Card Counting Secrets

Card counting is a little too involved to teach in a short article, but that’s okay. Before you learn the specific skills, you need to know what it will involve to really do it right, so you can decide if it is worth the effort. That’s what this article is about.

Card Counting 101

In the game of blackjack, card counting is a technique for “beating the New 88 house.” This means you make more money than you lose in the long run, but not necessarily on any given day. You beat the house by playing in such a way that the odds are in your favor. How do you get the odds in your favor?

You watch and wait. When the deck is “rich” enough in high-value cards (10,J,Q,K,A), the odds tilt slightly in favor of the player. This has been proven statistically, although how much the odds favor you depends on the “house rules,” meaning the exact rules of the game in that particular casino. The odds also depend on the number of decks that the dealer deals from, and how far into the “card shoe” (the holder that the cards are dealt from) the dealer deals before re-shuffling.

The basic idea is to monitor the cards as they come out, and when the deck has more high-value cards than normal in it, bet more. Bet less when the house has the edge, more when you have the edge, and the odds are in your favor. In other words, you should make money in the long run.