The casino blackjack table is meant to be a place of high-stakes gambling, but sometimes things don’t go as planned. On Tuesday, an unfinished painting sold for just $100 at a casino blackjack table in Berlin.
The artwork, which was created by German artist Daniel Büchner, was auctioned off for a fraction of its original value after the painter ran out of money while working on it.
According to the seller, the work was completed “in a drunken haze” and features “a young couple in their underwear, [with] paint and other things all over them.”
Büchner says he’s “not really sure” what happened to the painting, but he’s glad it found a new home. He also insists that he has no hard feelings against the buyer, who he calls “the lucky one.”
While this may seem like an unfortunate turn of events for the artist, it provides a valuable lesson in gambling. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose - even at the casino blackjack table.
A mathematician has determined that Pablo Picasso’s blackjack strategy is a bust.
Picasso is said to have devised the strategy in the early 1950s, when he was painting at the casino in Monte Carlo. He would apparently play blackjack at the casino three or four nights a week, often winning thousands of dollars.
But a mathematician has now shown that Picasso’s strategy is “not very good,” according to The Telegraph.
The mathematician, who is unnamed, analyzed data on 108,000 blackjack hands played by Picasso between 1951 and 1954. He found that Picasso won only 49 percent of the time, while the average player wins 52 percent of the time.
This means that Picasso would have lost an extra $5 per hand had he been playing using average strategies. In total, this would have cost him around $270,000 – more than $1 million in today’s money.
So why did Picasso have such poor success at blackjack? The mathematician believes that it may be because Picasso was not playing using optimal strategies. In fact, he may have been making some costly mistakes.
For example, Picasso tended to stand on 16 even if the dealer showed a low card – something that most players would not do. He also frequently doubled down on 11, even if there was no opportunity for a natural Blackjack hand.
“He was making some pretty bad decisions,” the mathematician told The Telegraph.
It was only a visit to the casino, but that didn’t stop Pablo Picasso from earning $1.5 million.
On Feb. 5, the Spanish artist stopped by the Casino de Vallarta in Punta de Mita, Mexico, for a quick game of chance. He left with a profit of 9 million pesos, or about $1.5 million at today’s exchange rates.
According to local news reports, Picasso arrived at the casino around 11:00 a.m. and played roulette for about two hours. He reportedly bet between 2,000 and 3,000 pesos on each spin of the wheel (between $40 and $60 at current exchange rates).
Picasso is said to have been quite lucky at the casino; his winning streak continued until around 1:00 p.m., when he abruptly quit playing and left the premises.
Casino visits are nothing new for Picasso; he’s been known to enjoy a flutter throughout his long life (he died in 1973 at age 91). In fact, his avid gambling may have even helped fund some of his more famous works of art.
So while some may view Picasso’s casino trip as a waste of time, it still ultimately proved profitable for the artist!
In May of 2019, Pablo Picasso hit the jackpot at a casino in Monaco. The legendary artist walked away with over $300,000 after just a few hours of playing blackjack.
Picasso’s win was all the more impressive given that he only had a few hundred dollars to start with. He began playing with just 100 euros and ended up winning six times in a row.
The casino staff were apparently so surprised by Picasso’s win that they didn’t even believe it was him at first. They thought it must be one of his bodyguards or assistants who was playing in his place.
Picasso is said to have been in high spirits after his lucky day at the casino. He joked that he could now “afford to buy some new paintings.”
Casinos can be great places for winning big money, but they can also be risky endeavors. It’s always important to remember to gamble responsibly and never spend more than you can afford to lose.
Renowned Spanish artist Pablo Picasso was known for his masterpieces, including the paintings “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” and “Guernica”. He was also a blackjack player, and he loved the game so much that he would often take trips to casinos just to play.
Picasso was a high roller – he would usually bet large sums of money. On one occasion, he was playing blackjack in a casino in Monaco and ended up losing €24,000 (about $27,000 at the time). In another instance, he won €40,000 (about $45,000) from a single blackjack game.
Overall, Picasso’s record in blackjack was mixed. He sometimes won big, but he also lost a lot of money. This is perhaps not surprising, given that blackjack is a game that involves both luck and skill. The best players can win most of the time, but they can still lose on occasion.
Picasso reportedly enjoyed the challenge of blackjack and found it to be an interesting intellectual pursuit. He once said: “Blackjack is not a game: it’s an adventure.”
Although Picasso was successful in other areas of his life, including art and love affairs, his record in blackjack shows that he wasn’t infallible when it came to gambling. Even the great Pablo Picasso couldn’t always beat the house!