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Card counting at blackjack

Written by Prabhat Taneja   
Monday, 01 June 2009 14:30

Card counting at BlackjackBlackjack is irrefutably the most popular casino game of the recent times. The game has fast ascended the popularity charts as it is straightforward, easy to understand and most importantly, some clever winning strategies can tilt the odds in favor of the player.

Blackjack is a simple game where the dealer deals cards to the players and himself. The one with the total closest to 21 wins.

One of the primary reasons the experts prefer blackjack to rake up big cash is the positive edge they have against the casino. One of the most tried and weathered method of tilting the odds into your favor is the Card counting technique, which has been prevalent from a long time, and it is legal too.

Blackjack card counting involves simple mathematical calculations to predict the best time to raise and place the bets. The primary task of a card counter is to keep a track of high face value and low face value cards. A high face value card (10 to ace) attracts a negative and low face value card (2 to 6) is assigned a positive, while remaining cards are neutral. Once the dealer has dealt the cards, the outcome of the counting decides whether to raise bet or play safe. However simple it may sound, it is not at all a cakewalk.

How do the counters do it?

Carefully watching the cards and adding or subtracting 1 according to the order of the cards is what a card counter does. A high final count signifies that the ratio of high value cards in the deck is more than the customary and the high probability of drawing one tilts the odds to your favor. Raising the bet is a more likely option in this case. In the end, the test of speed and focus combined with a little luck decide the fate of your cards.

In the early 1990s, a professor and a team of MIT students mastered the technique of card counting and built an entire network complete with all mathematical and statistical possibilities that yielded astonishing results in casinos.

The team had members playing a set role for them; a spotter, he was the one who counted the cards sitting on a table placing a minimum bet; the rear-spotter was the untailored spectator who looked after the supervisors and studied the casino security. The gorilla was the one projected as a big shot and his main purpose was to distract the game supervisors from monitoring others. The last was the Big Player who joined table on special signals when the stakes were high.

Together they worked in tandem but pretended not knowing each other. The system worked well until the casino security team caught up with them and they were banned from all the casinos. However, the team proved that winning in blackjack without cheating was possible with card counting technique.

Nowadays the casinos are well equipped to handle any such cases of card counting and while this method still prospers, the technology has found new ways of more sophisticated cheating methods to turn the odds in your favor.

In the end, winning and losing is just a part of life so enjoy the game without any unscrupulous practices.