best results:

1. Base all your decisions on the basic blackjack strategy
2. Pick the betting strategy that suits your bankroll
3. Follow all the blackjack strategy tips above to maximise your chances to win

To help you find the right games and the right betting strategy, we created a list of the best blackjack bonuses on the market.

All the sites you find in the list are licensed, pay winnings fast, and offer lots of blackjack games. Pick the ones with the best offers, register an account (it's always free), and sit at the blackjack table to start an epic battle with the dealer!

Most gamblers—probably 90% to 95% of them—are recreational gamblers. Any recreational gambler can make $100,000 in a single month gambling. All she has to do is get lucky.

This post has some advice about getting lucky in the casino, but it focuses more on how to get a long-term mathematical edge when gambling. If you get a big enough edge, have enough of a bankroll, and spend enough time gambling, you can average $100,000 a month gambling.

But I should warn you ahead of time that most people don't have what it takes to become a professional gambler. It requires a faith in math that most people just don't really have. It also requires a level of self-discipline that most people lack, too.

I read a book a few years ago called How to Make $100,000 a Year Gambling for a Living by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth. It was essential in shaping my ideas about how gambling works. Much of the thinking in this post was inspired by that book.

Here's how to win $100,000 a month gambling:

1- Getting Lucky

One way to try to win $100,000 in a month at the casino is to find a progressive slot machine with a $100,000+ top prize. The only way to win that prize is to get lucky, by the way. There are no skills or techniques that will improve the probability of winning that prize.

But you can't win if you don't play, so decide how much money you're willing to lose in your quest to make $100,000 from that machine. Then gamble it until you've either won the $100,000 or lost the entire amount.

You're more likely to lose all your stake than you are to win.

Another way to approach this quest is to place a bet on a table game where you have a close to 50% probability of winning. If you win, let the winnings ride. Keep repeating this until you have your $100,000.

You don't even have to go with the nearly 50% option if you don't want to.

Here's an example:

You decide you want to win $100,000 playing roulette this month.

One route would be to bet $100 on a single number. If that number hits, you now have $3600.

Let that ride on the same number, OR put it on another single number.

If you win that 2nd bet, you have won $126,000.

What's the probability of succeeding this way?

The probability of hitting a single number at roulette is 1/38. To win twice in a row, you'd need to beat odds of 1/38 X 1/38, or 1/1444.

Still, those aren't terrible odds compared to winning this kind of money at keno, the lottery, or a slot machine.

You could also put that money on black and have to win more times in a row. Your probability of hitting $100,000 doesn't really change, because the payouts and the odds of winning are commensurate. You're getting even money on each bet, but you're also much more likely to win.

That's one way to win $100,000 in a month at the casino.

2- Becoming a Professional Gambler

Another route to take, especially if your goal is to win $100,000 a month on a consistent basis, is to become a professional gambler. If you go pro, you'll probably only place bets where there's a mathematical advantage on your side.

This is unusual (to say the least) when dealing with a casino game. Card counters pull it off some of the time, and video poker players can tilt the odds in their favor somewhat, too. The majority of gamblers using these techniques on these games aren't professionals, though.

They might be advantage gamblers, but they're not necessarily professional enough to make a living gambling.

Most people who want to become professional gamblers go the route of becoming a poker player or becoming a sports bettor. Either route works, and I'll explain how to make $100,000 a month in either of those professions after I cover some other relevant concepts.

3- Understanding the Expected Value of a Bet

When you're placing a bet on most casino games, the expected value of that bet is negative. This means that in the long run, you're mathematically expected to lose money every time you place that bet.

But that's a long term average.

In the short run, you might win, or you might lose. It's pure luck when you're talking about the short term.

Professional gamblers focus on the long run. They want the odds in their favor, and they know that getting the math right requires time and a lot of independent trials.

The expected value of a bet is calculated by multiplying the odds of winning by the amount you stand to win. From that, you subtract the odds of losing by the amount you stand to lose.

If that amount is negative, the other side has the edge, and you're gambling at a disadvantage.

If that amount is positive, you have the edge, and you're gambling at an advantage.

Once you determine what that advantage is, you can move on to determining how to achieve your goal of winning $100,000 a month.

Here's a quick example of this calculation:

In roulette, if you bet on black, you stand to win $100 or lose $100 for every $100 bet you make. The probability of winning that bet is 18/38, and the probability of losing is 20/38.

• Multiply 18/38 by 100 and you get 1800/38, or 47.37.
• Mutliply 20/38 by 100 and you get 2000/38, or 52.63.
• Subtract one from the other and you get -$5.26, which is your expected loss on that bet on average over time.

You can express that as a percentage of 5.26%, too.

4- Putting Expected Value to Work

Now let's suppose you're the creative type, and you realize that if you're running the roulette game, that 5.26% disadvantage for the gambler is a 5.26% advantage for you.

You launch your own underground casino with a roulette table and start drawing in customers.

You can calculate how much you're expected to win over time by taking the average amount per bet, multiplying it by the average number of bets per hour, and then multiplying that by the edge.

Suppose you have an average of 2 customers at your underground casino at any given time, and they bet an average of $10 per spin. And let's assume that your casino is open 12 hours per night.

These players probably see an average of 60 spins per hour. At $10 per spin, they're putting $600 into action every hour—each. That's $1200/hour in action.

Your expected win on that action is 5.26% of that, or $63.12.

If you're open 30 days per month, for 12 hours per day, you'll multiply that $63.12 by 30 and then again by 12 to get your expected monthly win.

That's a monthly win of a little more than $22,000.

To get closer to your $100,000 per month goal, you'll need to find 4 or 5 more players, but when you do… success!

5- If You're Not Going to Open Your Own Underground Casino

The above example doesn't account for the potential risk with the law, though. It also doesn't calculate overhead like the rental of the space, the cost of the equipment, or the amount of money you'll have to pay a croupier to run the game.

It's meant to be a cheekier example of how expected value works and what kind of math you'll need to do to decide whether your goal is even achievable.

Let's say you're a card counter in blackjack, instead. You're confident that you're playing with a 1% edge over the house.

Let's say you figure you can count 20 hours a week, or 80 hours per month.

You can divide $10,000,000 by 80 to find out how much you need to wager per hour.

That's $125,000 per hour.

Now let's assume that you only play heads-up with the dealer. If that's the case, you probably average 200 hands per hour, which means you need to be betting an average of $125,000/200 per hand, which is $625/hand.

Blackjack is a gambling game and there are no patterns for you to exploit or streaks that you can use to win more money every time you play.

There are, however, smart betting strategies like the basic blackjack strategy that can help you increase the chances of a victory.

With that in mind, a conservative blackjack strategy works like this:

• Start from the lowest bet (e.g. $1)
• Increase your bet by 1 unit only after you win
• Go back to the original bet after you lose

When you use this blackjack strategy, you need to go back to the original bet as soon as you lose one hand. This is the best way to be in control of your money and end a gaming session in the black.

All you need to do is to make the right choices (use the basic strategy) and raise your stakes little by little - but only when you win.

How To Win Big Money At Blackjack No Deposit

READ ALSO: Bets sites to play live dealer blackjack online.

An Aggressive Approach to Blackjack: the Martingale Strategy

The Martingale betting strategy sits at the opposite side of the spectrum. This is the perfect blackjack strategy for those players who:

• Play blackjack to win a lot of money
• Can afford to lose a lot of money
• Don't fear the swing of big losses

In other words, this is the perfect blackjack strategy for big spenders but isn't one that you should try if you are still a beginner who is looking for ways to learn how to play blackjack.

The Martingale blackjack strategy is expensive. This is a blackjack system that will help you win often - but only when I have a lot of money to invest on your games.

If you can't spend at least $500 on your games - the Martingale is not the best blackjack strategy for you.

But if you do — continue reading to discover how to use this betting strategy to increase your chances to win.

In short:

The Martingale strategy is the exact opposite of the conservative approach to betting in blackjack we have just seen.

When you follow this strategy, you need to double your bet every time you lose. Which, in case of a losing streak, can become very expensive very quickly.

The rationale of this audacious blackjack betting strategy is that you will need only one win to go back to square one and recoup all your losses in one hand.

The caveat is: your bankroll needs to be deep enough for you to play and play until that one win comes.

Again, this isn't a betting strategy for beginners. If you decide to try it, make sure your bankroll covers at least 10 consecutive losses from the hand #1.

1-3-2-6 Blackjack Betting System

The 1-3-2-6 blackjack betting strategy is not as exciting as the Martingale strategy, and that's a good thing. This betting strategy doesn't require a huge bankroll and is a lot more suitable for players looking for a way to have better chances to win at blackjack without investing a fortune in the game.

The numbers in the strategy's name indicate the way you should bet after you win a hand of blackjack.

You first winning is the trigger that starts the sequence while your first losing hand is the one that ends everything.

This blackjack betting strategy is built to get the most value out of winning streaks. If you are lucky enough to use it at the beginning of a four-hand winning streak, you are in for a treat.

READ ALSO: How to play blackjack for beginners.

How to Win More Often at Blackjack: A Few Important Tips

We all want to win at blackjack every time we play, but we also know that's impossible.

What is possible, however, is to maximise your chances to win and get better winning odds when you play blackjack online. All it takes a few simple tips.

Follow them carefully, as these blackjack tips are as important as the best blackjack betting strategy.

• Don't spend money on the 'insurance'. The insurance bet is a money-draining option created to confuse beginners. All the best blackjack strategies fail to mention is for one simple reason: no real blackjack player will ever spend their money on it.

• Think about the house edge. Like we said when we went through some of the game's best betting strategies, you can't expect to win at blackjack every time you play.

  Like all other casino games, the house edge is what makes sure that the casino has an advantage over the players in the long run. With that in mind, the next of our blackjack tips is one that can make a great difference for you.

• Set a budget and abide to that. Experienced blackjack players know that you need to set a losing and a winning limit before the first hand is dealt.

  Stop playing as soon as you hit one of them. If you lose and hit your lower limit, take a break and end your session.

  If you win and you hit your highest limit, collects your winnings and leave the table. You can continue to play if you want, but you'll need to set a new bankroll and establish new limits first.

• Don't miss the rules sheet. Trust me, there are more blackjack variations that you will ever play. All of them are based on the same core gameplay — but adopt rules that could break you if you aren't ready for them

  One of the best parts of playing online is that the rules are always available at the table. If you are not sure you know everything about the game you want to play, click on the 'info' icon and read the rules.

• Choose 3:2 over 6:5 payout. Different casinos have different payout policies - and not all of them are great for you.

  Make sure you read the payout table before you begin to play a hand of real money blackjack and always choose the games with the 'regular' 3:2 payout. These are a much smarter choice compared to the 6:5 payout blackjack games you find at some online casino sites.

Use Bonuses to Find Your Favourite Blackjack Strategy

Now that you know what are the best blackjack strategies, there is only one thing left: play a few games online to find out which one works best for you.

Here's what you should fo to get the best results:

1. Base all your decisions on the basic blackjack strategy
2. Pick the betting strategy that suits your bankroll
3. Follow all the blackjack strategy tips above to maximise your chances to win

To help you find the right games and the right betting strategy, we created a list of the best blackjack bonuses on the market.

All the sites you find in the list are licensed, pay winnings fast, and offer lots of blackjack games. Pick the ones with the best offers, register an account (it's always free), and sit at the blackjack table to start an epic battle with the dealer!

Most gamblers—probably 90% to 95% of them—are recreational gamblers. Any recreational gambler can make $100,000 in a single month gambling. All she has to do is get lucky.

This post has some advice about getting lucky in the casino, but it focuses more on how to get a long-term mathematical edge when gambling. If you get a big enough edge, have enough of a bankroll, and spend enough time gambling, you can average $100,000 a month gambling.

But I should warn you ahead of time that most people don't have what it takes to become a professional gambler. It requires a faith in math that most people just don't really have. It also requires a level of self-discipline that most people lack, too.

I read a book a few years ago called How to Make $100,000 a Year Gambling for a Living by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth. It was essential in shaping my ideas about how gambling works. Much of the thinking in this post was inspired by that book.

Here's how to win $100,000 a month gambling:

1- Getting Lucky

One way to try to win $100,000 in a month at the casino is to find a progressive slot machine with a $100,000+ top prize. The only way to win that prize is to get lucky, by the way. There are no skills or techniques that will improve the probability of winning that prize.

But you can't win if you don't play, so decide how much money you're willing to lose in your quest to make $100,000 from that machine. Then gamble it until you've either won the $100,000 or lost the entire amount.

You're more likely to lose all your stake than you are to win.

Another way to approach this quest is to place a bet on a table game where you have a close to 50% probability of winning. If you win, let the winnings ride. Keep repeating this until you have your $100,000.

You don't even have to go with the nearly 50% option if you don't want to.

Here's an example:

You decide you want to win $100,000 playing roulette this month.

One route would be to bet $100 on a single number. If that number hits, you now have $3600.

Let that ride on the same number, OR put it on another single number.

If you win that 2nd bet, you have won $126,000.

What's the probability of succeeding this way?

The probability of hitting a single number at roulette is 1/38. To win twice in a row, you'd need to beat odds of 1/38 X 1/38, or 1/1444.

Still, those aren't terrible odds compared to winning this kind of money at keno, the lottery, or a slot machine.

You could also put that money on black and have to win more times in a row. Your probability of hitting $100,000 doesn't really change, because the payouts and the odds of winning are commensurate. You're getting even money on each bet, but you're also much more likely to win.

That's one way to win $100,000 in a month at the casino.

2- Becoming a Professional Gambler

Another route to take, especially if your goal is to win $100,000 a month on a consistent basis, is to become a professional gambler. If you go pro, you'll probably only place bets where there's a mathematical advantage on your side.

This is unusual (to say the least) when dealing with a casino game. Card counters pull it off some of the time, and video poker players can tilt the odds in their favor somewhat, too. The majority of gamblers using these techniques on these games aren't professionals, though.

They might be advantage gamblers, but they're not necessarily professional enough to make a living gambling.

Most people who want to become professional gamblers go the route of becoming a poker player or becoming a sports bettor. Either route works, and I'll explain how to make $100,000 a month in either of those professions after I cover some other relevant concepts.

3- Understanding the Expected Value of a Bet

When you're placing a bet on most casino games, the expected value of that bet is negative. This means that in the long run, you're mathematically expected to lose money every time you place that bet.

But that's a long term average.

In the short run, you might win, or you might lose. It's pure luck when you're talking about the short term.

Professional gamblers focus on the long run. They want the odds in their favor, and they know that getting the math right requires time and a lot of independent trials.

The expected value of a bet is calculated by multiplying the odds of winning by the amount you stand to win. From that, you subtract the odds of losing by the amount you stand to lose.

If that amount is negative, the other side has the edge, and you're gambling at a disadvantage.

If that amount is positive, you have the edge, and you're gambling at an advantage.

Once you determine what that advantage is, you can move on to determining how to achieve your goal of winning $100,000 a month.

Here's a quick example of this calculation:

In roulette, if you bet on black, you stand to win $100 or lose $100 for every $100 bet you make. The probability of winning that bet is 18/38, and the probability of losing is 20/38.

• Multiply 18/38 by 100 and you get 1800/38, or 47.37.
• Mutliply 20/38 by 100 and you get 2000/38, or 52.63.
• Subtract one from the other and you get -$5.26, which is your expected loss on that bet on average over time.

You can express that as a percentage of 5.26%, too.

4- Putting Expected Value to Work

Now let's suppose you're the creative type, and you realize that if you're running the roulette game, that 5.26% disadvantage for the gambler is a 5.26% advantage for you.

You launch your own underground casino with a roulette table and start drawing in customers.

You can calculate how much you're expected to win over time by taking the average amount per bet, multiplying it by the average number of bets per hour, and then multiplying that by the edge.

Suppose you have an average of 2 customers at your underground casino at any given time, and they bet an average of $10 per spin. And let's assume that your casino is open 12 hours per night.

These players probably see an average of 60 spins per hour. At $10 per spin, they're putting $600 into action every hour—each. That's $1200/hour in action.

Your expected win on that action is 5.26% of that, or $63.12.

If you're open 30 days per month, for 12 hours per day, you'll multiply that $63.12 by 30 and then again by 12 to get your expected monthly win.

That's a monthly win of a little more than $22,000.

To get closer to your $100,000 per month goal, you'll need to find 4 or 5 more players, but when you do… success!

5- If You're Not Going to Open Your Own Underground Casino

The above example doesn't account for the potential risk with the law, though. It also doesn't calculate overhead like the rental of the space, the cost of the equipment, or the amount of money you'll have to pay a croupier to run the game.

It's meant to be a cheekier example of how expected value works and what kind of math you'll need to do to decide whether your goal is even achievable.

Let's say you're a card counter in blackjack, instead. You're confident that you're playing with a 1% edge over the house.

Let's say you figure you can count 20 hours a week, or 80 hours per month.

You can divide $10,000,000 by 80 to find out how much you need to wager per hour.

That's $125,000 per hour.

Now let's assume that you only play heads-up with the dealer. If that's the case, you probably average 200 hands per hour, which means you need to be betting an average of $125,000/200 per hand, which is $625/hand.

To pull that off with a minimal chance of going broke, you'll need a bankroll of between 500 and 1000 times that average bet. This means you need between $312,500 and $625,000 in your bankroll before even taking a shot at this. At minimum, you should have 200 bets, but you have a
50% chance of going broke because of bad luck if you're that under-bankrolled. That's still $125,000.

As you can see, if you want to average $100,000 a month as an advantage gambler, you need to have a 6-figure bankroll to begin with.

6- Blackjack Is Only One Example

You're not limited to blackjack when it comes to advantage gambling. You can also make a profit by playing poker at a professional level or by betting on sports at a professional level.

With any of these activities, you're only estimating your edge over the game. The longer you engage in that activity, the more data you'll accumulate, which will increase your confidence in how well you're doing as an advantage gambler.

You can use all the math in this post to estimate and project, but most people who become advantage gamblers just don't have a big enough bankroll to start playing at the levels I'm describing. In fact, for most people, it's better to start off really small and work your way up.

7- Gambling Tournaments

Poker tournaments are one place where you can take a shot at a $100,000 payday. Almost everyone has heard of the World Series of Poker and knows that the buy-in is $10,000, and the prize pool is always more than $1 million.

But that's not the only poker tournament in the world where you can win $100,000 or more. You can find dozens (if not hundreds) of poker tournaments where you can win that much money.

Of course, with bigger prize pools come bigger buy-ins.

The nice thing about most poker tournaments, though, is that you often have the opportunity to get into a larger tournament by winning a qualifier or a satellite tournament. Sometimes these are held at online poker sites, but you can even find them at brick and mortar cardrooms.

Here's how that might work:

You might want to play in the Main Event at the World Series of Poker, but you don't have the $10,000 buy-in.

But you might find a satellite tournament where you can compete with 100 other players for a buy-in. And you can buy into that tournament for just $100.

Steve Badger once told me that there's nothing wrong with 'taking a shot' at a poker game that's above your bankroll, as long as you're willing to accept the risk.

If you want to win $100,000 a month on average, you can do it playing poker tournaments. You just need a huge bankroll to afford the buy-ins, just like you do if you're a card counter or other kind of advantage gambler.

Conclusion

Most of the posts you read about winning a certain amount of money gambling during a certain period of time are less optimistic and aggressive than this one.

But the principles you use to try to win $100,000 a month are the same principles you use to try to win $100,000 a year. The amounts are just smaller.

I'm reminded of an experience I had playing Texas holdem at the Bellagio. I was nervous about playing at the $10/$20 limit game there, and my buddy Todd was there with me. I confessed my nervousness to him, and he said, 'Don't worry about it. They're just betting units.
No different than $1 and $2 chips.'

What would you do if you wanted to win $100,000 a month gambling?