1 Deck Blackjack Strategy

Card Counting as One of the Blackjack Strategies

Card counting is a buzzword in any blackjack strategy, yet you need to know that it is not a panacea – an all-out solution for anything blackjack-related. Counting cards is an intellectual challenge and carries risk, because most casinos forbid it.

Blackjack Appendix 3C lists exceptions to the single deck, dealer hits on soft 17, basic strategy based on the exact composition of the player's hand. Boss Media Appendix 1 has a composition dependent basic strategy for single-deck, dealer stands on soft 17, blackjack. In Chapter 1, I showed you how you can reduce the casinos’ edge in blackjack to about 0.2–0.5% (rule dependent) by knowing the correct playing decisions (i.e., the basic playing strategy). A half percent house edge in dollars and cents means the casino will win, on average, fifty cents for every $100 you bet. 1 Deck Blackjack Strategy games contribute at the same rate to roll over requirements. For example Blackjack is usually either completely forbidden, or 1 Deck Blackjack Strategy contributes only 5% of each bet. In that case you would need to place 20 times more bets on blackjack than on slots. Founded in 1998, our basic blackjack strategy engine generates optimal strategy charts for 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8 decks. Allows custom filters for variations too.

When done right, this basic, yet highly-efficient, strategy can take you a long way at any land-based casino, but it has zero utility in online casinos, because the decks are reshuffled each time a hand has been played.

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This eliminates any opportunities to card count reliably online. However, you can benefit from this blackjack strategy at most retail and commercial casinos. To get yourself involved in card counting, you will need to study, have rudimentary mathematical knowledge, and be very patient.

Only if these three conditions are met can you begin to grasp card counting. Time will be of the essence in order to grasp the necessary skills to count cards, and you will need to practice. With this said, let’s take a look at what the blackjack basic strategy principles of card counting are:

1. Assign a value to each card
2. Start counting
3. Calculate the “true count” per deck
4. Adjust your bet based on the true count
5. Bring the house down

You see, these four conditions are in fact very simple to follow through with. Assigning a card value is the simplest. Most players go with the following values in their blackjack strategy:

• 2-6 = +1
• 7-9 = 0
• 10-Ace = -1

Once you have the values, all you have to do is pay attention and count the cards. A single deck would allow you to figure out the true count, as there are no additional challenges. But this is where your blackjack basic strategy should begin to adapt.

Casinos are aware of card counters; in fact, they employ many card counters to help them catch other players who are counting cards. Therefore, casinos have introduced additional decks to make your job more difficult.

Now, the true count is split between several decks and you need to keep track, adjusting your bets. But this is not quite all. There are additional challenges threatening to throw a spanner in your blackjack strategy.

For starters, a dealer might chat you up, a waitress may start bringing drinks your way in an effort to see if you are easily distracted or focused on the game – almost always a dead giveaway you are counting cards. With this said, you are probably wondering right now – is card counting worth it? The simple answer is yes; any blackjack strategy will benefit from counting cards. Here are a few things to keep in mind however:

1. The casino will actively pursue you if you are a card counter, especially if you’re good at it
2. You can be asked to leave if you win too much and systematically
3. To master card counting, you will need months, if not years
4. Casinos use artificial intelligence, card counters and staff to see if a winning customer is a counter
5. A dealer might shuffle the deck if he suspects a customer is winning too much, or request a new deck and cards

This sums up card counting, painting one of the most popular blackjack strategies in broad strokes. Card counting is worthwhile, but you must commit to it over a long period of time to see benefits.

The easiest way to count cards is when the game is played with 1 deck of cards only . Below you can see a computer simulation of 100,000,000 blackjack hands dealt. The count is performed on each hand and both the graphic and the table show the frequency of the counts. From the information we find that the most popular count result is '0'.

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% of times occurred in the games

Count

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As you have probably noticed, there is only a slim chance you will have a count of +10 and above. However, if you do, this will mean there are lots of high cards in the deck left.

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