Baccarat and blackjack
I approach gambling as an “investment product” rather than mere entertainment, as I have mentioned several times before. Some people, after losing money in gambling, try to justify their failure by saying, “I had fun, so it’s okay.”
However, let’s compare gambling with stock investment. Have you ever seen individual investors who have incurred losses in stocks saying, “I had fun, so it’s okay”?
This highlights the inherent problem of viewing gambling from a purely recreational perspective. Gambling includes the aspect of satisfying the desire for material gain. However, from a cost perspective, its utility value is significantly low.
If we consider the utility value of the enjoyment, between spending 100,000 won for a whole day at an amusement park with the whole family and losing 100,000 won in a minute at a casino, we can easily find the answer.
At the starting point of most people who have experienced a broken roller coaster ride and ended up with a ruined life due to unprepared gambling, we can find the commonality of enjoying gambling as mere entertainment. Most people who have experienced the thrill and addiction of gambling would not be able to argue against this statement.
However, when you approach gambling as an “investment product” rather than “entertainment,” the value and attitude towards it can significantly change. Activities that require hard learning, research, and effort are somewhat distant from mere “entertainment.” If you consider gambling as an investment, you won’t be able to say, “I had a good time” after a failed investment.
If you agree that gambling is also a form of “investment product,” it is now essential to think about how to pursue “successful investments.”
Just as someone starting in the stock market first focuses on finding “good companies,” i.e., companies with potential for stock value growth, someone starting in gambling should also consider determining which “games” or “activities” to invest in.
Baccarat and Blackjack Comparison
I would like to compare two popular games in casinos, Baccarat and Blackjack, as I believe I have conquered all the games in the casino.
The main reason why gambling is considered a risky investment is due to its inherent “uncertainty.” In the case of stock or real estate investments, investors have some clues to gauge the success or failure of their investments. They can utilize “investment information” such as the company’s history of producing popular products or the location of a building near a subway station, which helps minimize the uncertainty of the investment.
Both Baccarat and Blackjack start from the same point of having to invest money in an “uncertain situation,” where players do not know the dealer’s or their own cards. However, they begin to diverge in terms of uncertainty as the game progresses.
In Blackjack, there is a rule called “surrender.” After seeing one card from the dealer and two cards from oneself, players can decide whether to continue investing or surrender 50% of their investment and withdraw.
In the case of Baccarat, there is no such rule, and there is no way to withdraw the investment even if “bad cards that are expected to yield unfavorable results” are visible. It’s like saying, “The dice have already been thrown.”
However, in the case of Blackjack, through three cards consisting of one card from the dealer and two cards from oneself, it is possible to gauge the advantages or disadvantages of continuing the investment.
In this way, Blackjack can somewhat eliminate the “uncertainty” through the weapon of “surrender,” allowing the game to start. Additionally, the “insurance” rule also helps eliminate uncertainty. When the dealer’s up card is an “A” in Blackjack, which has the highest value of “21,” also known as “Blackjack,” the dealer asks the player whether they want to take “insurance.” The player can then join the “insurance” by betting 50% of their initial investment, and if the dealer does indeed have “Blackjack,” the player will receive triple the insurance amount as compensation, ultimately preserving their initial investment.
In other words, after betting 2 points, adding an additional 1 point to “insurance” will make the total investment 3 points. Since the insurance payout for the dealer having “Blackjack” is also 3 points, it eventually breaks even.
Compare in more detail
Both “surrender” and “insurance” may initially seem like very passive plays, where one forfeits 50% of the investment without even seeing the outcome. However, if used wisely, they can be beneficial in reducing the potential loss of the initial investment by 50% or even 100%.
In addition to being “uncertainty reduction items” in terms of passivity, Blackjack also has “uncertainty reduction items” in terms of aggressiveness.
For example, let’s assume a scenario where the dealer’s up card is a “6,” which makes it difficult to form a good hand close to “21” and increases the likelihood of going over “21” (bust). Suppose my cards are a “5” and “5,” totaling “10.” In Blackjack, the cards “J,” “Q,” and “K” are all considered as “10,” making the “10” card appear frequently, accounting for about one-third of the entire deck. Therefore, there is a higher chance that the dealer’s hand will go over “21” with two additional “10” cards, totaling “26” (bust), while my hand has a higher chance of winning with an additional “10” card, totaling “20.”
In such a case where the player’s investment has a higher probability of success, they can utilize the weapon called “double down.” “Double down” allows the player to double their initial investment by adding an amount equal to their original investment. As a result, they can expect twice the initial anticipated profit.
Similarly, when the player’s two cards have the same value, they can use the rule called “split” to their advantage. This allows them to make an additional investment of double or even triple the original amount, creating an opportunity for high returns in favorable situations.
The strategies of “double down” and “split” also offer the possibility of increasing the investment while reducing some of the uncertainty, similar to “surrender” and “insurance.” Compared to baccarat or other casino games where similar rules don’t exist, Blackjack allows for lower risk and aggressive gameplay. While Blackjack may not be as thrilling or entertaining as baccarat, the main argument for it being a “good investment option” or a game with “higher investment value” lies in the ability to adjust risk based on probabilities.
Baccarat is similar to the game of “even or odd.” Investors can choose to invest in either the “player” or the “banker,” and their profits depend on this choice, resulting in a 50% success rate. While a 50% success rate implies a low risk of losing the initial investment as long as there are repeated wins and losses, if the game is played over a large number of rounds and there is a consecutive streak of 2 to 30 outcomes in favor of one side, the failure rate for investments made during that period can be 100%. Conversely, this also means that the success rate could reach 100%. Consequently, many baccarat players fall into the illusion that the game they participate in could be the latter case and eagerly dive into it, often leading to significant losses.
Now, let’s consider the case of Blackjack. In Blackjack, players have the option to “hit” and receive an additional card during the game or “stand” and stop receiving cards.
The ability to control the cards provided to the dealer based on the player’s intention is an important aspect of Blackjack. The dealer is typically required to draw an additional card until they reach a total of “17” or higher, which limits their choices compared to the player. While Blackjack is also a probability-based game relying on chance, it offers more opportunities for decision-making that can be controlled through probabilities. This aspect makes it a more stable investment option.
I have provided a brief comparison between Baccarat and Blackjack. We will delve into the details of Blackjack in the future, and I have already provided some tips for Baccarat. I look forward to sharing more valuable information with you. Thank you for reading.