How do you count cards in blackjack

Counting cards is no doubt the key to winning at blackjack.

It doesn’t mean that you’ll win but it does give you a chance to make a better guess and modify your betting. If you’re pretty good with mental arithmetics and can hold your concentration you might be able to master the trick of card counting. It’s really rather simple actually if you don’t have any distractions.

So how’s it done? There are a few different techniques but all share the same basic principle, that is, it’s not about knowing what exact card will come out next but rather determining the value range of the cards remaining in the deck. Rather than counting every individual card, a specific value is assigned to each card so that you can track the ratio of high cards to low cards. The higher value cards (Ace, King, Queen, Joker and 10) have a value of -1, the lower value cards (2 to 6) have a value of 1 and the remaining cards (7 to 9) have no value at all. As the cards are dealt you need to keep a running total in your head starting from zero. If your count is negative, there’s a greater chance that the next cards won’t be higher value cards and vice versa. So increase your bets when the count is positive at the end of the hand.  Only restart the count when the dealer shuffles the shoe. Note that virtually all online casino shuffle the deck after each round so counting cards doesn’t work for playing online.