Card counting is a technique that has been proven to give a player an added advantage during game play. There are several card counting systems available and one has to select a system that suits each variation.

In this guide, you will learn

– The importance of card counting

– Comparison between unbalanced and balanced card counting systems

The importance of card counting

Card counting systems can determine whether the shoe deck is high card or low card rich.  However, when using card counting systems, the player has to be quick in calculating as will as keeping track of the Running Count (RC) or true Count (TC). You certainly need to have a good memory of keeping numbers but that does not mean card counting is for mathematicians.

Anyone is able to master various card counting techniques and it requires frequent practice for you to get a winning edge.

One thing you need to keep in mind is the Running Count (RC) during game play. The initial running count usually starts from 0 depending on the system employed just after the shoe deck has been reshuffled. Its value increases or decreases depending on the cards being dealt on the table. Low cards increases the Running Count because they are assigned a positive value while high cards decrease the Running Count due to the fact that they are assigned a negative value.

According to the card counting systems being used, some cards do not affect the Running Count at which they are known to be neutral. Therefore, if the running count has a positive value, this means that more low cards have been played at which it would indicate that the deck and the reverse is true. Therefore, if the shoe deck is low card rich, there are greater chances that the dealer will not bust and the player is able to adjust his or her bet units. On the other hand, if the shoe deck is high card rich, this would indicate that the dealer is more likely to bust and players are able to get blackjack.

Comparison between unbalanced and balanced card counting systems

Before you think of learning how to count cards, you need to understand the various card counting systems available. The systems are grouped in two categories – the unbalanced card counting systems and the balanced card counting systems. The major difference between the two is that the unbalanced counting systems make use of the Running Count (RC) while the balanced counting systems make use of the True Count (TC) derived by dividing the Running Count (RC) over the number of decks used in the variation. Other factors included in the Balanced card counting techniques include Betting correlation (BC), Playing efficiency (PE) and Insurance correlation (IC).

The unbalanced card counting systems are very easy to learn as they only use the RC to determine whether the deck is high card rich or low card rich. However, unbalanced counting systems are not as accurate as the balanced counting systems.