Even playing 'perfect' strategy, not including counting cards, still puts you at a disadvantage to the house.

Mind you, you're only at something like a .5-1% disadvantage, rather than a 3% advantage or so.

Consider this: For an average loss of 0.5% per hand,

0.995 ^ 500 = .08 .... so after 500 hands you're expected to have only about 8% of your money left.

Not so unreasonable anymore, is it?

Don't play games where you're guaranteed to be beat.