It is said that learning the blackjack basic strategy of “card counting” can increase a player’s winning percentage up to 70%. Edward Oakley Thorp, an American mathematician, invented this brilliant card counting method, which is used to keep track of the flow of cards and to evaluate the player’s winning margin in each game. The following is an example of the simplest “High-Low method”.
How calculate blackjack
After the dealer has finished shuffling the cards, the number is 0.
After the dealer divides the cards, each time a card is dealt, the player has to recalculate the number.
- If the card is 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, the number will be “plus 1”.
- If the face of the card is 7, 8 or 9, the number will be ” No Change “.
- If the face of the card is 10, J, Q, K, A, the number will be “minus 1”.
Example of card counting
- When the number is “0”, the dealer is “10” and the player is “K, Q”. After the calculation, the number is “-3”.
- When the number is “-4”, the dealer is “7” and the player is “2, 3”. After the calculation, the number is “-2”.
- When the number is “+3”, the dealer is “2” and the player is “4, 6”. After the calculation, the amount is “+6”.
- When the number is “+5”, the player’s chance of winning is relatively higher.
Due to the fact that blackjack is not a stand-alone game. Past cards and handicaps will affect the current and future game. Because Blackjack only uses a fixed number of cards and the cards previously dealt are discarded. Therefore, as long as the player has the Blackjack card counting method, he can calculate the cards that the dealer has dealt and use them as a basis to predict the next cards. The player’s chances of winning are greatly increased!
Please note that in most casinos, 4-6 decks of cards are used at the blackjack table. Therefore, there is basically no comparison between the “high card count” at the beginning of the game and the “high card count” towards the end of the game. According to the basic strategy of blackjack counting, the best time to increase the bet is when there are few cards left and the deck is large.