Card Counting In Vegas Blackjack
Card counting is the ability to track the high value cards and low value cards while playing blackjack. The high value cards are very important for any player while the low value cards are excellent for the dealer. For any player to become successful in blackjack, it is imperative to employ card counting techniques. These techniques help the player to get an upper hand while playing blackjack. Basically, with card counting skills, a player can have the advantage of raising the bets when the favor gets on the players side.
It is naturally difficult to keep track of all the cards; therefore a point system was developed that was then able to count the proportion of cards while they are being dealt. Blackjack card counting raises the advantage of the player by 2% over the dealer depending on upon the game rules. What this means to the player is that on an average he or she may be able to win about 44% of all hands played. Since there are several types of card counting styles, the player should opt for the one that can be mastered easily.
There is a card counting system known as the running count, in this system each card is given a point value, this value can only be added when the card gets dealt from the deck. In this type of running count, the strategy is a plus or minus for the cards, also called the high and low blackjack card counting tactic. In this strategy, the values of the cards are as follows:
2, 3,4,5,6 = +1
7, 8, 9 = 0
10, J, Q, K, ACE = -1
For example: The Queen comes first, -1 starts the count. Then a 6, we add 1 to the running count which adds up to a zero. When a 2 comes, one point is added which takes the running count tally to +1. When a 4 follows, the running count adds up to +2 and the trend continues. This count is also referred to as Unbalanced Blackjack card counting strategy. It only takes one more step to get to the balanced blackjack counting system.
From the example above, this count couldn’t be very right if it’s imagined that the dealt cards were the first cards from a 5 deck shoe – as the bigger part of the remaining deck could go both way, and not necessarily in favour of the player. Many call it variance, while for others it could be a question of either good or bad luck. Likewise if a running count of 6 is taken into consideration in a single deck game, after the shuffle in the first hand, this offers more information than if it were a 5 deck shoe.
The true count is a method that relies on how many decks are left. The numbers of the cards in the horse shoe continues to become smaller and smaller which eventually reduces the card counting factor. When this happens, the adjusted strategy happens and the card counters can kiss their luck goodbye.
True count is another strategy in card counting while playing blackjack. This is made possible by simply dividing the running count you have with the number of decks that are still in the shoe. A good example is if the running count is 8 and there are averagely 2 decks in the shoe, the true count is 4. The running count is simple the hard part is the estimating the number of decks left. This can become more accurate by practicing looking at the casino trays with used cards while trying to estimate the number of decks played. True count is in fact the core of blackjack card-counting and assists you to predict the most likely bet size, as well as when and how to divert from the basic blackjack strategy.