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Card Counting
Personally I like the idea of Card Counting but in Vegas I rarely can concentrate long enough to do a good job at it. But if you can actually focus long enough to do it, and not be detected by the Pit Boss, then go for it. Pit Bosses frown on card counting and may toss you out. This is basically how those MIT students made a killing in Vegas.
The basic premise of card counting is that probabilities of winning change as the number of cards remaining decrease. The cards remaining will increase your probabilities of winning if there are a lot of high cards remaining or decrease your probabilities of winning if there are a lot of low cards remaining in the deck.
The most common system is to assign a value of +1 to the 2,3,4,5,6 as they are played. A value of -1 to the 10, J, Q, K, A. The rest are given a value of 0. As cards are dealt from a fresh shoe you keep a running total of the +'s and -'s. For example if after the first hand from the shoe a 10, J, K, A, Q, J are dealt the count would be -6.
To be effective though you also have to factor in how many cards remain. This is more of an estimation on the part of the player but the less cards that remain the more accurate the count. This is often called the True count.
The true count is determined by dividing the running count by the number of half decks remaining to be dealt. Given that there are many decks involved this is an estimation. For example if we had 2 decks left and the running count is +8 the true count would be +2 (8 divided by 4 half decks)
To win you have to use the count when betting. You can use the true count to determine how much to raise or lower your bet. Obviously you want to be betting more when the count is higher to take advantage of your increase probability of winnning. Use the following table as a a guideline for betting based on the true count. Multiply the unit number by the amount of the minimum bet.
Being a good card counter isn’t just something that happens overnight. Even the MIT students had their difficulties along with all of the success. In fact, many people these days just play texas holdem poker to make money. But that’s not to say you can’t be a successful blackjack card counter if you dedicate enough time to the skill.
The only online Casino you can really count at these days is William Hill and a few other Cryptologic sites. You must play the multi-player tables to take advantage of the fact that the cards aren't shuffled every hand.
Remember while you probably don't want to bet when there is a big negative number you still have to keep up appearances that you are not counting so you should continue betting a small amount..
