Blackjack is among the most popular casino games in the world. The aim of the game is to beat the dealer by getting as close as you can to 21 points without going bust. The dealer always has to follow a set of betting rules, but gamblers are free to pursue any strategy they please. With practice, anyone can count cards in blackjack to improve their chances of winning. Despite the name, you do not need to memorise the cards that have been played. Let’s explore how counting cards works.
In a classic game of blackjack, the likelihood that the casino will win more often than you is very close to nil. This means that if you play following the best possible strategy, over time, you should break even or lose a small amount.
Card counting essentially means keeping a tally of the cards as the dealer works through the deck. By taking note of certain cards as the game progresses, you will have an idea of which cards are most likely to appear in the following hands. When you can predict which cards are likely to come up - for both you and the dealer - you will know when to make a big bet and when to make a small one. This decision is made based on whether there are more high value or more low value cards left in the deck.
Counting cards, when done well, can increase your odds of winning by about 1%. Over a long period of time, this can help you walk away from the table in profit. The most common and easiest card counting system to follow is called High-Low.
When using the High-Low system, you only have to keep track of three groups of cards. If you see a high card played at the table (a ten or any picture card), you subtract one from the tally you are keeping in your head. When a low card is played (a two, a three, a four, a five or a six) you add one to your running tally. All the other cards can be disregarded.
If your tally is +7 for example, the next cards to come up are more likely to be high value ones, so you can make a big bet knowing that the odds are in your favour. If, however, your running tally stands at -5, you can predict that the next cards to come are in all likelihood going to be lower. Thus, you should bet small because the dealer is more likely to win. Whenever the deck is shuffled, the count resets and the tally goes back to zero.
Card counting needs practice and means you must stay focused, even in a bustling casino filled with noise and players, if you wish to make this strategy work for you.
Getting away with it
While card counting is not illegal, casinos don’t like it, so you should take pains not to get caught doing it. If you are spotted card counting, you are likely to get thrown out of the casino, so you need to be careful. Be sure to chat with the dealer and take your time when placing bets, so that you don’t seem too focused on the game. Casinos are likely to become suspicious if someone has been playing for a long time at one table, seems highly focused on the game or varies their bets too wildly.
Therefore, to avoid being spotted as a card counter, don’t vary your bets too much. Try to move around the casino tables so that you don’t stay too long at any single table.
When more high cards are left in the deck, there is more statistical chance that blackjacks will be dealt, meaning the dealer is likely to go bust more often. On the other hand, when more low cards are left in the deck, fewer blackjacks are likely to be dealt. This means the dealer is less likely to go bust. A card counter can keep track of the cards dealt and make bigger bet when they calculate that the dealer is more likely lose the hand. If you perfect this strategy, you can make some profit in the long-run.
The short answer to this is no. Counting cards online has been made very difficult by the operators by applying several factors. Firstly they use up to 8 different decks of cards. They also cut these cards at around the 50% mark. These changes make it so counting has little effect on your game and puts it more down to luck. With that being said the count may slightly effect your RTP value but it would never give you a real edge over the casino to win long term. With everything online being tracked even if you were to find a way to take an edge on the game it would not take long for their internal systems to notice something was wrong.
We hope that after reading this article, you have a good idea of how you can count cards when playing blackjack to give yourself a slight advantage. With plenty of practice, whilst being careful not to get caught, you can use the High-Low card counting system to improve your chances of winning.
