BlackJack Card Counting

We all know that the house always has an edge in any type of casino game. That applies to blackjack just as much as roulette pr similar. However, the skilled blackjack player has a weapon in their armoury which they can use to their advantage at the tables. That advantage is a mathematical one and goes by the term of card counting.

Card counting while playing blackjack is common knowledge these days. The casinos take a dim view of it and have countermeasures. If you play blackjack and are spotted or even suspected of card counting you may be politely asked to leave the premises.

Card counting is a fascinating subject - here are a few examples of how it started and how people have used the technique for profit.

Edward O. Thorp is a name synonymous with blackjack. In his book entitled Beat The Dealer he included his basic blackjack strategy and also outlined card counting methodologies. Blackjack players stood up and took notice of Thorp’s techniques and began winning enough for the casinos to start clamping down.

Quick to catch on and make life more difficult for the card counter, casinos added more decks of cards to the dealing shoe and introduced reshuffling part way through in an attempt to confuse the card counter and make the practice as difficult as possible rather than paying with a single deck. Very effective.

Another well known name in blackjack circles is Al Francesco. He developed the concept of team counting. Essentially this means having one player card counting with just small bets but signalling to another player when the card count was “right.” His team mate would then place the larger wager in an attempt to take advantage of the count. Team counting was harder for the casinos to spot but of course not impossible.

Perhaps the most famous of all card counters were the MIT Blackjack Team from the early 1990s. The MIT team took things extremely seriously and were incredibly well organised card counters. Indeed they won millions and attained celebrity status. A drawback of which was as they became known finding a casino to let them play became increasingly difficult even when the travelled outside the USA in their search for more card counting profits. The MIT team’s exploits were immortalised in a book entitled Bringing Down the House.

Card counting at blackjack can still be an effective method though does take dedication and practice. And do remember that the casino will not make it easy for you with all those multiple decks of cards in the shoe.

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article courtesy of the BlackJack Newspaper