Casino players who are looking for tips on how to win at Blackjack will sometimes ask, "How Do You Count Cards?" When done correctly, card counting may be profitable to Blackjack players. Keep in mind that counting cards in Blackjack is not illegal, but casinos will frown upon this practice as it works against them. You are just not allowed to use any external device to help you count cards. The movies have made counting cards look so complicated when this is far from the truth. Anyone who has simple math skills will be able to count cards.
Why Card Counting
Counting cards in Blackjack was devised as a way for players to detect when it was favorable to place higher wagers or when it was better to decrease your wagers based on the cards in the deck. Blackjack is a game of 21 in which the player wants to come as close to 21 as possible without going over and also have a higher amount than the dealer's hand. The count that the Blackjack players have will tell when the game is going more towards the casino's favor or when gameplay is progressing in favor of the player. This is also a way for casino players to know how many high or low cards are gone, and how many of them are remaining.
How Card Counting Works
One of the first things to understand about counting cards is that each card in the deck has a value ranging from +1 to -1. Cards with numbers between 2 to 6 will have a value of +1. Those cards that range from 7 to 9 will have a value of 0, and the 10 and Face Cards will be valued -1. The Face Cards such as Ace, King, Queen, and Jack are favorable to the layer and decreases the casino odds. The lower cards are more favorable to the casino.
The objective in card counting is to keep a running total of the cards dealt. This does require simple match skills, but also it must be quick. It is not a matter of just using the values for the cards dealt to you, but also for the cards given to the dealer and other players. This way you will have an idea of which cards are available in the single deck. For example, a card count that reveals -2 with after a card is dealt will have a higher house edge. Players can choose to reduce their bids going forward. However, if during a Blackjack round the count becomes +2 it is a lower house edge and the player doing card counting may choose to increase his wager going forward.
Keep in mind that this all depends on how many of the cards have been dealt for the player to determine if the house edge is higher or lower.
Casinos have become wise to the ways of players and have introduced multiple card decks in the game. This makes it much harder to count cards, but it is not impossible. Players will only have to divide their count number by the number of card decks left to determine the true card count. They can then play Blackjack according to this.
