If you feel as though you've mastered the basics of Blackjack would like to elevate your game to the next level, you'll find our Blacjack Card Counting Guide interesting. If you can get good enough at card counting in Blackjack, you can successfully shift the odds of winning in your favor.
What's the Point of Blackack Card Counting?
In Blackjack, a deck that is loaded with 10's, face card and Aces improves the odds of winning in favor of the player. On the other hand, a deck filled with small cards gives the advantage to the dealer. In order to take advantage of these mathematical facts, a player must increase his bet size when the deck is in his favor, and contrarily bet as little as possible when the deck is in the dealer's favor.
If you're having difficulty understanding why a deck filled with high-value cards favors the player, here's the simple explanation: a player can choose to stand with a much larger range of hands than the dealer, meaning the dealer's chances of busting are far greater than the player's. The dealer must hit until he has reached at least soft 17. Hitting a hand such as hard 16 is likely to turn out badly in a deck filled with 10's and face cards, which gives a player who can count cards an edge over the casino by adjusting his playing strategy according to the situation.
As for why a deck filled with Aces increases the player's odds of winning, the simple answer is: a Blackjack pays out to the player at 3:2 odds, where as it only pays the dealer the exact amount of your bet. This is a clear monetary advantage in the player's favor.
How do you Count Cards in Blackjack?
You absolutely do not have to memorize each and every card in a 6-deck shoe of Blackjack, as that would be ridiculously difficult to accomplish. Card Counting principles consist of assigning each card a point value. As a Card Counter, you merely need to maintain the deck's running count. This plus/minus Card Counting system, often referred to as the High-Lo Card Counting System assigns cards the following values:
Here's an example of the running count in Blackjack:
First a Jack is dealt, and so the running count ia at -1. Next is a 3, and so we must add 1 to the running count, bringing it back to a total of 0. The next card is a 4, so we add 1 point, and our running count is now at +1. Up next is another 4, and so our running count reaches +2.
Balancing the Card Counting Strategy
By now you should understand how to calculate the running count. If we were to simply stop here however, you would be using an unbalanced Card Counting Strategy. In order to balance it out, we must take into account the number of decks in play. Using the previously mentioned example, let's assume that there was only one deck in play. The running count would then be a lot more telling of things to come than if for example, there were six decks in play. To adjust for this factor, we need to determine the true running count. Calculating the true running count is actually very simple. The formula is to divide your running count by the number of decks remaining in the shoe. If, for example, you have a running count of +4 with two decks remaining in the shoe, then your true running count would be +2. Another example: your running count is -9 with 4 decks remaining in the shoe. Your true running count would then be -2.25. The only tricky part to this is in determining how many decks are left in the shoe. You'll have to grow accustomed to glancing at the tray of used cards in the shoe and estimating how many decks this might be. It's important to get as close to accurate with this, as the true running count is the basis of any successful Card Counting Strategy.
Additional Reading
You might be interested in the following books on Blackjack Card Counting: