Beginner’s Guide: How to Count Cards & Win at Blackjack

EthRoll
5 min readApr 6, 2021

You’ve seen the movies where gamblers are going for hours on end as they try to bring the house down, so to speak. And, the most popular table where these gamblers are trying to win large sums of money is on the blackjack table. It may look amazing at first, even fictional. On the contrary, it is very simple to do, and all you need is to familiarize yourself with the game enough and know a few key tips to help increase your chances.

Read on to know what Blackjack is and to learn how you can bring the house down yourself.

What Is Blackjack?

Before everything else, what is Blackjack? It is a card game that is also known as 21, and it is currently one of the most popular casino games and has been for over the last hundred years. Despite being overtaken by the Slots or slot machine games, it has enjoyed a new surge in popularity and is slowly becoming the next go-to game for most gamblers around the world, both online and offline.

This game is a casino banked game which means that the players will be playing against the house rather than other players on the table. This game’s main idea is to get a hand whose total is as close or equal to 21 as possible. Going over this limit is known as busting and will automatically mean that you lose. Winning on Blackjack depends on the chances of you landing closer to 21 than the dealer.

When the game starts, the players and the dealer are all dealt two cards each. Normally, the player’s cards are dealt facing upwards, while the dealer has a card facing up and another faced down. This gives the house an advantage because the players can go bust before the dealer even starts playing the game.

What is Card Counting?

Every player who tries their hand at Blackjack is looking to win big despite what they claim to get from playing the game. Most of the more seasoned players of the game are well aware that there is no way for them to completely remove the casino’s edge while they are playing on the table. Regardless, this doesn’t stop them from using blackjack strategies to increase their chances and use it as a tool against the casino’s edge. And, the easiest and most effective way for them to do it is through card counting.

Card counting is the only legal way to increase your chances of winning. It is a system to keep track of all the cards dealt on each hand and predict the next ones that will come. This will help you ascertain whether the remaining deck favors the dealers or if the player has higher chances of winning.

This is done by assigning a certain number to each card and adding and subtracting from a definite number to start the count and calculate the true number as accurately as possible. There is a common count assigned to the cards used by most seasoned counters, and it is usually the easiest to understand.

Hi-Lo Card Counting.

This is the most common and easiest to understand method of counting cards while playing Blackjack. This is where you assign add one or subtract one from the running count depending on the card’s value.

Cards with 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 on their faces are considered low cards, and when they appear, you add one to the running count. Meanwhile, 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Aces are high cards, and when they appear, you need to subtract one from the count. As for 7, 8, and 9, the total remains the same when they appear.

Generally, this will help you ascertain the value of the remaining cards in the deck and increase your chances of winning big in this game. The best way to familiarize yourself and get used to this method is by dealing cards to yourself until it becomes second nature for you.

However, because of the significant advantage that counting cards will give you and other gamblers, the casinos or house are usually running Blackjack games with four or more decks. This means that there is a significantly higher number of cards that you need to keep track of and increased uncertainty for earlier bets.

Regardless, counting cards have a few advanced steps that will help you improve your chances. After the running count, the next step is to find the true count of the deck. This is done by dividing the current number on your running count by the remaining number of decks on the pile. This will help you add the concentration of the high cards compared to the low cards to your considerations before you make a bet.

And, as the true count rises, it is also best that you start betting higher. This is where your chances of winning are highest because more high cards are remaining in the undealt card deck. Raising your bets at this point is a great way to mitigate any losses you may have had while the true count was still lower. On the other hand, bet low if the true count is below one to save yourself from further losses.

There are more advanced counting strategies while playing Blackjack, but they are more complicated, and it isn’t recommended for most beginners. These methods usually involve keeping track of more factors like changing each card’s usual value for the count and counting the aces separately. Among these counting systems are the Omega II system and counting cards as a team.

Regardless, the Hi-Lo system may be simpler than the other two methods, but it gets the job done. And, if you are new to counting cards, this system will definitely increase your chances of winning and help you get the most out of your gambling experience.

Now, all you need is a place to test out the new knowledge and skills, and there is no better place than on the most reliable online casino platform to date. Try out EthRoll’s online casinos and Blackjack tables and start winning big from gambling through counting cards. Good luck!

Alt Tags: Blackjack strategy chart, cart counting practice, blackjack card counting tool, basics of card counting, counting cards in blackjack strategy

Reference(s):

[1] https://ethroll.casino/

[2] https://ethroll.casino/wp-content/uploads/EthRoll%20Whitepaper%201.0.pdf

[3] https://www.wikihow.com/Count-Cards-in-Blackjack

[4] https://www.pagat.com/banking/blackjack.html

[5] https://www.blackjackapprenticeship.com/how-to-count-cards/

[6] https://blackjackdoc.com/blackjack-card-counting.htm

[7] http://www.whatisblackjack.net/

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