Blackjack Card Counting

Card counting is one of the most popular ways in which players try to reduce the house edge in blackjack. However, as it is a rather difficult strategy to employ requiring concentration and fast counting skills not every blackjack player is able to successfully apply this strategy. One more issue related to card counting is that brick and mortar casinos forbid their players to count cards and ban those who are suspected of dong it. Although card counting is not against the law, casinos have the right to suspend players who they believe are counting cards.

The Principle

The main idea of card counting is to follow the cards that are dealt on the table in order to catch the moment when the cards left in the deck are favorable to the player and increase the player's edge. When this occurs the player increases their bets and therefore wins more money. As soon as the cards in the deck are no longer favorable the player reduces the bets and continues to play low stakes until the player's edge rises again. In fact such large bet size variations are a way in which casinos detect card counters and therefore are one of the major disadvantages.

Player's Advantage

The player gains advantage when the number of high cards in the deck increases over the number of low cards. The idea is that high cards – aces and ten-valued cards are good for the player and the more of these cards there are in the deck the higher is the player advantage. On the other hand, low cards – 2s, 3s etc. are good for the dealer. Low cards usually result in stiff hands which the dealer must always hit and a ten will always bust a stiff hand.

Stiff Hands

Stiff hands are hard totals from 12 to 16. It's good for the player if the dealer has such a hand because any ten-valued card will bust a stiff hand. It's especially good for the player who's counting cards and knows when there is a high amount of tens in the deck. Whereas for the player a stiff hand is not a treat. According to the basic strategy the player should stand on stiff hands from 13 to 16 when the dealer has any card from 2 to 6 as their open card. It is also a good decision to surrender with hard 16 on the dealer's 9 to A open card as there's a very high possibility of loosing the hand.

Counting Systems

There is a number of different card counting systems. The main principle of counting is not memorizing all of the cards that are dealt on the table, but rather assigning particular value to a range of cards and keep count according to the chosen system. For example, one of the most popular card counting systems – Hi-Lo assigns positive value (+1) to all cards in the range from 2 to 6 and negative (-1) to the range from 10 to A. Cards ranging from 7 to 9 do not affect the count and therefore have zero value.

The player counts cards by adding and subtracting numbers according to each card value. When the count number is high enough, meaning that most of the low cards have already been dealt, the player's advantage increases and higher bets can be placed. However, this is only a simplified explanation of how the cards are being counted, the actual process is a bit more complicated. Some more advanced card counting systems use values of +2 and -2 or even +5.

As most of the card counting systems require concentration, quick reaction and very good counting abilities, not all of the players are able to successfully employ them during the game. On the other hand, they are not as difficult as people usually believe they are because of the way card counting is depicted in movies and television.

A very important aspect in card counting is that when the count is high and the player's advantage increases their chances of winning a hand do not actually become much better and are still below 50%. The player's edge over the casino does not lie in player's probability of winning the hand, it lies within the higher blackjack possibility and within the player's ability to successfully employ a particular winning strategy. Such strategy usually includes increasing the bet amounts, doubling down, insuring and splitting. These are the actions that the dealer cannot perform and therefore the player is able to gain advantage over them.

Card Counting Techniques

Besides the way of counting cards that has already been discussed, when a single player is counting cards while playing at blackjack table and increases and reduces their bets according to the player's edge, there are some other ways too.

Back-Counting

One of them is known as back-counting or Wonging. When using this technique the player stands behind the blackjack table and counts cards while other people are playing. The back-counter only enters the game at the moment when they may take advantage of the player edge. In this way the player only bets when they know they have a significantly high chances of winning the hand and does not play when the game favors the casino. This minimizes the player's financial losses.

The back-counting technique was first introduced by Stanford Wong and therefore is called Wonging. Although it might look tempting to employ such way of card counting as it enables the player to forfeit all of the gameplay when the casino edge is high and the possibility of winning is much lower, it also has some disadvantages. The major one is that it is very easy for a casino to spot a back-counter as they hop in and out of the game and usually win huge bets. Such players may also annoy the others sitting at the table and draw undesired attention.

Group Counting

Group counting is a technique employed by a number of people who count cards at different tables. By working together these people are able to increase the player advantage even more and therefore win much more money. In a team of card counters every team member has their role – spotters are those who play at the tables and count cards while placing minimum bets. As soon as the count is favorable the player would delicately send a signal to the big player who would then sit at the table to play big bets and win a lot of money. When the count drops, such player would leave the table and go to the other one which is “hot” at that moment.

The major advantage of group counting is that the players may observe several tables at a time and keep multiple counts whereas a single player can only count one table. Moreover, the spotters do not even necessarily have to play, they may easily observe the table from aside and signal the big player when the count is high so they would join the table. However, a number of players observing different tables might draw casino's suspicion as blackjack is not considered to be a game for the audience.

The best-know case of blackjack group counting was the MIT Blackjack Team – a group of Massachusetts and Harvard students who beat a number of Las Vegas and other casinos and won huge sums of money. The story of the team was later on told in Ben Mezrich's best-selling book “Bringing Down the House” which was then taken into the big screen in a blockbuster movie “21”.

Casino Countermeasures

Although card counting is completely legal and legitimate blackjack strategy, most of the brick and mortar casinos perceive it as cheating and ban card counters from playing blackjack or even from the entire casino. There were some cases of card counters taking the issue to the court and proving their right to count cards, however, as casinos are private property they are free to set their own rules on what is allowed and what is not within the casino.

As card counting is prohibited in most of the casinos, the counters have to employ various strategies which would help them prevent drawing attention from the casino surveillance. The best tactics is considered to be the one employed by card counting teams discussed in the previous section when the big player enters the table when it's hot and places big stakes while the spotter continues playing the table minimum. In this way none of the players change their stakes as the count gets high which is one of the main indicators of the players counting cards.

However, modern casinos have a number of ways on how to detect card counters. “The eye in the sky” (video cameras installed in the casino ceiling to observe the tables) is a regular security measure applied by most of the brick and mortar casinos which help the surveillance staff spot the “cheaters”. Nowadays casinos also use various technology and software in order to prevent blackjack players from counting cards. They are able to analyze each player's behavior and playing patterns and match them with those employed by card counters.

Regular players tend to make simple strategy mistakes whereas counters must stick to the basic strategy. They must also increase their bets when the deck is “hot” whereas normal players don't usually do that. The software that tracks the game also counts cards and follows the playing patterns. If the player sticks to the card counter's play, the system alerts the casino surveillance.

Counting Cards Online

As live casinos are not a perfect place for learning how to count cards, online casinos are. While playing blackjack online player is free to employ any card counting strategy as well as play the basic strategy by using blackjack cards. Playing at an online casino is a good way to practice card counting and, of course, take advantage of the player's edge. So as brick and mortar casinos use technology to track players who count cards and ban them, the online casinos do not such thing. You are free to play anyway you want and take advantage of the player's edge. And the money is as good as in any other casino. PokerNews Casino recommends playing blackjack online.