Blackjack Card Counting

By Author: Iain Shimmy
Total Articles: 31
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To understand card counting better we need to understand the basic principle behind card counting. The basic principle hinges on the fact that high cards which particularly include aces and tens are distinctly better for the player and the low cards which include 4s 5s and 6s are extremely good for the dealer. A high concentration of the cards coming under aces and tens in general gives a higher chance of blackjacks and tens improve the value of the doubling phenomenon thus giving an obvious boost to the player or the dealer's chances.

The case of a high number of ten value cards transforms the insurance bet to be much more profitable since at the end of the day it is a bet that the dealer's card is going to turn out to be a ten which results in a dealer's blackjack. Low cards are profitable for a dealer due to the simple innocuous reason that the dealer should hit hard hands unlike the player who can hit or stand accordingly which is dependent on his strategy which he adopts in that particular game or in the long run. The arrivals of tens bust all the hard hands and subsequently elevate the chances of the dealer losing ...
... out in the game at hand.

However understanding the card counting phenomenon can dispel popular myths that a person needs extraordinary mental acumen and staggering dexterity to involve in card counting because the person does not need to memorize or track specific cards. The card counters assign a point score to each card that is bound to estimate the value of the card. Then the individual only needs to track the card using the sum of values. This is called as keeping a running count. A popular movie called Rain Man from the 80's served its purpose to dispel myths to keep track of every card wherein the savant character Raymond Babbitt counts through the six decks of cards with élan and a casino employee comments by mistake that it is impossible to count through six decks of cards with such dexterity.

Basic card counting involves assigning a numeric value ranging from positive, negative or zero value to each of the available cards dealt with. When a corresponding card of that denoted value is dealt with the count is adjusted by that particular card's counting value. Lower cards increase the count proportionally since it is an inverse relationship governing their play. This is because this causes an increase in the percentage of high cards in the remaining shoe. Similarly high cards decrease it for exactly opposite reason. There is also an interesting counting technique for card counting called as wonging. This consists of standing behind a table and carefully keeping track of all the cards dealt with on the table. A phenomenal gambling researcher Stanford Wong proposed this idea. The terminology wonging has been derived from the Wong in his name. The player tends to enter, Wong in to the game when the count reaches to a point where the player enjoys an advantage.

Besides writing online casino reviews Iain Shimmy is writing a book about a blackjack player and his experiences playing blackjack professionally.