Card Counting Strategy

How does it work?
Consider a deck of cards – 52 cards in total. These cards are divided up and given a specific value:

From the grid above we can see that all 52 cards have been included and allocated a value of either: -1, 0 or +1, balanced perfectly to give you a starting point of 0.

The idea is that when you count the cards in a hand and the cards out on the table end with a + then you’re at an advantage, when you count them and you get minus value then you’re at a slight disadvantage.

Example 1
The following cards are shown in the course of a hand:

A 3 5 10 10 J 2 7 4 K

• The first value is -1 for the Ace followed by +1 for the three. You’re at 0
• Next is +1 for the five, -1 for each the next two 10’s and Jack. You’re now at -2
• +1 for the 2, 0 for the seven, +1 for the four and -1 for the King. You’re total is -1

What does a score of -1 mean? Well, simply put, you’re not at an advantage. Your next bet should either be the same or lower if possible.

Example 2
The following cards are shown in the course of a hand

2 2 8 10 K K 4 3 4 9

The first value is +1 for the 2 followed by +1 for the second 2. You’re at +2
Next is the 8 which has 0 points, followed by -1 for the 10. You’re now at +1
Both the Kings are worth -1 each. You’re now at -1
With the 4’s and 3 all worth +1 and the nine at 0 you finish with +2

What does that mean? A +2 result is a positive for you the player. It means that you’re at a greater advantage than the house to win the hand. This is a good time to increase your bet!

Now that the basics of card counting have been explained you need to go and practice. We recommend that you do this on a ‘play for fun’ table which won’t cost you anything. Alternatively, get a deck of cards out and count them one by one as you turn them over – you really only need to count up to about 10 in a row to get good at it.