Card counting is the only way to win at blackjack. When playing blackjack you must beat the house edge. A player does this by having a good ready-made strategy for the cards he is dealt. The strategy is a steroidal cocktail of card counting plus basic strategy, sometimes mixing them, depending on the situation.
All card counting systems rely on a basic principle, that of assigning numerical values to the cards as they are seen. The more a card is seen by the player the more the player knows about that card, the more the player knows about that card the more the player knows about the other cards, and the strongest card-counting method is to assign each card a value and then keep track of how many values are still outstanding (known as a running count). This counts how many cards are still outstanding helps the player to know how many cards are still to come, since the counter must keep track of all cards, not just those that he wants to count.
This Ace-King (A-K) system is one of the most common card counting systems used. According to the theory of this Ace-King system a player starts by keeping a running count of +1, 0, or -1. A running count is the count you keep as you play. The idea is that the -1 indicates the cards are coming, and +1 indicates they are gone. Remember it is called an “odds basis” when the cards are better and worse.
To aid you in keeping the running count as you play, there are small plastic chips that have different colors. When you get low on chips, these will often LED ( make the white light on the chip useful) and say, “Low” or ” High.”
These chips are for low and high so don’t rely on them for the high end of the running count. If you keep an eye on the chips, you’ll be able to tell when the running count is low and when it’s high.
A high count, the cards are coming, and the running count is +1, 0, or -1. If the running count is +1, you have a lot of high cards (stiff cards) remaining in the deck. If the running count is -1, there are more low cards in the deck.
The idea of the high count is to make larger bets when you have a larger edge. When the running count is +1, you have a much larger handicap to overcome the casino’s advantage. The high count is the actual count, and is an indicator of the cards just played.
A player with a +4 count is playing the game “by DewaGG“. +4 is great. You can’t bet big with a +4 count. You can take small steps, and you can bet with a range of hands. If you’re playing for bonuses, you can play a lot of hands.
A player with a -4 count is playing the game “by the book”. +4 is great. You can bet big with a -4 count. And since most players play a tight game, you can move up in levels with a +4 count.
The point is that when you have a high running count total, you’re usually playing in conditions that favor the casino. The low counts, -4 and less, present less of an advantage, so you should be playing those areas with as much vig as you can without going broke.
A high count is good, especially when playing blackjack for bonuses. The higher the count, the more true this statement becomes. The worst case with a +4 count is that you’re playing behind other players who have a much lower count. This only has a slight edge against you, and won’t usually be enough to overcome the casino’s advantage. Don’t make the mistake of playing in a +4 count area, look for a higher number.
Your own personal choice of casino High Card Counting strategies will have to vary, because of the edge that the casino has in any single hand. You can play blackjack with a high count, in which you have enough of a edge to make it profitable, or you can play with a low count, in which you’re virtually even. You’ll just have to find a better paying table.
