If you love blackjack, you can’t have seen the mythical film “Twenty One,” which tells the true story of a group of MIT students, who moved to Las Vegas at the weekend, to break the blackjack tables. Between the eighties and nineties, they won a myriad of dollars, so much so that at the beginning of the new millennium, when history took shape, it was inevitable to build a film on it. Their virtue was to be above average kids as an IQ and create a method of calculating cards, to be defined almost perfect given the results.

Card Counting In Blackjack 

Obviously, their counting system has never been revealed. A trick too good to be within everyone’s reach. However, there is the classic card counting, which, if applied rigorously, can always bear fruit. The important thing is not to get caught counting. Obviously, it is not possible for anyone to memorize all the cards that are dealt, which is why the method consists in assigning to each card a value/score which is usually 0, 1 and -1.

The Running Count 

The difficulty consists only in making a very simple sum, where we have to add or remove 1 when a card comes out of the deck. Since it is a question of adding or subtracting 1, it is clear that there is no need to be a math genius to make such a count. This sum, as we said, reflects the situation (favorable or unfavorable) of the deck and is called the running count. By dividing the running count by the number of decks left, the true count is obtained, which is the true index to be taken into consideration for online casino malaysia operations. Our advantage is, therefore, to bet high when the situation is in our favor (the deck is hot, that is, full of figures and aces) and to bet little when the situation is in favor of the dealer (cold deck).

Practical Example

We are sitting at the table with two other players, and the system assigns -1 to the cards that have a value of ten and ace, 0 to seven, eight and nine, and +1 to all the other cards. Suppose the dealer has a (5), the first player (7,8), the second player (10,3), and we (4,6). At this point, we must start counting, starting from zero, the 5 of the bank which corresponds to +1, to which must be added 0 for the 7 of the first player and another 0 for the 8 of the first player. So let’s stay at +1. Now let’s move on to the second player: the ten corresponds to -1; therefore, we go to 0, then we have to consider the 3, which makes us go back to +1. Counting our cards, we get to +3. Our current count is, therefore, +3. Which must then be converted considering the number of decks left, which we will study later, for the moment it is important to understand that card counting is a really elementary (arithmetic) operation.

Card Counting Is Legal

The issue of legality regarding card counting is a fairly recurrent topic in the casino environment. The act of counting cards with only your brain (therefore without the use of electronic equipment) is considered perfectly legal, and at the same time, it is not considered as a scam. There is no blackjack law or rule that prevents card counting. In any case, casinos try to locate card counters to get them off the table. Since casinos are privately owned, they have the full right to ask the player to leave, but they cannot take legal action against him. The only thing they can do is to force the player to move away.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *