Blackjack Articles

Card Counting 101

Although counting cards online is often of limited usefulness, there is no better place to PRACTICE your basic card counting skills. The pace is fast, and the number of hands dealt in an hour dwarfs anything a live casino can put out. So why not learn a useful gambling skill while you’re making money at the tables?

In order to move out of the realm of basic blackjack strategy (a losing proposition, long term), and advantage play (a profitable, but time consuming method), you’re going to need to learn how to count cards. Only when combining all three of these aspects of blackjack play will you realize your maximum potential. So I’m going to teach you the most basic of blackjack card counting systems: High-Low.

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

Every time you see one of these cards face up, whether held by another player, in your hand, or exposed by the dealer, you apply their value to your running count. For example, if the following hands are dealt from a freshly shuffled deck…

A7, A6 , 89 , 4J , KK , (your hand) 38 , (dealer hand) ?9

… in your mind, you would translate this to –1 0 , –1 +1 , 0 0 , +1 –1 , -1 –1 , +1 0 , 0 , for a total count of –2.

Why does the count matter? Well, the higher the count, the more big cards are left in the deck. A deck heavy in big cards favors the player over the house (more dealer busts and player blackjacks at 1.5 to 1 payout). A deck heavy in low cards favors the dealer (who will bust less often).

When playing in multiple deck games, the count has to be modified by how many decks are left in the shoe. Divide your count by the number of decks left. So if your count is +8, but there are about 4 decks left to be seen, the ‘true count’ is +2. As you can see, the true count can result in fractions.

Speaking of fractions, you will want to see a true count of at least 1.5 before you start to increase your bet. A true count of 1 means that your odds when playing basic strategy are dead even with the house. For every .5 increment above a true count of 1, you have gained an additional 0.25% advantage over the house. If you want to keep it simple, every point above a true count of 1 gives you a 0.5% advantage.

As far as bet size, bet the base level on any count of 1 or less. For bets above that range, there are some advanced calculations that you can make based on the Kelly Criterion. However, at the most basic level, under the most common rules set, here’s a formula you might use:

Amount to Bet = (True Count Value – 1) * 0.00375 * (Total Black Jack Bankroll)

It’s easier than it looks, and you’ll quickly come up with a lot of estimations based on your bankroll. This is a conservative bet estimation system. So when rounding to the nearest chip value, you should tend to round up.

This is the system that most people start with. There are more complex systems, of course, but not everyone can grasp them and apply them in real casino situations. In the next piece, we’ll cover the drills that will help you learn and apply this system.

Bill Ricardi
Blackjack Expert