[SynasterBeiter]

Sort of. Look up StevenBridges on YouTube, he documents his career as a card counter. It's certainly possible and you can get some profit, but the casino will sooner or later ban you from blackjack, so you also need a steady supply of them.

[jamal-kumar]

I just watched one of his videos this morning. Yeah you tend to hit like into the thousands and they tend to see you as a problem, especially on single deck tables. It's not hard for them to spot someone using well known strategies. You can still turn out a modest profit and I think one thing to keep in mind is in places like vegas you might want to find the casinos that aren't owned by the two big companies that own most of them because they share information on punters...

His whole book is like 'why you probably shouldnt learn how to count cards' and its because its a massive pain in the ass and you can probably make more money doing something like poker instead. It's fun from what I hear though every person I know who has the mental math skills to do this has gone to vegas only to get limited at around 1000$ or so. Sometimes they even catch you within like 3-5 hands haha

Fun fact, Ed Thorpe developed blackjack basic strategy and card counting through computer simulation and is pretty much the guy responsible for casinos having to change all their rules at one point with the game. One thing I thought was funny was how steven bridges was trying the fake beard thing, it seemed like the most obvious tell that he was doing some funny business to me, it looked like shit haha

https://graham-kendall.com/blog/claude-shannon-edward-thorp-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_O._Thorp

[matwood]

In my 20s I played a lot of poker and did well, but even that is becoming more challenging. And let’s be honest, playing blackjack or poker with optimal winning strategies is a work like grind. Nowadays when I go to the casino it’s craps all the way. Played correctly the odds are nearly even and it’s fun and social. Casino Royale on the strip used to have $2 min 100x odds during the day - those were some fun times!

[jamal-kumar]

Poker is easier to win if you know where you can find players that aren't very good at it, but as you pointed out that's getting harder. I've never heard anyone say that about craps, I just read some math that says don't come bar is a more likely win and have come up on that while making the regulars at the table groan at me, but I used to play a lot of street dice when I was a kid haha always fun to bust out at parties to play with quarters

https://www.wikihow.com/Shoot-Dice

[matwood]

The house edge in craps is nearly even (0-2%) [1] for what I consider non-sucker bets. Don't pass is slightly better than pass, but again, gambling for me is consumption now. If I win great, but I already have a job. The point is to have fun and for me, no other gambling matches the dopa hit when someone is on a hot roll with a whole table cheering and making money.

You also reminded me of a work trip I had in Scottsdale around when poker had first taken off. Within one round of blinds I and a woman across from me had figured out we were the only ones who had a clue and we just stayed out of each others way. I showed up to a work meeting the next day on ~2 hours sleep after taking old business guys money all night (it would be fun to be in my early 20s again lol).

[1] https://wizardofodds.com/games/craps/appendix/2/

[jamal-kumar]

The trick is finding tables where people are completely wasted and showing up sober in my experience