Casino Notes

If you play blackjack in land based casinos then there is no reason why you wouldn’t spend a little bit of time learning how to count cards. Basically anyone who spends a day learning the different card counting systems for blackjack will be able to implement one of the systems into their strategy. When you play blackjack in the casino the house will always have a slight advantage over you, but if you use a card counting strategy then you will be able to minimize the house edge that the casino has over you.

There are several different card counting systems out there including both balanced counts and unbalanced counts. I would suggest that if this is your first time counting cards that you start out working with a balanced count because it’s much simpler. In order to count cards in the casino effectively you will need to remain very concentrated at the tables, but you will also need to make sure you aren’t making it obvious that you’re counting cards.

When you count cards the goal is to find out when the deck is going to be hot and you’re supposed to raise the amount that you’re betting when it becomes hot. If you don’t raise your bets properly and you make it suspicious then you’re going to run into problems. If the dealer or the pit boss suspects that you’re counting cards then they will be able to ask you to leave the casino generally although they will need to legally pay you the money you won.

Most blackjack online card counting systems out there will only require that you’re able to do simple addition and subtraction. Generally you will need to add 1 to the count, subtract 1 from the count or keep the count the same depending on what card it is. The best tables to count cards on are the tables where there is only 1-3 decks being used. When you start playing on tables with 4+ decks then it becomes a lot more difficult to find valuable spots in the deck to open up your bets a little bit.

Another card counting strategy that some players use to this day in casinos is the back counting system. This is where you simply stand behind the players on the table and count the cards as they are being dealt out. Once you get a nice count running then you should sit down on the table and play some hands with an increase unit bet then you normally would bet. You’ll want to make sure that you don’t get up after you win a few hands because this could become suspicious, but you could lower the amount you’re betting if you wanted until the shoe is done.

Most blackjack players who don’t count cards are not doing so because they have never seen how easy it actually is to count cards and lower the house edge. If you could win more money then there really is no reason why you wouldn’t want to spend a day learning how to count cards. Make sure you start out learning the basic balanced counts first before moving onto the more advanced systems out there.