Nowadays, online casinos are becoming more and more popular. People all around the world play online casino games for entertainment, and free blackjack games are the most popular.
However, players tend to improve their game (at least the ones that practice a lot), and soon enough they find themselves studying it so they can learn it to perfection. At that point, playing blackjack for fun becomes a path to master the game, considering matters like strategy and card counting, among other things.
Therefore, in this article we will provide information about the card counting methods there are; nevertheless, we need to clarify that, before you consider any card counting system, you need to master basic strategy first.
Basic strategy is the optimal mathematical way of playing blackjack. When following basic strategy, the player chooses the action with the lowest negative expectation. Without it no card counting method will overcome your possibilities of winning.
How does it work?
In blackjack, the cards dealt and the ones that are left are changing the probabilities of the game while you are playing. That is why card counting works at this game, because of blackjack terms and rules.
There are many ways to count cards during a game, one of them is to memorize the cards that have been dealt so you can know which ones are left in the deck. This may seem impossible, but is not. If you are playing single deck blackjack, memorizing that deck is not a superhuman job. However, the counting system that most players use is easier and doesn´t require much memorizing.
It is important to mention that there is no way to say which is “the best” card counting method, as we are individuals who have facilities or weaknesses for different things, therefore each person has its own limitations, and find some methods better than others. The truth is, most players choose the simpler system.
High cards and low cards
The trick to most card counting systems is categorizing the cards into two types: High cards and Low cards. In most card counting systems, cards from 2 to 6 are considered low cards, and cards from 10 to Aces are considered high cards.
If you keep track of how many low cards were dealt and how many high cards are still in the deck, you can know how high your chances are of getting a blackjack or a high hand.
When you play blackjack online for real money, you must know your odds to know when to stand or when to hit. And the only way to get and edge over the casino, is to play by strategy and learning a counting system that suits you best.
Most professional blackjack players count cards by assigning a value to the low ones (-1) and another to the high ones (+1), so they can sum them up and keep track easily.
Betting correlation and playing efficiency
If you are looking forward to making money out of playing blackjack online and you are searching for a counting method that suits you, you should take the following into account.
When experts want to know how effective a method is, they look at two measurements to compare each system: Betting correlation and playing efficiency.
Betting correlation allows you to measure how well a counting system estimates how you should size your bets. The higher the betting correlation is, the better.
Playing efficiency allows you to measure how well a counting system informs your alteration from basic strategy. These aspects matter more to an expert card counter than it does to a beginner, but they are important to consider if you are trying to decide between counting methods. If you want to improve your game or enter a blackjack tournament, you need to opt for the best counting method for you.
How much do casinos make from blackjack?
Many people try to understand how much profit games like blackjack offers to the casino, in order to know better their odds. But, the only thing they need to consider is the house edge each blackjack table offers; this will vary according to how many decks are being dealt, and according to the table rules. However, live blackjack set has an average house edge of around 2% over an experienced player. Which makes it one of the games with the lowest house edge of all.
