Stories about gifted players who manage to outsmart the top online casinos using Blackjack card counting and go home with an enormous amount of money fascinate all of us. We are familiar with the fact that many of you are just as interested in this technique as us. So if you have already decided that Blackjack is the game for you, we would recommend that you learned this technique to beat all odds and go home with the winnings. Our article on Blackjack card counting will include descriptions of the most popular methods used to avoid getting caught and even feature some of the strategies utilised by the best gamblers in history.
You can use this technique to gain a legal advantage over the dealer. It is quite simple. However, it may take your entire life to master it. Many gamblers think that Blackjack card counting is all about memorization. However, if you have a bad short term memory like I do, do not quick to abandon hopes. Counting the cards at Blackjack is not about remembering for example how many Kings have been dealt. It is actually about keeping track of the ratio of low to high cards using a particular system. It is better for the gambler when there are more Aces, 10’s, Jacks, Queens and Kings (aka 10 Value Cards) to remain the shoe.
We Broke it Down to These Easy Steps for You
For the gaming sites ratings, we have included a list to walk you through Blackjack card counting.
Assign Each Card With a Specific Value
The most famous system is the High-Lo. With it the values are from 2to 6 = +1, from 7 to 9 = 0 and from 10 to Ace = -1. As the cards are being dealt, you will either add, do nothing or subtract depending on the card.
Don’t Lose a Track of the Cards Count
Keep a Running Count Based on the Value of the Cards which Already Have Been Dealt. As each card is being dealt, you have to update the running count with the new given information.
Example 1
If you have a 6, an Ace and 2, a 10 and Jack and a 2 and 7. The running count is 0.
Example 2
You have an 8, an Ace and 2, a 5 and Jack, a 2 and 7. The running count is +1.
Example 3
You have a Queen an 8 and 6, a 9 an Ace and 2, a Jack a 5 and 6 and a 10 a 2 and 7. The running count is +1. As a card counter, you have to do this every time each card is dealt from the shoe until the dealer shuffles the deck. Before they started using multiple decks, this information would’ve been enough to place relevant bets. If the running count increases the advantage is to the player, if it decreases it is to the dealer.
For Multiple Decks Use This Info to Calculate the True Count
The top online casinos nowadays use more than one deck to counter Blackjack card counting. However, intelligent gamblers have figured out how to keep doing what they do best while ignoring that factor. What you have to do in such situations is translate the given information into a true count or in other words count per deck. We have broken down each step for your ease.
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Firstly you should know that having a +5 count with remaining six decks is quite different from having the same count with one deck left. In the first case, there is less than a single extra high card remaining for each deck so the gambler still doesn’t have the advantage. When blackjack card counting, it is not just the number of additional ten value cards that matter, what else is important is the ratio between low and high cards. So take a look at the second case, you will know that five extra high cards are remaining in the deck. Which puts the advantage in your hands. This is why the true count is so important. True number = running count divided by decks remaining.
Example 1
If your running count is 10 and you have five remaining decks, your true count will be 10/5 = 2.
Example 2
If your running count is -7 and you have two remaining decks, your true count will be -7/2 = -3. If you are using the basic strategy, you can use the information and place a relevant bet for your advantage. That is how you can make money as a card counter. The true count will also give you information on when to change your strategy. These are called playing deviations; we provide our readers with free charts of such strategies.
Calculating the Edge
This tip comes as a bonus and is not mandatory. However, we advise you to use it. The true count will provide us with information about your advantage during any time of a game of Blackjack. To calculate that you just have to divide your running count by the number of decks which remain to be dealt. The top online casinos use six decks in a standard Blackjack game. In such situations, every true count will move the edge 0.5% closer to your advantage. For example, a true one would erase the edge and turn out as an even game. Moreover, a true 2 gives you an advantage of 0.5% and the house edge, becomes your edge. A true three will give you an advantage of 1%. This, of course, varies from a casino to a casino and depends on how many cards are dealt between shuffles and of course on the rules.
Change Your Bets With the Rising of the True Count
Keeping track of the true and running counts is mandatory to know when the edge changes to your favour. However, you should use that information to change your strategy or end up having a mentally exhausting game. Moreover, you have to raise your bets if the true count rises. So basically you would want to place high bets when the cards favour you and smaller bets when they do not. Unfortunately managing your bankroll and a proper strategy could get quite complicated. Moreover, if you do not understand how to bet, your funds may suffer severe damages.
What is Blackjack Card Counting?
It could also be referred to as card reading, and it is a strategy that is usually used by Blackjack players. It helps them determine whether the next hand will give the advantage to the player or the dealer. Moreover, a typical player focuses on each of the cards that are being dealt with the dealer and the other players to decrease the house edge. By considering which high and low cards are being allocated, the player can figure out which cards can come up in hand. Thus if you choose to use card counting you can take advantage and win incredible amounts of money.
The History of Blackjack Card Counting
So you are probably wondering how all of this began. Ed Thorp was a mathematician, and he was the first to realise that removing a two from the deck makes Blackjack a positive probability for the player who uses basic strategies. He took that information and used it to create a system, which he further tested out in real life. Later on, he even wrote a best seller called “Beat the Dealer”. Another big name is Andy Bloch most famous as one of the best poker players of all time. He is also quite popular for being part of the M.I.T. Blackjack team, which released a DVD about blackjack card counting called “Beating Blackjack”. He alongside Ed Thorp was featured in a documentary about Blackjack called “The Hot Shoe”. It was made by David Layton, who interviewed some of the most famous players and even spent $5000 of the budget on gambling as a case study.
Other famous names and their accomplishments are Stanford Wong with the book “Professional Blackjack”, Kent Utson with the novel “Million Dollar Blackjack” and of course the writer of “Blackbelt in Blackjack” Arnold Snyder.
Why is Blackjack Card Counting so Impressive?
Most of the players who have never tried it before find it quite fascinating and want desire to learn this unique strategy. Possibly this may be because people who learn how to count cards in blackjack seem more bold and confident. Alternatively, maybe because of all those stories about tenacious players who took a core strategy, improved it a bit and made a fortune. Alternatively, perhaps like every gambler out there we want to find a way to make as much money as possible. Alternatively, maybe we just want to see someone, a regular person just like us, stand up to those giant corporations.
Blackjack Card Counting Facts
- It is legal, but casinos do not fancy it.
- You can get an advantage from 0.5% to 1& over the casino.
- You can suffer from losses alongside your winnings.
- You need a considerable amount of money in your Bankroll to use this strategy.
- You have to avoid being detected by the casino.
Advantages and Disadvantages
As far as our team is concerned, all forms of cheating should be banned and illegal. This includes all types of devices that may aid the player, such as a mirror or a calculator on a phone. However, blackjack card counting is a strategy to improve your gameplay, and it is legal. Therefore we do not see any reason not to do it, however, if you are a newbie, we recommend not to go straight to a casino and try it. Because of their security retaliations. Moreover, we do not want you to be caught.
Should You Learn How to Count Cards in Blackjack?
Many players are making quite a lot of money from blackjack card counting, but is it suitable for you? There are quite a lot of different ways to make money. However, we may be the first ones to admit that this technique is not for everyone. The top online casinos plunder the weak, and we do not like to see more players losing their money to those leeches. If this information is not enough for you to make a decision, you should look into our detailed article.
How to Beat the Top Online Casinos
You are probably wondering if all you have to do to empty out the operators is memorise the charts and add and subtract by one. Unfortunately for us in real life, it is not that easy. You need to train for countless hours, how to properly manage funds, how to avoid the casino’s surveillance systems, how to deal with the emotional and financial swings of each game and of course which rules you can avoid. We have quite the experience with helping people figure out how to count cards in Blackjack correctly. Moreover, we can help you too by providing all the training, resources and proper community to discuss your progress with. However, you will have to master this incredible craft and take down the house of your choice.
Why Does This Technique Work?
When there is a higher number of 10’s and Aces left in the shoe, the player will be dealt more blackjacks (which are equal to 150% of the bet), and the dealer will go over 21 more often. Vice versa, if there are more low cards remaining, you will get fewer blackjacks and the dealer’s possibility to bust is quite smaller. Given these statistical probabilities, if you keep track of the ratio between high and low cards, you can place relevant bets according to the situation. It may look simple theoretically, but it needs quite a lot of practice to make it work in real life.
Basics of Online Blackjack
Easy Techniques You Can Use
Players who are new to the game of Blackjack can start with the following:
The High Lo
This is probably the easiest and most paying method out there. It is used to differentiate the ratio between high and low cards and if the ratio itself is unbalanced in the left decks. High cards such as 10’s or Aces not only increase the possibility of a Blackjack being dealt but also of hands being totaled at 20. A deck which contains more high cards gives the player an advantage, and it is more likely for the dealer to go bust. Moreover, vice versa if there are more low cards, the advantage goes to the dealer. The possibility for him to go bust is quite smaller in this situations because he has to draw hard hands (12 to 16).
The True Count
So another factor you will need to consider when you are trying out to figure out the balance of the deck is how many cards are left to be dealt. As we said earlier your count will be more and more accurate the closer you get to the ending of the deck. You can calculate your true count by dividing the running count of the approximate number of deck’s that are left to be dealt. This way your count will be more accurate. This may be hard to learn, but you should practice a lot with several decks. At some point, you will be able to determine approximately how many deck are left to be dealt just by looking at them. After calculating your true count, if you still have a positive number, we advise you to increase your bet so you will have a chance to win more money. So basically the true count is a more accurate way of knowing whom the deck favours – the dealer or the player.
More Complicated Techniques
Since blackjack card counting was discovered, many players have tried to improve it in many ways. However, we know from experience that the simpler it is, the easier it is to work with. Even if you think that you have mastered a complicated technique, it is unlikely to make you more money along the way. One of the disadvantages is that you have to take in a lot more information, and it may distract you from counting. Moreover, if you can put less effort in blackjack card counting, you will be able to work on your stealth.
Wonging is a good example. The name of this technique comes from Stanford Wong, which is John Ferguson’s pseudonym. The name itself refers to the method he uses to observe the Blackjack table. He counts the deck the way we have described above, but he only moves when the cards favour him. Using this technique can save you much money. It is quite popular, therefore easy to detect. Moreover, top online casinos do not let you enter bets mid-game either. The advantage here is that you do not have to count every hand because you are back counting. This will increase the player’s edge more.
Why The Simple Count Systems are More Lucrative
We already explained that too complicated strategies are easier to detect than the basic, simpler techniques. Moreover, if a few players decided to work as a group and count together, that is also quite easy to detect. Even if you think that the signs you invented will not be picked up, you are wrong. That is what the CCTV cameras are for; they may not catch you at once, but they most certainly will when the security watches the footage. However, the surveillance equipment cannot look inside of your head, which is the reason why the best counters cannot be caught. If you decide to take aid from outside your head, though, it is quite easier for them to catch you, since you will be leaving evidence. Most operators try to spot counters with bet changes. If you, however, choose a simpler strategy, you can focus on covering up your tracks and avoid suspicion. For example, you can try to talk to the other players or the dealer, maybe even tell a few jokes, and you can adjust your betting pattern. This way you can blend in with the crowd and avoid being detected.
Blackjack Card Counting – How to Avoid Getting Caught
At BlackjackCardCounting.net we simply believe that the best way to avoid being detected by a casino is to stick to a more basic strategy and practice it a lot. Some people think that the best counters are mathematicians or statisticians. However, that is not the case.
Many of you probably want to be one of the best. However, you will have to be good at what you do (after countless hours of practice) and be able to blend in with the casino crowd. So keep practicing because after all at some point it will start coming naturally in your head. Then you can start working on your stealth skills. Moreover, who knows maybe someday, we will even hear legendary stories for your skills at Blackjack or even better we will never hear of them.
Opposing Measures Top Online Casinos Typically Use
Blackjack card counting strategies have been used for decades. The first books came out in the sixties. However, except the blackjack betting features in our graphic, the best online casinos have tried to stop people and catch them in the act for approximately the same amount of time. Here we have a list of the most popular and also unsuccessful ways they used:
The Cutting Card
This is most likely the first action they tried. When they used such a card, it was sure that they would not go through the entire deck.
Multiple Decks
They started using more than one deck. However, that does not work when the player is using a technique such as the High lo, which we explained earlier.
In-house Blackjack Counting Cards
Nowadays the best online casinos use different types of technology to detect, what they believe to be cheating. Some operators even do their own blackjack card counting. If the edge falls into the player’s hands, the technology scans for irregular bets, and if one of the players raises their bet, they might be banned from playing Blackjack or even kicked from the casino if they try counting cards blackjack at other games which don’t require a particular set of skills.
Microchips inside the Gambling Ones
This is another quite popular way the best online casinos usually use. It is quite easy for them to detect any irregularity amongst bets. It may seem too much for most of you, but we are talking about people who have been using CCTV cameras and didn’t forget that operators want to make money from you, they do not want to give it away, especially to people who outsmart them.
Facial Recognition
This is used by cameras to identify any previously detected players who were caught cheating. Because of this new technology previously caught counters may be asked to leave before even getting to the table of their choice.
Team Play Strategies
A single player can bet on a single hand, so it may seem bright to work as a team and increase your winnings on an hourly basis. A group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have tried and succeeded with such a strategy and even became the inspiration for the movie 21. The most common ones are those in which each member of the team plays on a different table and signals the rest when to increase their bet. This brings an advantage to the player because he can know on which table to place a huge bet.
The disadvantages are that this may be quite a big operation, including many players, which all want a piece of that profit. Also, there will be a manager who will look for high bets swinging across tables. So again this type of strategy is quite easily caught.
The Spotter
This player is quite active at a table and counts the decks carefully. However, he avoids the heat by always placing the minimum bet. He signals either the Gorilla or the team Manager when the deck is in the player’s edge.
Become One of the Best
If you want to win an enormous sum of money, you should try Blackjack card counting. Even though it takes quite a lot of time to master, it will be worth it once you can use it to take an advantage against the casino. However, if you fail, don’t give up, try again. Remember to take your time and practice. You can choose the casino for you from one of the trusted operators we recommend.
How to Choose a Casino to Play at
So you have already decided to learn how to count cards in Blackjack tables, but don’t know which operators to choose. If you prefer to choose from the best online casinos instead of land-based ones we have some recommendations for you. However, to access them, you have to be in either one of those states – Nevada, Delaware or New Jersey. Because those are the only states which allow online gambling. You should know that the classic and new casinos we recommend are completely safe, and all of them have a valid license. So we made a top 10 list of the best online casinos in the USA:
- Planet 7 Casino with the exceptional bonus of $7777 – rated with seven stars.
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- Sloto Cash with a bonus of $7777 and six stars.
- Bovada Casino with a bonus of $3000 and six stars.
- Ruby Slots with a bonus of $2500 and six stars.
- Silver Oak Casino with a bonus of $11100 and eight stars.
- Miami Club Casino with a bonus of $800 and eight stars.
- Slots of Vegas with the exclusive bonus of $3000 and six stars.
The operators in this list have been rated by our customers on a one to ten stars scale. The websites recommended by BlackjackCardCounting.net have to be:
- The best online casinos;
- Offer a wide variety of payment options for American players;
- Run a trustworthy platform which is safe and secure;
- Provide high quality games with cutting edge graphics and sound;
- Have large bonuses and fair terms and conditions for acquiring them.
The Advantages of Playing in a Reliable and Safe Casino
We Americans are quite well-known around the world for loving to gamble. However, many of us tend to get reckless with our personal info when we see an incredible bonus offer ahead. What is the common problem is that people do not see the difference between a shady casino and a trusted one? They do not see the gain in playing through Blackjack Card Counting in a legal and reliable casino. So we made a few points to help you choose:
- Absolute fairness and safety;
- You can receive reports about each payout of each game;
- Your privacy and protection are guaranteed;
- You are legally secured in case of any disputes;
- There is always valuable information about gambling safely and responsibly;
- You can have separate accounts for your money.
Excluding those factors, the best online casinos offer much better bonhow to count cards blackjackuses and much safer and fair conditions to wager them. The trusted casinos even encrypt all of the transfers, no matter if they are withdrawals or deposits. This is so all your personal and credit card information will be safe and secure from third party attacks such as hacking. We hope that our guide taught you everything you need to know about .
Source Links for Blackjack Gaming
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- Rules to Play the Blackjack Card Came (Opportunity for High Strategy)
- Blackjack Maths House Edge Explained (Odds at Various Developers)
- Simulating Blackjack with MATLAB (Math Analytics of the Game)