Card Counting Explained

How to Count Cards?

Card counting, or card reading, involves assigning a numeric value to every card using a predefined system and then using these values to keep a running count of the cards that have been played from the deck. The player can use the information gathered from this running count to make decisions regarding their own gameplay.

The main idea behind card counting is that higher-value cards tend to benefit the player more than the dealer, while the opposite is true for lower-value cards. This means that a player doesn’t need to know the exact number of cards left in the deck. They simply need to know whether the majority is of a higher or lower value.

Who Can Count Cards?

Anyone can learn how to count cards. All it takes is the patience of a saint, a fair bit of studying and, of course, a lot of practice. Since it involves only simple mathematics and no memorising of large sets of cards, it is something that can be mastered in a relatively short time.

Now, it’s worth emphasising that counting cards in online casinos for real money might not be the best strategy, but it can be good for practice.

Does Card Counting Still Work?

Card counting, a strategy primarily associated with Blackjack, has been a topic of intrigue for years. However, in the online casino realm, its effectiveness is significantly diminished. This is mainly due to the fact that online casinos often employ continuous shuffle machines that reshuffle the deck after each hand, making card counting virtually impossible. Additionally, online casinos can use multiple decks, further complicating the card-counting process.

Counting Cards Blackjack

Blackjack is one of the most common games for card counters, and it lends itself quite well to the technique. However, since casinos became aware of the techniques used in card counting, they started trying to dissuade players from using them. A way to do this was to introduce several decks of cards in each blackjack game.

There is nothing stopping a player from continuing to count cards even with several decks in play, but there’s no denying it makes the system a bit more complicated. Instead of just keeping track of the running count, the player now has to try to calculate the true count for a deck consisting of five or six regular decks. To do this, the player has to divide the running count by the number of decks in play.

When counting cards, blackjack players can still decrease the house edge over them, even when several decks are in play. It’s just a little harder, but when you know how to count cards, practice will make perfect.

Card Counting in Baccarat

Card counting in Baccarat games online is technically possible, but it’s not nearly as effective as in games like Blackjack. The reason lies in the game’s structure itself. In Baccarat, the impact of removing any given card from the game is minimal, rendering card counting an inefficient strategy. While there are complex systems that try to gain a slight edge, the effort-to-gain ratio often discourages players from attempting to count cards in Baccarat.

Card Counting Systems

There are several different ways how to count cards, and their purpose is to let the player keep a mental tally without having to remember every single card that has been passed from the deck. The most common way of counting cards is to assign positive, negative and zero values to all cards in the deck. Using this information, the player can tally up the deck as the game progresses.

The overall goal of these systems is to give a value to the removal of a certain card from a deck, which in turn will say something about the impact this has had on the house edge.

The High-Low System

The high-low system is the most common blackjack card counting system and is fairly easy to use. The cards are assigned the following values:

• 10-Ace: -1
• 7-9: 0
• 2-6: +1

This means that for every card that is dealt out of the deck, the count will change by no more than one. Every time the count goes down, the house has a theoretically better edge, while if it goes up, the edge is moving in favour of the player.

Advanced Card Ranks

While the high-low system may work well on its own, some players choose to add advanced ranks to specific cards. This can mean adding a +2 and a -2 to the very top and bottom value cards and +0.5 and -0.5 to the cards that are in the middle of the deck. The more advanced the card counting, the more time a player needs to use per hand. This can be a disadvantage if the player is hoping to win as many hands as possible.

Side Count

A side count gives the player an option of keeping track of certain cards. In blackjack, the value is by far the most important feature of any card, but it can be useful to know how many cards of a specific value are left in a deck. An example of this is keeping a side count of Aces as a way of keeping a larger degree of accuracy when it comes to making important decisions.

Is Card Counting Legal?

There are no laws specifically prohibiting card counting, but new casino sites still try their hardest to deter players using the technique. Several physical casinos will be on the lookout for players who seem to be counting cards, and if you are suspected, you may be banned without any further ado.

In online casinos there is, of course, no chance of you being spotted counting cards. At the same time, you might also not have the correct information about the number of virtual decks in use, which will make the counting a whole lot harder.

Card Counting FAQs

Kate WebbEditor in Chief

With over ten years of experience working with gambling and writing about casinos, Kate brings a lot of knowledge to CasinoTop3.com. Kate oversees all the content written on CasinoTop3.com to ensure it contains factual information with value to you as a player.