Card Counting

Card counting is a strategy used in several casino card games including blackjack. In the game of blackjack, the card counting strategy is used in determining whether the next hand has a probability of giving a probable advantage to a player or a dealer. Card counters are also referred to as advantage players and are usually attempting to decrease the house edge of the casino by keeping a tally of all the low and high valued cards that a player can see. The card counting strategy also allows players to be able to bet more with a lesser risk when the count provides an advantage. Card counting also minimizes losses during the time of unfavourable counts. The strategy of card counting also provides players with an ability of altering playing decisions that are based on the remaining cards composition. Card counting can also refer to the obtaining of the count of the remaining high cards or distribution of the trick-taking games like spades and contract bridge.

Basics of Card Counting

There are many variations of card counting but probably the most common are based on a statistical evidence that all the high cards usually benefit the player more than the dealer and these cards are aces and the 10 valued cards while the low valued help the dealer more than the player and these cards include the 4's, 5's and 6's. A high concentration of 10 valued cards and aces in a particular deck of cards is seen as an increase in chance of a players probability of getting a blackjack which will pay out 3:2. The payout will only be issued if the dealer has no blackjack. Players also have a high chance of when winning when they are doubling if the shoe has a high concentration of the 10 valued cards. Due to the fact that the blackjack rules require dealers to hit stiff hands i.e. totals of 12 to 16 and the players have options of a hit or a stand, low cards will definitely benefit the dealer more than the player. This thereby means that a dealer who has a card total of between 12 and 16 will bust each time if a 10 valued card is drawn next thereby making this card essential to tracking when card counting. Card counters do not need any special abilities to be able to perform their services given that they will not be tracking or memorizing specific cards. Card counter only need to assign different score points for every card they see and this will help in tracking the sum of the card values and this is referred to as running count. It is important to do some research on card counting before you play any card game to ensure that your winning chances are always on the higher side.