December 8th, 2008
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.
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October 22nd, 2008
Experts at the blackjack tables often rack up unimaginable winnings by employing a very simple method to predict their likelihood of winning – they keep track of the cards already played out. This is called card counting and while a lucrative strategy, if caught the player is often barred from playing at that casino and most likely will not receive their winnings.The detailed semantics of the blackjack card counting strategy will not be covered in this article beyond the obvious statements – a deck where many of the smaller cards (2s through 7s) have already been dealt out is of course favorable to the player whereas a deck where many of the 10-value cards and aces have already been dealt is favorable to the house.In a
single deck blackjack game any player who is watching the game closely can get a good idea of the cards left in the pack. Say in the first round the scenario occurs where mainly aces and tens were dealt, the player who is paying close attention will immediately know the deck is unfavorable to the players and will subsequently pull out of further rounds. If the opposite were to happen where mainly smaller number cards were dealt in the opening round then the player will know it would be in his or her favor to stay in the game for further rounds as they have stumbled upon a favorable deck.This attentive player would then sensibly raise the bet when the first round leads to a favorable deck and lower the bet when the first round held a higher proportion of tens and aces.
As the rounds continue the attentive player will keep note if more tens than lower number cards continue to be dealt in an unfavorable deck and will keep the bets low. On the other hand if the favorable deck continues the pattern of more smaller cards being dealt then the player could raise the bet as he or she has a higher chance of reaching 21 but not going over.
The strategy of simply counting the number of tens, aces, and smaller cards already played in a single deck works well because a single deck is of course going to be quickly affected by any changes in the composition of the value of the cards remaining.
Card counting is a very effective strategy for beating the house whether playing single or multiple deck games. However, it is completely useless to keep track of cards dealt when playing blackjack at any online casino as online casinos shuffle their decks between very hand and some even between every card. So if you’re interested in trying this strategy you will have to visit a physical casino, but remember if you are caught you will most likely be banned from the establishment.
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