Fundamentals of card counting in blackjack

The principle of counting cards in blackjack is that a deck of cards with a high proportion of high cards (ten-valued cards andaces) to low cards is good for the player, while the reverse (a deck with a high proportion of low cards to high cards) is good for the dealer. There are many reasons for this: blackjacks become more common (and they offer a higher payout than other winning hands), the dealer is more likely to bust a stiff hand, double-downs are more successful, and insurance becomes profitable. 

Contrary to the popular myth, card counters do not need savant qualities in order to count cards, because they are not tracking and memorizing specific cards. Instead, card counters assign a heuristic point score to each card they see and then track only the total score. (This score is called the "count".) The myth that counters keep track of every card was portrayed in the movie Rain Man, where the savant character Raymond Babbitt counts through six decks with ease and a casino employee comments that it is impossible to count six decks.

  The best way to count is to add a one when it is a color card or a 10 and decrement the count when it is any other card, for 7, 8 and 9 you do not change count. If your count is positive that means the remaining deck has lower cards and you can be more aggressive on hits. If the count is negative that means the deck has more high cards, try to stand on boundary cases. The counting has to go hand in hand with the tips given in the rule section.

Between 70% and 90% of the player edge when counting cards comes from placing larger bets when the count is favorable to the player. (The rest of the edge comes from changes to basic strategy based on the count.) A mathematical principle called the Kelly criterion indicates that bet increases should be proportional to the player advantage. In practice, this means that the higher the count, the more a player should bet on each hand in order to take advantage of the player edge. Taken to its ultimate conclusion, the Kelly criterion would demand that a player not bet anything at all when the deck doesn't offer a positive expectation. "Wonging", as shown above, takes advantage of this.

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