Check out www.blackjackapprenticeship.

com
for tons of free resources and more info about
counting cards!

Colin Minden

Card counting is a type of

strategy that uses basic math
and probability to put the odds
in the players hand instead of
the dealers.
It is not illegal like so many
people think, however, you can
get kicked out of a casino for it.

The basic idea is to assign a value to each of

the cards.
This allows you to add and subtract cards
from the deck as the dealer deals them.
Once you know which cards are no longer in
the deck (because they have already been
dealt) then you can use probability to
determine the likelihood of getting a good
hand.

First you assign the cards ten, jack, queen,

king and ace a value of minus one; then
assign the cards two, three, four, five and six
a value of plus one.
The neutral cards, seven, eight and nine, just
get a value of zero.
As the cards are being dealt you keep track of
the cards by adding one, subtracting one or
just doing nothing and the count stays the
same.

As the dealer deals the cards you must keep

track in your head of the count (this is called
the running count).
The count describes how many cards have
been dealt so you can determine if you are
more likely to get a high card or a low card.
For example if the count is -4 that means
there are more low cards in the deck than
high cards therefore the player and the dealer
are less likely to get a ten or an ace.

You can use the count to determine what you

should bet because you know if the count is low
your less likely to get a high hand like a 20
because there have been more high cards
discarded already.

Based on this you will know

when to bet high or bet low.

How much to bet based on the

count

The graph to the right

explains how much to
bet based on the
count.
One unit is equal to
betting the table
minimum at which
your playing

2 Decks

6 Decks
8

Bet
1

0 or less

2
Count

The only problem with this is there are

usually multiple decks in play at most casinos,
so you need to account for that and this is
called the true count.
You find the true count by simply dividing the
running count by the number of decks in play.
This works because although there may be
six decks in play all that means is that there
are 24 of each card instead of 4 like in a single
deck.

Although you can keep count to try and help

your odds, you must also know what the best
strategy is when the hands have been dealt.
Strategy charts help you do this by telling you
your best possible option in any situation.
In order to be really good at counting cards
you must also memorize these.

If you can remember the count, while doing

math in your head and playing the best
strategy, card counting can make you rich.

However as I have realized that is much

easier said than done because everything
moves quickly and it takes a lot of practice.

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