Topic: Does card counting really work in Blackjack? - page 2. (Read 690 times)

People are doing and they're making pretty good money while doing it, so i guess to a point, it does work. I just don't a lot of people can efficiently  do it on a consistent basis. First two times i played black jack i tried  counting the cards when a friend told me about the technique. Not successful. Just lost more money trying to apply it and see if it works.

your friend is really good at that strategy  . his talent can give him a fortune if he will only know how to use it properly  . he can just pretend to play like a noob and will not use his strategy all the time or he can play of on a different sites  .

  he can also earn extra profit by teaching those strategy to other people  . there are strategies that are already laid out on the web but the problem is the timing on what is the right time to apply it  .

 thats why there are coaches pertaining to gambling  .

I believe we can do everything as long as we put our minds to it. If you say this isn’t for you then lets know which one belongs to you. Every gambling game requires focus if we really need to succeed and card counting is just one of such that if do not learnt to focus and avoid all forms of distraction; you might likely never get through.

I was once this way. I had issues with everything related to number and I had a very forgetful memory and this automatically disqualified me from card counting but one of the days, I told myself I would  and I can do it, I did and ever since I keep on improving, card counting is okay and it works in blackjack I must say.

It is really not that hard. All someone needs to do is learn the basic strategy, (which everyone who plays blackjack should do anyway,) know how to count backwards and forwards, and be able to divide by the number of decks you have left. The only thing you need to keep in your mind is the running count. Also, when the dealer shuffles up, your count starts at zero again. It is basically elementary school math. Also, back in the day, most people could remember their phone number and other people's phone numbers memorized for a long time. all you need to remember is what your running count is, which is one number.  Also, you just need to learn like 20 basic strategy variation based on the count. the two that you will use most often is take insurance if the count is really high (lots of 10s in the deck) and stand on 16 vs 10 if the count is positive. Also, if the running count is negative, you can remember it by replacing the word "negative" with N or M (for minus) or d for down.

The way I see it, card counting is only effective and real to a bunch of mathematical and memory wizards. Even if someone will study and practice card counting over and over again, if his mental capacity or his IQ is really below the wizard level, he will not make forward steps. Card counters are more of a bunch of nerds for me. And their abilities are really beyond that of a normal person. No wonder why there are only a handful of them in the world.  

Yes, I was a solo card counter and my bankroll was small. I think the small bankroll was my downfall. Also, I never kept any logs of my wins and losses. I may have actually came out ahead, but the proceeds were so small, that it didn't seem like I was actually winning in the long run. Also, playing blackjack online in the early 2000s didn't help. Since those games always played like the cards were shuffled every time. I still think most games play that way unless it is a "livegame" when playing online.

I believe card counting in Blackjack will truly allow gamblers to gain a better house edge against the casino only if there are a lot of cards under the value of 7 which came out from the card shoe on a table, but having a slightly better advantage of house edge against the casino does not meant that the player will always win against the dealer due to the factor of luck. It also requires a huge amount of bankroll in order to execute the card counting strategy efficiently, that is one of the reason most card counting players are always working as a team with a leader funding the huge bankroll for the team.

Most casinos have already started to use a continuous shuffle machine for every blackjack table to prevent card counting players from playing blackjack, and I do not think card counting will work anymore for blackjack with these continuous shuffle machine placed on each table.

Counting cards will be an advantage for those gamblers who really keen in succession to take some edge, it's very tough but there's always possibilities even in  small chances you'll be able to work it out, focusing and allowing yourself to manage memorizing those numbers of decks and keep trying to achieved your desires advantages after learning the right system to use.

I think card counting  is only effective in Hi-Lo count or on a smaller deck.
Not sure if it is any benefit in any other situation ?

Well as what layman’s term “Practice made Perfect “yet in gambling there is no perfect after all.but I do agree that in some point counting cards can help us analyze the cards of our opponents but ofcourse this needs to be skillful fo this to mastering so if you have lack of experience on this better not to rely when playing because you may just face losses

Seems to be an extreme precaution to deter cardcounting? But yes, that really sounded unusual. I don't think they even do that in physical casinos.

Going trough the wiki card counting article [interesting read!] it will work and give you a advantage. Check the Expected profit part.
The shuffle deck will be your worst enemy here.

I suppose there are some progressive jackpot slots that have mandatory payouts. Don't know quite how it works but they are guaranteed to pay out the jackpot at least once per day, or week, or whatever time period. So if you look at jackpot slots where the jackpot hasn't been won in however long, I guess the thinking is that it has to pay out sooner or later? Maybe that's what he's talking about.

Counting card?

It works, if not, he won't talk about how to handle "backoffs" in this video. *Requires substantial amount of imagination to make up this kind of things. lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjUX_r_fOgI

"You are not a card counter if you haven't been thrown out multiple times from various casinos." - Random Wise Dude

     That is not the way they are supposed to work.  Also, my understanding was that most casinos don't let their employees play. I could be wrong on this point, though.

I am surprised he was saying that the online blackjack he plays uses a new deck every hand, I am sure this is NOT the case for most, you should also be able to team up online, have a buddy who is the same room, etc, etc.

Huh. Didn't know there were slot machines whose odds changed when people were losing. Well, you learn something new every day I suppose.

   I have a degree in math and card counting requires elementary school math. (Counting up and down. Negative numbers, division and maybe some fractions.)I don't think this was my particular problem. Also, retaining a count in your head only involves short term memory. You do not need to be like the character in Rainman and keep track of the value of every single card..
  Also, I just downloaded a simulator program, and according to my trial runs of several 400 million hand rounds, if my bet range was 25 to 100 dollars, the expected long term return was less than 1 dollar per hour.   Perhaps that was my problem.  Many times, I would only bet between $5 and 25$. So the returns seem to be even more puny. Taking a "break" and playing another game like the slots, could have easily wiped out any returns. It appears that in order to get a decent return of 20.00 per hour, I would need to bet between $500 and $2000 per hand. I never had that kind of bankroll. Plus I am sure on the bigger limit tables, the heat one gets from the pitboss would increase..

I can only report two instances where I actually experienced heat in the casinos. In one, I upped my bet from 25.00 to 50.00 and the pit boss came over and looked at all of the cards in the discard tray. I knew what he was doing, so I left. The second instance, the pit boss simply pushed my bet back and stated that I could continue to play any other game but blackjack. Now that I have an idea of the expected returns from my card counting, it was probably of the least concern to them. Especially when they have other players on the table not playing the basic strategy.
I once had a player who was playing the no bust strategy and yelled at me because I hit a soft 17 and was "screwing up the cards."  

Start off by being competent at maths I think helps and also to do it in person requires a very good memory.   I wouldn't bet any size at all while practising such a thing, assume failure while you learn and of course the trick is old and looked for.  
  The reason it does work is probability is increased by knowing the nature of the deck vs your hand.   Since the odds in casino games are quite delicate for profit vs loss, you can turn a profit if you are very careful to calculate it all to your advantage.    I would not assume myself to be successful in such endeavours because I would likely be enjoying the beer and peanuts, too distracted and focus is required.
   I do doubt it works online, I've not really heard on that point but since they dont have to 'throw away' cards or anything physical it probably screws the whole edge gained quite easily.


I used to know of a barman who watched people losing on machines and then wait till the place was empty to then collect the now profitable slots return some of the cash deposited.   Thats playing the odds smart I guess, I think thats another common trick and again you have to track the rules to calculate advantages.

I guess many agree that card counting really exists and works with Blackjack but it will surely need a lot of practice to pull and I guess not anyone can pull it perfectly because many gamblers could surely learn the basics But can they pull it in the actual game of Blackjack,

I guess you can sure teach yourself how to play cards and learn magic-using card tricks but to pull out a basic card counting really require experience and focus on the game, Here are links to some tutorial that I have watched that is talking about basic card counting in blackjack. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHK2C-QQR-k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_So72lFNIU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O35_FmBuSsg