MK_
Legend
Loyaler
S3mper
Poker Not Checkers
Loyaler
Here's my non-pro advice that I think is a decent starting point.
The very first thing you should do is learn and memorize basic strategy to the point where you aren't making any mistakes for the games, you'll be playing i.e H17 or S17 (Dealer hits on soft 17/ Dealer stands on soft 17) before getting into counting. If you are making basic strategy mistakes you are likely playing a -EV game even if you aren't messing up the count. Especially if you're making these mistakes during high counts where you have larger bets out there.
After that pick a count. The most used and the 'famous' one is Hi-lo count 2-6 = +1, 7-9 = 0, A-T = -1. I personally like REKO as it's basically just as good and doesn't require deck estimations like balanced counts such as Hi-lo. But just pick whichever one you think you'll be best at. Practice flipping through a deck over and over and over again till you aren't making mistakes in your count. (Usual advice is to aim for under 30 seconds with zero mistakes)
Then learn the deviations. When the count is high you deviate from basic strategy. Then probably finally learn betting ramps. (How much to bet and when) These two things are where most of your EV will come from. Make sure to keep your spread reasonable to avoid instant heat. But you'll read more about this once you start looking into betting ramps.
I guess from there you just practice all of it together
The very first thing you should do is learn and memorize basic strategy to the point where you aren't making any mistakes for the games, you'll be playing i.e H17 or S17 (Dealer hits on soft 17/ Dealer stands on soft 17) before getting into counting. If you are making basic strategy mistakes you are likely playing a -EV game even if you aren't messing up the count. Especially if you're making these mistakes during high counts where you have larger bets out there.
After that pick a count. The most used and the 'famous' one is Hi-lo count 2-6 = +1, 7-9 = 0, A-T = -1. I personally like REKO as it's basically just as good and doesn't require deck estimations like balanced counts such as Hi-lo. But just pick whichever one you think you'll be best at. Practice flipping through a deck over and over and over again till you aren't making mistakes in your count. (Usual advice is to aim for under 30 seconds with zero mistakes)
Then learn the deviations. When the count is high you deviate from basic strategy. Then probably finally learn betting ramps. (How much to bet and when) These two things are where most of your EV will come from. Make sure to keep your spread reasonable to avoid instant heat. But you'll read more about this once you start looking into betting ramps.
I guess from there you just practice all of it together
Last edited:
primrose
Visionary
Bronze Level
First: yes, card counting is 100% legal. You can get kicked out of the casino for doing it (or they might just ask you to play other games), but that's just because they're a private company who can choose to deny you their service. But you cannot get into legal trouble because you're not breaking a law. So it's very much different from other types of "cheating" like switching out chips in roulette after you bet them, which is actually against the law.
Second: before you even spend any effort into learning it, make sure to figure out what setup the casino uses. E.g., my casino uses shuffling machines, so it's a complete non-starter; decks are continuously shuffled and counting is impossible. But that's not common outside Europe I believe. They might use more than one deck though. So yeah, figure out if it's even feasible.
Third: I recommend watching this video to get a taste for it,
. If you're only curious about it rather than actually wanting to do it, this will probably satisfy that itch.
And fourth, if after #1-3 you're considering actually doing it, I mean, don't rely on this forum, there will be guides out there that give you the optimal strategy. Blackjack is not complicated, it's not poker, there is an optimal strategy you can just memorize, and you can calculate exactly at which point (like with how much information about cards) the game becomes profitable, and how profitable it becomes. IIrc you only get an edge of 1-3% in the best case, but that's enough to make a solid profit.
Fwiw my overall guess is that it's not super practical nowadays though because casinos have made it harder and you gotta be pretty good to not make it so obvious that they kick you out. I think the best time for counting has passed. But idk, maybe you could still make a decent profit.
Second: before you even spend any effort into learning it, make sure to figure out what setup the casino uses. E.g., my casino uses shuffling machines, so it's a complete non-starter; decks are continuously shuffled and counting is impossible. But that's not common outside Europe I believe. They might use more than one deck though. So yeah, figure out if it's even feasible.
Third: I recommend watching this video to get a taste for it,
And fourth, if after #1-3 you're considering actually doing it, I mean, don't rely on this forum, there will be guides out there that give you the optimal strategy. Blackjack is not complicated, it's not poker, there is an optimal strategy you can just memorize, and you can calculate exactly at which point (like with how much information about cards) the game becomes profitable, and how profitable it becomes. IIrc you only get an edge of 1-3% in the best case, but that's enough to make a solid profit.
Fwiw my overall guess is that it's not super practical nowadays though because casinos have made it harder and you gotta be pretty good to not make it so obvious that they kick you out. I think the best time for counting has passed. But idk, maybe you could still make a decent profit.