People who know little about casinos might logically assume that there are no games where the house can be beaten. After all, if there is a system, technique or method that can be used to get the better of casinos, how can they still exist and why are the ones in Vegas, Macau and other casino towns so darn glitzy?

1. Card Counting Online Live Blackjack Games
2. Card Counting Online Live Casino
3. Card Counting Online Live Blackjack Game
4. Online Live Casino Blackjack Card Counting
5. Can You Count Cards In Online Live Blackjack

1. Card counting has been hyped up so much in Hollywood movies, that plenty of blackjack players are looking to learn the art of card counting. In essence, card counting is the tracking of cards that are dealt out in Live Blackjack, in a bid to determine the odds or predict cards that have not yet been dealt out.
2. Card Counting in Online Blackjack When playing online games that use random number generators, card counting is downright impossible. You can try: many players have! However, there is a major hurdle stopping you from doing that.
3. The face cards, or big cards, 10, jack, queen, king, and ace are all given a -1 value. This Blackjack Card Counting method tells the player what cards are predominantly remaining in the deck, High cards or Low cards. When halfway through a deck, if your value is high, there are more 10’s, face card and aces remaining than low cards.

A card counting trainer is a program that allows you to practice your counting skills. You had to pay for programs in the past, but now you can find them completely free online. Trainers deal cards like a normal real money online blackjack game would.

Well, believe it or not, in this specific case such logic is wrong: there is a way to stack the odds in your favour in the casino. Card counting has been around for a long time but was really brought to the attention of the masses in films like 21 and books such as Ben Mezrich’s Bringing Down the House (on which the film was largely based).

Even prior to those additions to popular culture, many books had been written about card counting. US mathematician Edward O. Thorp is largely considered to have written the first tome about the subject, Beat the Dealer, which was published in 1962. Essentially this expounded upon optimal strategy, the best way to play any given hand and how, along with counting cards, this could be used to – as the title says – beat the dealer.

What Is Card Counting?

The focus of this piece is card counting online so we will not go into too much detail about the subject more generally. However, if you are entirely unfamiliar with the concept, let us explain the basics. They key thing that underpins card counting is that, unlike most games in Vegas, in blackjack, what has happened in the past has an influence on what happens next.

In roulette, if one spin lands on red, the odds of the next spin being red (or black, or zero) do not change. If red hit five times in a row, it is still approximately 50/50 (18/37 to be exact) that the next will be red. Each spin is an independent event and so players can gain nothing from analysing previous ones.

In contrast, the next card to come out of a deck of cards is not an independent event because the pack is now one card smaller. To keep this simple, let us assume a single-deck game is being played by three players against the dealer. If the first two players are dealt an ace as their first card, so the chances of the next player getting an ace have dropped substantially, because there are only two left in the deck.

There are just four per deck so if two have already been dealt, we know that the next player has a one in 25 chance of being dealt an ace. This is because there are 50 cards left (two have been dealt) and only two aces, to we divide 50 by 2 to get 25. In contrast the first player, prior to the deal, had a one in 13 chance, because we would divide the full pack of 52 cards by 4 (four aces) to get 13.

In slightly more complex terms, Thorp and many of the other great theorists and mathematicians of the game have proven that a shoe with lots of high cards remaining is beneficial to the player. In contrast, one with lots of low cards favours the dealer. An abundance of high cards makes a 3:2 natural more likely and increases the chances of the dealer going bust too. It also makes doubling more likely to yield a profit and at times can make taking insurance a player-favourable decision too.

There are many slightly different ways to count cards, some yielding better results but being more complex/harder to carry out than others. Perhaps the most basic is the high low method, which considers 10, jack, queen, king and ace as negative with a score of -1; cards seven, eight and nine as neutral with a count of 0; and numbers two to six inclusive as positive with a count of +1. The player starts at 0 then adds and subtracts from the count as each card is dealt to get an understanding of when the shoe is stacked with more high value cards.

Used in conjunction with basic strategy and staking plans that alter the player’s wager according to the status of the deck, counting cards can be hugely profitable for a skilled player. When the shoe is deemed to be favourable, the player will increase their stake (or in card counting teams, surreptitiously signal for another player to join the table and make large bets). When it is stacked with low cards, and so unlikely to deliver profits, they will reduce their bets or covertly instruct the accomplice to leave.

The house edge on blackjack is low and can often be less than 1% depending on the rules of the variant being played. A player using basic strategy will obtain the lowest possible edge, and when the benefits of card counting are included they can create enough of a positive expectation to make counting highly lucrative, albeit that players and teams need to put in considerable time, effort and energy to their endeavours. Lest you doubt that card counting can pay, the famous MIT blackjack team is reported to have made around $50m!

Naturally, casinos employ various counter-measures to try and stop card counting, which is often easy to spot due to the erratic nature of a player’s stakes, their demeanour at the table or even the fact that they consistently win. Card counting is legal as long as no devices are used to interfere with the game, although it will be against the rules of the casino. Ultimately, the casino holds the right to no longer accept a card counter’s business.

Card Counting Online

Now you understand what counting cards is all about, many players who prefer to play their blackjack from the comfort of their homes will probably be wondering whether or not it is possible to cash in with this technique online. When it comes to counting cards at an online casino, things are very different.

Whilst it may be easier for a player at home to maintain an accurate count, it is also far easier for the casino’s technology and algorithms to detect irregular staking patterns. This means they could very rapidly limit your stakes or close your account.

However, they don’t need to because online casinos use continuous shuffling technology. In the real world this is more difficult, but a continuous shuffling machine (CSM) does exist which takes cards that have been played and returns them to the shoe before automatically shuffling them back into the deck. This means that the count can never become positive or negative because all cards apart from the ones on the table are live and in play.

As such, each hand is essentially an independent event. Whilst the player going last at a large table can gain a very minor advantage from time to time, this is nowhere near enough to beat the house edge. Traditional online blackjack does not need a machine of course, as real cards are not used, but effectively the random number generator (RNG) that powers “normal” online blackjack simulates the use of a CSM, randomly selecting the cards for a new hand from the entire deck (usually multiple decks), as opposed to selections from the cards not used in the previous hands.

Card Counting Online At Live Casino

Whilst card counting at an RNG blackjack table is all-but impossible, or certainly not a profitable or worthwhile venture, are things any different at a live casino? After all, these use real dealers, real cards and by and large recreate the game as it would be found in a real-world casino.

Whilst CSMs are sometimes used in casinos in the real world, many establishments do not use them, partly as players tend to dislike them, partly due to cost (they are expensive) and perhaps also a little down to tradition. In terms of their use at online live dealer casinos, it varies but is not widespread.

You can tell if a CSM is in use because the dealer will simply return used cards into the machine from which new ones are taken, so it is obvious that a CSM is being utilised and card counting is not possible.

So Card Counting Is Possible Online At A Live Casino?

Casinos are well aware that their live tables are potential vulnerabilities. Counters at home can use software, or even just an old-fashioned pencil and paper, to easily keep the count, figure out the optimal strategy and calculate their staking plan. Their body language and demeanour cannot be observed so neither the dealer nor any other observers can gain any idea about whether players are counting.

The easiest way for casinos to deter counters is by shuffling the deck regularly. If you are sitting at a table using six decks and the count after the very first hand is positive, that information is less valuable than a positive count of the same level towards the end of the shoe. Whilst the counts are the same, the ratio of high to low cards is better the further into the shoe we go.

This is called deck penetration and is key to counting cards. The greater the deck penetration, the bigger the advantage the player can gain, because there are fewer other cards to contend with. Even with perfect strategy and the best card counting in the world, luck can still play a part and the more low cards that remain in the deck, the less advantageous the situation, even though the count may be positive.

Quite simply, many casinos, both live and in Vegas or at your local favourite, do not allow the deck penetration to reach a level where counters could garner too much benefit. As a general rule, deck penetration of 65% and above is where counting becomes especially lucrative. The vast majority of live dealer online blackjack casinos do not allow the penetration to reach more than 50% before shuffling or swapping shoes. Many do not even allow it to reach 50%.

Card counting can indeed be profitable with around 50% penetration but it is a slog. What’s more, live dealer casinos are a little slower paced than real tables due to latency (and much slower than RNG games). This means fewer hands per hour (HPH) and given the margins with card counting are slim at the best of times, a high HPH rate is essential to make things worthwhile.

Obviously getting through lots of hands as quickly as possible is even more important the lower the deck penetration. In general the casino is keen to keep the HPH rate as quick as possible. By “in general” we mean when they have the edge and the positive expected value is with the house. This is why they do not like to (manually) shuffle any more than is necessary as it slows things down considerably.

Every minute spent shuffling is as minute not spent with a table full of losing punters. This is why they do not shuffle more regularly but they do have the option to do so if they suspect counters are playing. Equally, if you are one of several players at a table and the others are playing well below optimal strategy and making a lot of money for the house, you may find the dealer allows greater penetration as what they lose to you (counting cards) is more than made up for by the others.

Conclusion

Counting cards is one of the only legal ways to beat the house and is genuinely a “system” that works so long as the house rules don’t cause you any issues. In bricks and mortar casinos it takes a fair amount of skill and a lot of commitment to make it profitable but it can be done and can be highly lucrative.

Those who play their blackjack online should avoid the “normal” tables that use computer graphics powered by RNGs. Continuous shuffling means counting cards is not viable. As for live dealer blackjack online, in theory counting can be profitable. Whilst deck penetration is typically low, it is just about good enough to allow for small profits to be made, especially alongside more advanced techniques which are not typically possible in real casinos (these include observing hands without betting and varying stakes more widely).

What is Counting Cards?

Blackjack is one of the few casino games which, when played optimally using a sound counting method, can offer players a mathematical edge over the house.

This is precisely why casinos reserve the right to refuse service to players identified as being proficient at counting cards (sometimes referred to as ‘advantage players’).

So how do you count cards? Blackjack card counting methods are surprisingly simple. You don’t need to be a genius savant. You don’t need to remember every card dealt. If you can add and subtract the number 1 you’re part way there.

The aim of any blackjack counting strategy is to give the player an idea of the composition of the remaining cards in the shoe. Not exactly what those cards are, but rather the broad composition (majority high cards, or majority low cards). Knowing whether the shoe is high card or low card rich, puts the player at an advantage over the house (hence the term advantage player).

The following discussion looks first at how to count cards using the Hi-Lo method, and second whether this skill can be effectively applied to live dealer blackjack.

How to count cards

There are a number of methods employed to count cards, and contrary to popular belief, none of them involve memorizing every card that has been dealt from a deck/shoe and computing each and every card still left.

One of the most commonly discussed and employed counting methods is the Hi-Lo method. You will not need a photographic memory or rain-man like savant abilities to pull it off…just the ability to add and subtract and pay attention.

Here’s how it works.

All cards in the deck are assigned a value as follows:

• +1 for all 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, 6’s
• 0 for all 7’s, 8’s, 9’s
• -1 for all A’s, K’s, Q’s, J’s, 10’s

As each card is dealt (not just to you…to all positions including the dealer), add the assigned value to a running count. An example deal and corresponding running count would be as follows:

That’s how you count cards! The next piece of the puzzle is betting to the count (see below). But before we discuss that, here’s a cool way to practice card counting.

Card counting practice

Keeping an accurate running count isn’t as simple as it sounds. Remember, when you play a game of blackjack in a traditional casino or online the deal happens fast. There are also numerous distractions, especially in a traditional casino (player chat, dealer chat, cute cocktail waitresses taking your order etc); and you don’t really want to appear as though you’re counting. Concentration faces aren’t ideal.

It helps if your ability to keep a tight running count is pretty much automatic. For this practice is key.

A great way to practice counting cards is to deal a deck to yourself and keep a running count. If at the completion of the deal you have a count of zero, you were spot on. Increase the deal speed until the count is pretty much second nature and then you’re ready to hit the casinos.

The significance of the running count

Underlying any counting method is the fact that a high card rich deck/shoe, combined with optimal play, increases the mathematical returns of blackjack. This is because a high card rich deck results in more pat hands for the player (ie hands where you will stand, eg 20) and increases the likelihood of dealer busts with forced hits on stiffs (stiff’s being 12’s to 16’s).

A high card rich deck also increases the chances of Blackjacks being dealt – both to the dealer and players, however for players Blackjack pays 3:2 swinging returns in their favour.

So in a nutshell, a high card rich shoe improves players’ chances of winning, and the running count tells you whether the remaining shoe is high card rich or not.

The running count gets high as more low cards have been dealt than high cards, meaning on balance there are more high cards remaining in the shoe. This is referred to as a positive count. The greater the positive the count closer to the end of the shoe, the better the odds for players.

Conversely, if the running count is less than zero (a negative count) then the remaining shoe is low card rich and not a good shoe for players.

Card counting is simply a means of calculating just how high-card-rich the remaining shoe/deck is so that you can bet accordingly.

Card Counting Online Live Blackjack Games

Playing and betting to the count

Card Counting Online Live Casino

Ok, you now know how to keep a tight running count. What do you then do with this count?

First and foremost you must play basic strategy at all times during your session. That is, choosing the optimal Hit, Stand, Split or Double Down decision given your cards and the dealer’s.

Playing Blackjack Basic Strategy is simple, because fortunately the experts have put together simple basic strategy charts (or Hit or Stand charts) that tell you exactly what you should do for every deal circumstance.

These charts will differ depending on the blackjack house rules applying, which do differ from casino to casino. Here’s a typical chart that applies to all live tables offered by Playtech and Evolution Gaming.

Second, you simply:

• Increase your bets when you have a high (positive) count towards the end of a shoe; and
• Decrease (or stop) your bets when you have a low (negative) count towards the end of a shoe.

Card Counting Online Live Blackjack Game

The extent to which you increase or decrease your bets will be determined by how high the positive count is, or how low the negative count is.

Nice video explanation of card counting

Does card counting work at live dealer online casinos?

Traditional casinos don’t let players count cards. If they suspect a player is counting cards – and they are pretty good at detecting bet patterns consistent with card counting – they will ask that player to leave and not return. But what about online casinos?

RNG (random number generator) blackjack games preclude the possibility of an effective count because all online RNG games are dealt from a full shuffled deck/shoe. Online blackjack card counting is therefore totally useless as you are playing to a full deck/shoe with every deal.

The situation with live dealer games is very different though. This is not a computer generated deck that can be automatically replenished and shuffled every game.

So is a count effective here?

The answer to this question lies in the blackjack game rules stipulated at live dealer casinos – which are typically something like what you will find at BetFred (Playtech powered):

“We offer eight deck Live Blackjack with a live dealer and a real Blackjack table, with multiple players. The cards are shuffled when there are approximately four decks left in the shoe.”

Or at Victor Chandler (Evolution Gaming powered) …

“…shoe is shuffled at regular intervals”

In practice you will find this translates to an approximate mid shoe shuffle also.

Online Live Casino Blackjack Card Counting

In both cases players aren’t able to penetrate deep into the shoe with their count. Playing live dealer blackjack you aren’t given an opportunity to effectively gauge how high card rich the shoe is because the deal never runs to the (near) end of the shoe.

Can You Count Cards In Online Live Blackjack

So playing live online, any counting strategy, while good counting practice, will not enable you to gain an edge over the house.