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| | Author: Rob McGarvey
| Counting cards as they are dealt from the decks allows the Blackjack player to have knowledge of when the odds of the game have changed in their favor. The importance of knowing when this has happened is in the fact that larger bets should be placed to offset the house odds during normal play. I will give an example.
During normal play, it is wise to bet the table minimum. If we place 100 - $5 bets we have bet a total of $500. If we can expect to lose 1% of our money based on the odds of the game we can expect to have lost $5. Not much. If we count cards and know we have an advantage of 1% and begin to bet $50 per hand we are betting 10 times our usual bet and can expect to win money 10 times faster than when we expect to lose at 1%. The end result is winning more than we lose and producing a profit, if not for each session, for the number of sessions we will play over the year.
To return to the value of the decks as each card is removed, all counting systems stem from the following information.
% Change in Deck Value
as Cards are Removed from Deck |
| 5 Card |
+.64 |
| 4 Card |
+.52 |
| 6 Card |
+.45 |
| 3 Card |
+.44 |
| 2 Card |
+.37 |
| 7 Card |
+.30 |
| 8 Card |
.00 |
| 10 Card |
-.53 |
| A Card |
-.49 |
| 9 Card |
-.13 |
All counting systems recognize the value of the 10 card and are centered around it. The simplest count uses the 10s and the highest valued non -10 cards to offset each other to tell if the deck is 10 rich or 10 poor. These cards are the 3 4 5 and 6 cards. Each deck has 16 - 10s and 16 - 3 to 6 cards. Every time the player sees a 10 come out of the decks they count "minus 1" and for each 3 to 6 card they count "plus 1" and add the results to a running count they keep in their mind. It is actually very easy. Knowing you are going to make money doing this simple mathematics makes it all the more easy.
The Ace is the next most valuable card in the deck and is kept track of with either a side count, or is counted along with the 10s. When it is counted along with the 10s, the 2 card is also counted along with the 3 to 6 cards to balance the count. Side counting Aces is more difficult since the player has to determine if more or less Aces than normal have been dealt per 13 cards, since there is 1 Ace for every 13 cards. The Ace is most valuable for telling us how much to bet rather than how to play since it has a value that can be both 1 or 11 and really only shines when it is beside a 10, in our hands of course!
The 9 and the 7 card both have value, and there is a count that adds the 9 to the 10 and Aces, with the 7 going with the 2 to 6 cards to balance the count. Here the player is counting almost all the cards and it has been proven the extra work doesn't really pay off with greater profits than the above systems.
Each card excluding the 7 8 and 9 card is worth about 1/2% in favor of the dealer or the player, but there is some difference between the true values of the cards. Advanced counting systems give each of the cards values above plus or minus one, and give a more accurate account of the value of the remaining decks. They are also more difficult for the player to use, and any gain that can be expected in fact can destroy the players advantage as they lose track of what they are doing. The only advanced counting system I recommend counts the 4 and 5 cards as "plus 2" and the 10s as "minus 2", and all the other cards except the 8 9 and Ace as "plus 1" to balance. Any more difficult systems do not produce much more of a profit and add more risk to accuracy.
Before you can count cards you should read Basic Blackjack Strategy
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