Card Counting 101.5
29 October 2004
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
I've enjoyed reading your column for years. I'm
puzzled by your historical avoidance of a whole
area of gambling that would increase the
pleasure and reduce the cost to every one of
your readers. This area is the area of card
counting in blackjack. With a little bit of
research and practice any player can improve
their game to the point where they reduce your
two percent recommendation to a break-even
situation or even pocket a few bucks.
You proclaim that you're on the side of the
gambler, yet you avoid this obvious area of
enhancement. Why is that? It seems that you
defend the casinos' ridiculous position that
card counting is somehow cheating! Now, I can
sympathize with a casino's crackdown on someone
who is palming cards or chips, but card counting
seems to me to be a skill that only takes
advantage of information that is offered by the
casino to every player who sits at the table.
I think that if you were to begin a series of
articles about card counting and simple
strategies that your readers can learn they can
make your two percent guideline look simply
extravagant. You would be increasing the
enjoyment and reducing the cost for your
valuable readers--a win for both! Pete H.
True, Pete, there are some in the gaming
industry who believe the casino has every right
to back off proficient players, but, my friend,
I am not one of them. Certainly, the minuscule
amounts lost to card counters are trivial
compared to the money made from the uninformed
masses of poor players and bad counters. What's
more, Pete, I don't believe using your brain
counting should be prohibited, and I have
written about the benefits of using your gray
matter for counting in past columns. The casino,
of course, would prefer you to check your brain
at the front door.
So though counting is not technically illegal,
what the casino can, and will do, is take simple
measures to combat counters by putting more
decks on the game, burying more cards on the
shuffle, stopping mid-entry shoe betting, having
the dealer shuffle half way through the deck,
and when all else fails, they can legally bar
the counter from playing by backing them off the
game.
And where it is permissible to count, Atlantic
City for instance, they impose tougher blackjack
rules, multi-deck games and limit deck
penetration to keep the skilled counter at bay.
Compare this, Pete, to playing perfect basic
strategy. Using this legal system against the
house will reduce the casino advantage to much
lower than the two percent you mentioned in your
inquiry, more like 0.15% against a single deck,
.35% on a double deck, and .58% with a six-deck
shoe. To a large extent, that is why I recommend
using basic strategy. You get to avoid all the
cat-and-mouse games you've got to play against
the casino.
But since you asked, and as I have written about
before, here is some Card Counting 101.5 for
those interested. Card counters, theoretically,
have an inherent advantage of between .5 and 1.5
percent against the casino, accomplished by
tracking the changing imbalance of big to little
cards in a diminishing deck. When the cards
remaining favor the player, you bet more money.
When they favor the dealer, you bet less. Big
cards (10s, aces) favor the player; small cards
(2-6) favor the dealer.
The simplest count to learn is a one level
count, also known as the Hi-Lo counting system.
It assigns the following count values to each
card.
2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (small
cards)...................... +1
7, 8, 9 (neutral
cards)............................ 0
10, J, Q, K, Ace (big cards)....................
-1
To use the Hi-Lo method, you need to add and
subtract the above counting values for every
card exposed on the blackjack table. By mentally
keeping an updated running count from one hand
to the next, you vary your bets according to the
positive/negative value of the upcoming hand.
For example, you have played a bit, and now the
deck is half gone -- 26 cards remaining. You've
been counting, and the current imbalance figure
that you have been quietly tracking lies plus 7
to the player. If the dealer has to hit his next
hand, the remaining 26-card deck is short seven
of the cards he needs to rely on. But let 's say
the dealer catches his/her hand with two small
cards, and the count goes to plus 9 with 24
cards remaining. Most card counters would bet
mucho dollars on the next hand.
As. illustrated above, all the counter does is
vary bets up or down, from one hand to the next,
guided by the constantly updated imbalance
figure, which predicts whether the next hand
favors the counter or the dealer.
Is it easy to count? Yeah, with a little
practice it is. But the bottom line, Pete, is
that the casino is not going to be too keen with
blackjack players who know how to beat the
house. They much prefer players who wing it, who
use no strategies at all. Thus, Pete, is the
additional one percent edge you get counting
worth the effort versus using a strategy card?
Without prejudice, I'll let you, and the other
readers decide.
Gambling quote of the week: "You know horses are
smarter than people. You never heard of a horse
going broke betting on people." Will Rogers
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