How would you like to walk into a casino knowing that you have the advantage over the casino? If you learn how to count cards in blackjack you will.
First, if you’re a complete beginner, go here: How Play Blackjack – A Beginners Guide
Here is WHY you can win at blackjack
Memory
You can win at blackjack because Blackjack is a game with a memory. Once a card is played, you will not see that card again until the shuffle (In a shoe game, do not play automatic or continuous shuffle machine tables) No other game in the casino has a memory like this.
Asked To Leave
If you are caught counting cards in a casino you will be asked to leave. Casinos want you to come in and gamble, right? They figure if you’re gambling you will lose. But not card counters.
Changing Rules
The two biggest rules changes in the past 50 years were the introduction of the cut card (the plastic card inserted near the back of the cards before play begins) and the number of decks. The cut card prevents blackjack from being a virtual guaranteed winning game. To demonstrate – assume there is no cut card in a single deck blackjack game and the casino dealt every card, card counters would know almost exactly what the last couple of cards are and bet accordingly.
The number of decks slows the game down. If the game is slower, fewer hands will be dealt, and thus the casino makes less money. So why would the casino intentionally make less money? They don’t mean to, they just know these rules make it less effective to count cards.
The only reason the rules of blackjack are changed is to prevent card counting.
The Basics of playing blackjack
Basic Strategy
Basic Strategy is the system of optimal plays for every blackjack situation. Even if you don’t count cards, you should know basic strategy. Essentially, you look at what the dealer’s first “up” card is, and your 2 cards, and play accordingly.
To learn basic strategy, get a Basic Strategy grid from a good internet site. I recommend www.blackjackinfo.com
Basic Strategy is very easy to learn. Basic Strategy is only memorizing the grid. You can get a good handle on it in a few days of practice. After a few months of playing blackjack, basic strategy will become automatic.
How card counting works
Card counting allows you to know when you have the advantage in the game and when you don’t. In blackjack, some cards help the player, and some cards hurt the player.
Card counting allows you to keep track of the helpful, and non-helpful cards.
In a nutshell, 10s, face cards, and Aces help the player because you get more blackjacks, 20s, and 10s on your double downs.
2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, help the dealer/casino because small cards help the dealer make more hands because they must draw to 17.
7s, 8s, and 9s are neutral and don’t help either the player or dealer.
Learning to count cards
Card counting is fairly easy.
As each card comes out, you keep track of each card by either adding 1, subtracting 1, or neither.
Every time you see a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, ADD ONE (+1)
Every time you see a 7, 8, or 9, these cards are 0 (0)
Every time you see a 10, face card or Ace, SUBTRACT ONE (-1)
Example: take a deck of 52 cards and lay it flat on a table. Start flipping the cards one by one. If the first four cards you see are 5, 2, 4, and a face card; that is +1, +1, +1, -1. All this equals +2. It equals +2 because you started at 0, then went to 1, then went to 2, then went to 3, then took one away, that equals +2
And that’s it! You can do this on 1 deck or 8 decks, it doesn’t matter.
Theory: what’s really going on here is… once a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 comes out, those cards are gone and can no longer hurt the player/help the dealer, that’s why you add +1. You bet more in positive counts.
Running Count
After the card recognition becomes automatic, (i.e. you see a 3 and automatically think +1) then you need to start practicing the “running count.”
The running count is simply keeping track of the total. You take your deck of cards and keep track of the entire deck. Start from the beginning and just add and subtract. For example, you flip over the first six cards and see 5, 2, 6, 5, 3, 4. The “running count is +6. (+1, +1, +1, +1, +1, +1)
Tip: If you have kept track properly, at the end of a deck of 52 cards you will have 0.
Practice time
With about 2 hours of practice a day, in about 2 weeks you will become good at keeping track of the running count. To get fast, it will probably take you 2 or 3 months depending on your dedication and desire. However, you will do fine in a casino after 1 month.
Helpful tricks:
Start with 50
The most helpful trick is to start your count with a high regular number. Instead of starting the deck of cards or shoe with 0, start with a number like 50. (I use 50). You start with 50 because you will virtually never go into negative numbers. If you start at 0, and get an Ace, face card, face card, and 10, you have -4. On the other hand, if you start at 50, and you get the same cards you have 46. It is just easier for the mind to stay in positive number territory.
Match up cards
The second best trick is to match up cards. After a while of counting cards you will begin to see cards in pairs. You may see a player get a 10, and 5 for 15, and you automatically cancel them out and assign 0 to the two cards (10 is -1, and 5 is +1).
True Count
Because you will probably only play games with 6 or 8 deck shoes (maybe 2 decks in Vegas) you will need to understand the “true” count. The true count is your count after you take your “running count,” and divide it by the number of decks remaining in the shoe.
For example, if you have a running count of +15 with 3 decks remaining in the shoe, your TRUE COUNT is 5.
The true count will tell you how much to bet.
The easiest way to recognize the number of decks remaining in the shoe is to simply learn how tall 1 deck of cards look like in the discard tray. (tip: 52 cards is as tall as a dime standing up).
As the cards are played, they will stack up in the discard tray. Now you are only playing with the remaining cards in the shoe. For example, in a 6 deck game, if there are 2 decks in the discard tray, that means there are 4 decks left in the shoe.
Then you simply watch as every stack of 52 cards adds up. Assuming you’re playing a 6 deck game, you will probably see 1 deck, 2 decks, 3 decks, 4 decks, and maybe 4 1/2 decks in the discard tray – you will never see 6 or 5 decks in the discard tray because the cut card makes the dealer shuffle before the end.
How Much To Bet
The true count tells you how much to bet. In the previous example, we had a true count of +5 because we had a running count of +15 divided by the 3 decks remaining. For betting, let’s say your minimum bet is $10. With a true count of +5, your bet should be 5x your minimum bet ($50) on the next hand.
If you have a true count of 0, or a negative count, you only bet the minimum or leave the table.
Final Thoughts
If you learn how to count cards, and push through the normal ups and downs in blackjack, you will make money in the long run.
