What Is Card Counting?
Card counting is a fairly new strategy developed in the sixties by Professor Edward Thorp who was inspired by the mathematician Roger Baldwin. According to Professor Thorp the most influential card on the deck leading to a blackjack for the player is the five card. If the deck holds all its fives the player isn’t likely to have a favorable outcome. The next most important card is the ten, so Thorp’s system for counting cards in blackjack simply put means that you must keep an eye out for the fives and the tens, if most or all of either card has been played then you the player are likely in for a good round. Of course is not allowed at most casinos so if you do employ this strategy do it discreetly.
Of course Thorp’s isn’t the only blackjack card counting system out there today, many different card counting strategies make the rounds of the internet every day some much more elaborate than simply keeping track of the four fives and four tens a deck holds. Of course one would believe the more complex the system, the greater the advantage the player should hold once he or she masters it. Realistically though the advantage doesn’t increase drastically so ease of use outweighs the minor benefits of the more difficult systems.
The High/Low card counting system is both simple and effective so it’s one of the most popular systems out there. Another excellent card counting system is the Advanced Plus/Minus system which is easy to learn and useful to employ, also there is the High/Low system. Every system is different and has its own level of difficulty but what it all really comes down to is that if a deck has an abundance for high cards: 9’s, 10’s and Aces then the player should bet big because this is a deck that is stacked in his or her favor. If a deck holds a lot of low face value cards 2’s through 8’s then this is not an advantageous deck and the player should bet low. Whatever tricks you use to keep track of the cards left in the deck is then up to you.
