Blackjack Articles

Card Counting Practice

Welcome back. As I mentioned in the last article, you can improve your basic card counting skills by drilling online, because the pace is quicker than live play. But things might move a little too fast, at first, so you’re going to need to start with these basic card counting drills.

By now, you understand the value of a decent blackjack card counting system. As a refresher:

Low cards are worth +1:          2, 3, 4, 5, or 6.
Medium cards are worth 0:       7, 8, or 9
High cards are worth –1:          T, J, Q, K, or A

The Value Drill: Shuffle 4 identical packs of cards together and set the stack in front of you. Peel cards off the top one at a time. Each time you see a low card, think the word ‘one’ and place it in a pile on your left. Each time you see a medium card, think the word ‘zero’ and put it in the pile in front of you. And each time you see a high card, think the words ‘minus one’ and put it in a pile on your right. It is vital that you do not say or mouth these words, just think them. When you can quickly read the count value of a string of cards, you can move on to part 2.
The Sum Zero Drill: Shuffle 4 identical packs of cards together and set the stack in front of you. Peel cards off one at a time. This time, just place them face up in front of you, and keep a running tally of the deck’s true count. You’ll get strings and fluctuations, but at the end of the drill, your count should be 0. Keep doing this until you can go at a fair clip.
Two Card Combo Drills: You’ll be performing the same drills as #1 and #2, but in this case, you’ll be dealing out two cards at a time. The groups of two will have values of +2, +1, 0, -1, or –2. These drills take a little longer, but it’s vital that you gain the ability to quickly value two card combos. These drills are the basis of real casino counting, where cards tend to fall in pairs, and things happen rather fast.
Cut Card Drill: Use a cut card or just a slightly larger piece of cardboard, and cut the four decks about 30% from the bottom of the pile, leaving the cut card there as a stopping point. Now deal yourself a seven handed, face up game of blackjack, counting as rapidly as you can, and trying to follow basic strategy. Stop when you hit the cut card, and note down the count. Now check your work by counting the remaining 30% of the deck, and see if the sum total comes to 0.
The True Count Drill: This is the same drill as #4, but with the addition of the calculation of the True Count at the end of every hand. Estimate how many decks are remaining, and divide the running count by that number. Again, when you’ve hit the cut card, check your work to make sure that you’ve done this right.
The Full Drill: The same as #5 above, but with the addition of chips. You’ll be trying to keep a count, a True Count, and calculating your bet based on your bankroll, and the system that you’re using. These are just some of the same aspects of counting that you’ll need to deal with in a casino. When you do it live, there will be more distractions and nerves of course.

Drill these aspects of card counting until they all become second nature. Once you have them down, I suggest inviting friends to both help you out, and learn themselves in the process. Then, all of you can play online, and log hundreds of hands worth of card counting practice before you ever even step foot into a casino!

Bill Ricardi
Blackjack Expert