Learn Card Counting
Everything you need to know to gain a real edge at the blackjack table.
1. What is Basic Strategy?
Every hand of blackjack has a mathematically correct play. Hit, stand, double down, split, or surrender — one of these options loses the least money (or wins the most) over thousands of hands. This set of correct plays is called basic strategy.
Basic strategy doesn't guarantee you'll win every hand — nothing can. But it reduces the house edge from ~8% (if you play by gut) to about 0.5%. That means for every $100 you bet, you only lose about 50 cents on average. That's the foundation everything else builds on.
The correct play depends on exactly two things: your hand and the dealer's upcard (the one face-up card you can see). Nothing else matters — not your gut feeling, not your streak, not what happened last hand.
2. How to Read the Strategy Chart
The strategy chart is a grid that tells you the correct play for every possible situation. Here's how to read it:
The chart has three sections because different hand types require different strategies:
Open the strategy chart (press C during any game) and look up hard 16 vs dealer 10. You'll see R (surrender). That's because 16 vs 10 is one of the worst hands in blackjack — giving up half your bet is better than playing it out.
3. What is Card Counting?
Card counting is a technique that tells you when the remaining cards in the shoe favor the player. When you know the deck is rich in high cards (10s, face cards, aces), you bet more. When it's rich in low cards, you bet less.
It's not illegal. It's not cheating. It's using publicly available information (the cards you can see) to make better decisions. Casinos don't like it and may ask you to leave, but you won't go to jail.
When the remaining shoe has more high cards than normal, two things happen: (1) the player gets more blackjacks (which pay 3:2), and (2) the dealer busts more often (because they're forced to hit stiff hands). Both of these shift the edge from the house to the player.
Basic strategy alone gets the house edge down to ~0.5%. Card counting, when done well, can flip that to a 0.5-1.5% player edge. Small, but real — and it compounds over hundreds of hours of play.
4. The Hi-Lo Counting System
Hi-Lo is the most popular card counting system. It's simple, effective, and the one we teach here. You assign a value to every card you see:
As cards are dealt, you keep a running count in your head. Start at 0. See a 5? Add 1. See a King? Subtract 1. See a 7? Don't change anything. It's just addition and subtraction.
Count: -1, 0, +1, 0, 0, +1, 0, +1
Running: -1, -1, 0, -1, -1, 0, -1, 0
Running Count vs True Count
The running count alone isn't enough. A running count of +4 means something very different with 1 deck remaining vs 5 decks remaining. To adjust for this, you calculate the true count:
What to Do with the Count
Start with the Beginner counting drill (20 cards, slow speed). Don't worry about speed at first — accuracy matters more. Once you can hit 80%+ exact counts on Beginner, move to Standard. A real casino deals about one card per second.
5. Counting Tips & Memory Techniques
Keeping an accurate count while playing hands, making conversation, and acting natural is the real challenge. Here are proven techniques that experienced counters use:
When you see a high card and a low card together, they cancel out (net zero). Train yourself to spot these pairs in the initial deal rather than counting each card separately. A hand of K, 4 is instantly "zero" — don't think "minus one, plus one."
When the dealer reveals the initial deal (4+ cards visible at once), scan the whole table and add the net change rather than counting card by card. With practice, you'll see "+2" at a glance instead of "+1, 0, +1, 0."
Some counters keep the count as a word rather than a number. Assign a word to each count value: "tree" for +3, "door" for +4, "hive" for +5. Visualize the word — it uses a different part of your brain than the math, freeing up mental bandwidth for playing decisions.
Many counters silently "say" the count to themselves — not out loud, but as an internal voice. This verbal rehearsal loop keeps the number in short-term memory even when you're distracted by conversation or the dealer.
Arrange your chip stack to encode the count. For example, offset one chip slightly for each +1. It's subtle enough that nobody notices, and it gives you a physical backup if you lose your mental count.
Count down a deck of cards at home while watching TV. If you can maintain the count while following a conversation, you can do it at a casino. The goal: counting becomes automatic, like breathing, so your conscious mind is free for strategy.
When the shoe is reshuffled, your count resets to zero. In our drills and game modes, we'll tell you when a reshuffle happens. At a real table, watch for the dealer inserting the cut card — that's your signal to reset.
What's Next?
The path to becoming a skilled card counter:
- 1Master basic strategy — aim for 95%+ accuracy in the strategy trainer. This is your foundation.
- 2Learn the count — practice Hi-Lo counting drills until you can maintain an accurate count at real-table speed.
- 3Combine both — play the full game mode where you make strategy decisions AND maintain the count. This is what it feels like at a real table.