Deutschland Blackjack

Introduction to Card Counting

Card counting is a system a blackjack player can use to improve his edge in a game. There a lot of definitions but we'll work on a really basic working definition beginnners can easily understand. Card counting basically would involve keeping track of the percentage of high cards as compared to low cards.

It is a common misconception that card counting entails a process of remembering all the cards that have been dealt in a game. There are different card counting systems around. Some systems may need a bit of memorization, while some systems only reuquire a player to keep track of the ratio of high cards and low cards.

Whatever card counting system a player may use the objective would still be the same. The common objective of all card counting systems would be to change the odds and shifting it to the player's favor.

Card counting is based on a very simple premise. The premise is that cards that are ranked as a ten or even aces (i.e. the high cards) are really better when we are trying to raise a player's expectation to win. When the low cards (i.e. the cards from two's to the six's) turn up or not they eventually lowers the probability that a player will win. Though specific methods regarding these would vary from system to system.

Simply put, in card counting, when more high cards are played or have been dealt in a deck a player can very well expect to make more blackjacks. This is the prime goal of every player since a blackjack would have a pay out at 3 to 2 odds.

The odds change dramatically for the players (especially card counters) when the deck used will be one that is rich in tens. Most of the time in sutations where multiple decks are used, for example, the odds really shift very well to a player's favor when there are lots of tens to go around.

When the odds in a game shift to the players, a card counter will readily raise his wager. The card counter will see a significant number of tens in a deck and this becomes the signal to raise his wager size.

A player doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to become a true blue card counter. We don't even need to be masters of probability to learn card counting. All a player needs to do is to understand a particular card counting system and practice on it.

Much of the work will be memorizing which cards have come out. Another important part of most card counting systems would require novice card counters to practice giving out a numeric value to each card dealt. Aside from memorizing which cards have come out, a basic skill common to all card counting systems would be to keep running totals during play.

Card counting is a tool blackjack players can use to improve their game and reduce the house advantage. It may initially require some mental effort on the players part. But the pay off of all this practice is astounding.