Card Counting in Blackjack

However, you can improve your chances of winning without getting banned from the casinos. All you need to do is pay attention to the proportion of high-value cards and low-value cards. If a high percentage of the 10-point cards and aces have been dealt out, the remaining deck is not favorable to the player. But if many smaller cards have been dealt, the cards that are left in the deck are more likely to come out in the player’s favor.

So if you notice that there were a lot of 10’s dealt in the first round, then the deck is starting to become unfavorable. On the other hand is the first round has very few high cards, the remaining deck is more favorable.

You can use this information to your advantage by raising your bet if there have been a high proportion of smaller cards dealt, and lowering it if there have been more high cards dealt. After each round, re-evaluate whether the deck has become more or less favorable based on the cards that were dealt during that round. Then, adjust your bet accordingly.

This strategy works best when playing a one-deck game. If more than one deck is being used, it will take more than one round for the previous cards played to significantly impact the remainder of the deck. Also, keep in mind that in many casinos, the cards are shuffled once about half of them have been dealt. The casinos do this to make card counting less successful.

If you are playing online, of course, card counting is completely useless. Internet-based gambling sites use programs that deal the cards randomly, starting each hand with a full deck. If you want to experiment with card counting strategies, you’ll have to do so at a real casino, not a virtual one.