Everyone that visits the casinos always wants to know a good system to come out ahead. In reality it’s almost impossible to come out ahead every time. You can do some things to improve your odds. These include playing blackjack, and learning basic card counting. Keep in mind though that while card counting isn’t technically “illegal” it is something that casinos do not approve of and they will kick you out if they discover you are doing it. Remember, you are their guest and they reserve the write to serve and not serve whoever they wish. Therefore you might want to practice at home, or in smaller games such as at local charity events before trying your skill at the casino. In the end card counting is not a very difficult task, but counting fast enough and making it look like you aren’t counting can be the challenge.
The basics of card counting are very simple. Certain cards are assigned a value from negative one to one, including zero. The cards with face values of two through six are all assigned a value of one. The cards with face values of seven through nine all get the zero value designation. Finally the tens, face cards, and aces all get a value of negative one. If you were to add all these values together for each card in a 52 card deck the total would be zero, therefore card counting is a zero sum proposal. This means that a total count of zero indicates a deck with average distribution left in it. One with a high positive count indicates a deck with a lot of cards with values of 10 or 11 in it. Finally, a deck with a severe low number indicates a deck with a lot of small cards in it, which by the way is bad for the average blackjack player.
If you are successful enough to become a good card counter then you can adjust your betting style at the casino to take advantage of the “state of the deck”. My suggestion is to keep track of the cards as they are dealt, doing your counting as the dealing happens and then look at your hand once you have adjusted the deck total in your head. Remember as the hands are revealed you will have to adjust your deck total for the newly flipped cards quickly. If the deck ever has a value of above positive eight (some suggest slightly lower, but for inexperienced counters I suggest erring on the side of caution), consider betting 50% more than the table’s minimum bet. If the deck is higher than positive twelve, double your bets. The higher numbers increase the odds of the dealer busting and can make your decisions easier based on basic blackjack strategy. If the deck is neutral just make minimum bets and if it’s highly negative be careful.
Why don’t I suggest sitting out a few hands when the deck becomes heavily negative? Remember that card counting is frowned upon? The casinos and their pit bosses are not stupid, they will recognize your betting styles. You can add just enough randomness into it to throw them off, but if you start sitting out hands at various times and then coming back into play that will raise a red flag to the dealer and pit boss. Of course casinos try to do everything they can to stop you from card counting. Many casinos will use over eight decks these days in a horseshoe for dealing. This means you need to multiply that guideline positive number by 8 to decide when the deck favors you as the player. Some casinos have gone even further than that, they using continuous shuffling machines which add the cards back into the deck immediately after the hand and eliminate the effectiveness of card counting.
Card counting is a skill that some will spend a lot of time on mastering. To be good at it you have to. Yet, then again, if you are good your chances of getting caught might increase as well unless you can be nonchalant enough not to be caught. In general I will try to count when I can, but I use it as a very loose guideline due to the fact that in the end the risk of being caught is rather high. If you are too worried about that risk, your other risk is you will start counting wrong by mistake. In the end card counting can be used as a tool, but it should not define you betting style in blackjack. This is especially true when casinos use multi deck shoes and continuous shufflers.
