Counting cards is used in blackjack to give a player an edge over the casino. Contrary to popular belief, counting cards doesn’t require any type of Rain Man-like savant qualities, nor is it illegal…it’s just highly frowned upon. So if you start counting cards, you’ll have to learn to be incredibly stealthy, but that’s a job for another article. Right now, we’re gonna walk you through just how to count cards so you can clean house at your next blackjack game. Remember us when you win big!
Counting Cards in Blackjack
Start counting cards with the Hi-Lo strategy, which assigns value to every card. You must keep a running count based off of each dealt card’s values to determine what’s left in the deck. Cards 2-6 have a value of +1, cards 7-9 have no value, and aces and face cards are worth -1.
Learn how Hi-Lo works. Hi-Lo is by far the most popular card counting strategy. In this strategy, if the ratio of high cards to low cards is higher than normal (that is, there are lots of high cards still in the shoe), the player can make bigger bets to increase the amount they can win when the deck is favorable. They keep a number in their heads that tells them when to bet and how much to bet—or not to bet at all!
- A deck with a positive number is good. The higher the number, the more you want to bet. The higher the number, the more high cards are left to be played.
Memorize the values of each card. To track the ratio of high cards to low cards (thus knowing whether the deck is in your favor or not), you’ll need to assign the cards a value. Start at 0 and as each card comes up, add it to your tally.[1]
- Cards 2-6 have a value of +1.
- Cards 7-9 have no value.
- Cards worth 10 have a value of -1.
- Aces also have a value of -1.
