Basic Card Counting in Blackjack

Some people who play blackjack want to improve their chances by counting cards. Whether it is playing at a land-based casino or at an online casino, card counting can be done. Let’s look at the easy way to count cards playing online blackjack.

The most popular way and also the easiest way to count cards is to give all of the low cards from 2 to 6 a +1, a zero for the cards from 7 to 9 and a -1 to all face cards and aces. Players keep a running count based on the cards that are revealed. The goal is to get a high count of +10 or more which means more high cards are remaining in the deck so the chances of getting dealt a 20 or 21 is higher.

What should be remembered when card counting is the rules at the table. If you are playing with a single deck then the count is easy and it can impact your profits. If you are playing with multiple decks the count doesn’t mean as much. For example, if you play blackjack where four decks are used you might get to a +10 quickly but it means little because so many cards are still in the deck.

Card counting in blackjack can lower the house edge but it is really only useful if you are playing single deck blackjack.