What Is Card Counting Blackjack – Card counting is a blackjack strategy used to determine whether the player or dealer has an advantage in the next hand.
Card counters are edge players who try to overcome the casino’s house edge by keeping up with the number of high and low value cards dealt. They generally bet more when they have the edge and less when the dealer has the edge. The decisions of the game also change depending on the composition of the deck.
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Card counting is based on statistical evidence that high cards (ace, 10 and 9) suit the player and low cards (2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7) suit the dealer. High cards benefit the player in the following ways:
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On the other hand, low cards favor the dealer. The rules require the dealer to hit heavy hands (12 to 16) and low cards are unlikely to exceed these totals. A dealer with a heavy hand will go bust if the next card is a 10.
Card counters do not require extraordinary mental abilities; They do not track or memorize specific cards. Instead, card counters assign a score to each card that estimates the value of that card. They keep track of the sum of these values with a running count.
The myth that counters keep track of all the cards was depicted in the 1988 film Rain Man, in which the wisecracking character Raymond Babbitt easily counts six decks and is told by a casino employee that it is impossible to do so.
Basic card counting systems assign a positive, negative, or zero value to each card. When dealing a card, the amount is adjusted according to the number of that card. Low cards increase the score; They increase the percentage of high cards in the deck. High cards lower the score for the opposite reason. For example, the Hi-Lo system subtracts one for every 10, Jack, Ace, King or Ace and adds one for any card from 2 to 6. 7, 8 and 9 are considered zero and do not affect the quantity.
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The card counting system aims to assign score values that roughly correspond to the effect of card removal (EOR). EOR is the expected effect of removing a given card from play. Counters measure the effect of removing all dealt cards and how this affects the current house edge. A larger ratio between the point values creates a better correlation with the actual EOR, increasing the efficiency of the system. These systems are classified as Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, etc. The level corresponds to the relationship between the values.
The Hi-Lo system is a 1-level count; A continuous count is never incremented or decremented by more than one. Multi-level counting, such as Z Count, Wong Halves or Hi-Opt II, further differentiates card values to increase accuracy. Extended quantities include values such as +2 and −2, or +0.5 and −0.5. Advanced players can also keep track of specific card counts, such as aces. This is done when the accuracy of the bets differs from the accuracy of the game.
There are many side counting techniques, including special purpose counts used for games with non-standard winning betting options such as side bet over or under.
Tracking more data with higher level counts can compromise speed and accuracy. Some counters make more money by playing simple counts fast than by playing complex numbers slowly.
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The main purpose of the card counting system is to assign point values to each card that roughly correspond to the card’s “elimination effect” or EOR (that is, the effect that one card has on the house’s advantage when removed from the game), thereby allowing the player to assess the house’s advantage. The limit depends on the composition of the cards still to be dealt. Larger ratios between point values may better correlate with the actual EOR, but make the system more complex. Counting systems may be called “Level 1”, “Level 2”, etc., corresponding to the number of different point values required by the system.
The ideal system is the system used by the player that offers the highest average dollar return over a period of time when trading at a fixed rate. With this in mind, systems aim to achieve a balance of efficiency in three categories:
Although the sum of all permutations of the undealt cards gives a positive expectation for the player using the optimal playing strategy, there is also a positive expectation for the betting player. A system’s BC measures how effective the system is at notifying the user of this situation.
Part of the expected benefit comes from changing the strategy of the game based on the known changed composition of the cards. For this reason, the PE of the system measures how effectively it informs the player to change the strategy according to the actual composition of the undealt cards. System EP is important when the effect of EP has a large impact on overall profit, such as in single-deck and two-deck games.
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Part of the expected profit from card counting comes from placing an insurance bet, which becomes profitable in case of high numbers. Increasing the IC will offer additional value to the card counting system.
Some strategies count aces (ace-counting strategies) and some don’t (ace-neutral strategies). Including aces in the count improves betting correlation, since the ace is the most valuable card in the deck for betting purposes. However, since an ace can be counted as either a one or an eleven, the inclusion of an ace in the count reduces the accuracy of the game’s effectiveness. Since PE is more important in one-deck and two-deck games, and BC is more important in shoe games, ace counting is more important in shoe games.
One way to overcome such trades is to ignore the ace to produce a higher PE, while keeping the side count, which is used to determine the subsequent change in EV, which the player will use to discover additional betting opportunities that are not normally indicated. by the main ace. Card counting system.
The most common side card is the Ace because it is the most important card in terms of achieving BC and PE balance. In theory, a player can maintain the side count of each card and achieve up to 100% XP; However, methods involving the additional side count of PE become more complex at an exponential rate as more side counts and human brain power are added. He is quickly overwhelmed with tasks and cannot perform the necessary calculations. Without any additional calculations, the PE can approach 70%.
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Since the use of a card counting system has the potential to place excessive demands on the human mind, another important design consideration is ease of use. Higher level systems and systems with secondary counts will obviously become more difficult, and in an attempt to make them easier, unbalanced systems eliminate the need for the player to keep track of the number of cards/ships that have already completed the game, at the usual expense. . To reduce PE.
The cumulative count is the cumulative total of the value assigned to each card. When a balanced count (such as a Hi-Lo system) is used, the continuous count becomes a “real count” that takes into account the number of plates used. With Hi-Lo, the true count is the cumulative count divided by the number of decks not yet dealt; This can be calculated by dividing or approximating the average number of cards per round multiplied by the number of rounds dealt. However, there are many variations of the true count calculation.
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Counting back, or “Wonging,” involves standing behind the blackjack table and counting the cards as they are dealt. Stanford Wong first proposed the idea of the countdown, hence the name.
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A player will enter or “enter” the game when the count reaches a point where the player has an advantage. A player can increase his bets as his advantage increases, or decrease them as his advantage decreases. Some counters prefer to place a fixed bet and only bet the same amount after the game is over. Some players will stay at the table until the game is messed up, or they may “quit” or leave when the numbers reach a point where they no longer have an advantage.
Backcounting is usually done in 4, 6 or 8 deck shoe games, although it can be done in 1 or 2 deck games. The reason for this is that the count is more stable in the shoe game, so the player is less likely to sit down with one or two hands and have to stand up. Additionally, many casinos do not allow “middle shoe attempts” in one or two deck games, making wonging impossible. Another reason is that many casinos try to screw up card counters more in games than in shoe games because the counter has a smaller advantage in the average shoe game than in the game.
Retrospective counting varies
