INTERACTIVE CARD COUNTING TRAINER INSTRUCTIONS The Interactive Card Counting Trainer is a software tool that will teach you how to count cards accurately. No experience is required to use the tool, just the desire to want to learn a mathematically proven technique that will give you the advantage over the casino when you play blackjack. Baccarat card counting is a hopeless endeavor. That doesn't mean that I can't develop better card counting systems or run more accurate simulations than I have in the past. This post improves upon earlier results I first presented in December, 2011 (see this post). Card counting gives a linear approximation to the actual edge at any point in the shoe, based on the true count. INTERACTIVE CARD COUNTING TRAINER INSTRUCTIONS The Interactive Card Counting Trainer is a software tool that will teach you how to count cards accurately. No experience is required to use the tool, just the desire to want to learn a mathematically proven technique that will give you the advantage over the casino when you play blackjack.
The Interactive Card Counting Trainer is a software tool that will teach you how to count cards accurately. No experience is required to use the tool, just the desire to want to learn a mathematically proven technique that will give you the advantage over the casino when you play blackjack.
There is the misconception that card counters memorize every card that is played. As you will soon see, that is not true. In fact, card counting is a strategy that anyone with average intelligence can learn. And you can get started with the help of this trainer.
Card counting is a technique that lets blackjack players know when the advantage shifts in their favor. When this occurs, card counters will increase their bets. When the advantage shifts in favor of the dealer, the counter will make a smaller bet or no bet at all by not playing. Counters can gain a positive advantage over the casino by varying bets in this manner.
It’s been mathematically proven that high-value cards (i.e., tens, picture cards, and aces) benefit the player more than the dealer, while the low-value cards (i.e., twos through sixes) are more beneficial to the dealer. The remaining cards – sevens, eights, and nines – are essentially neutral. On average, these cards don’t help the player or dealer very much.
After the dealer shuffles the cards, there is an equal number of high and low cards in the deck(s). Depending on which cards are dealt in the early rounds, the ratio of high to low cards in the remaining undealt cards most likely will change.
For example, if more low than high cards were played in the early rounds, then the remaining undealt cards must have a greater concentration of high versus low cards. When the latter occurs, card counters will bet more because they have a better chance of getting a blackjack (with a bonus 3-to-2 payout) and winning a double down.
In addition, if dealers show a low card, they will break more frequently when hitting their hand. If instead the undealt cards contain a higher concentration of low cards, this benefits dealers; by casino rules, dealers must hit their 12 through 16 hands, and the excess concentration of low cards will increase their chances of getting a pat 17 through 21 hand while decreasing their chances of busting.
To know when the undealt cards are richer in high cards, favoring the player, or low cards, favoring the dealer, card counters assign a tag to every card. In the popular Hi-Lo card counting system used in this trainer, the tags of each card are as follows:
Card | Tag |
---|---|
2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | +1 |
7, 8, 9 | 0 |
10, J, Q, K, A | -1 |
Card counters must watch every card that is played and arithmetically add the tags for each card. The count after the shuffle always starts at zero. For example, let’s assume the first player had a three, six, and 10 for 19 and stands. The counter would add one, for the three card, add another one, for the six card, and subtract one, for the 10 card. At this point, his or her running count is “plus-one” (i.e., +1 + (+1) + (‒1) = +1).
The counter continues to add the tags of each card in every hand including the dealer’s hand until the end of the round. If the running count is positive, depending on how many cards have been played, the counter may have the edge on the next round and he or she will bet more.
The higher the positive count, and the more cards that have been played, the greater his or her edge, and the more the player will bet. If instead the count is negative, the counter knows there’s no edge, and he or she should bet small in the next round. The counter continues this process of counting the tags of each card from one round to the next, adjusting his or her bets depending on whether the running count is positive or negative.
The goal of the trainer is to teach you how to recognize the tags of each card and to train you for mentally adding the tags to keep an accurate running count. The trainer will flash two to six cards on your computer screen. You’ll look at them, add and subtract the tags of the cards, and then carry over your count to the next group of cards that will appear on your screen. At the end of the drill, you’ll input the value of the running count; the trainer will tell you if you’re right or wrong, if the latter, it will show you the actual running count.
For more details on how to count cards – including the history of card counting, how to bet based on the count, how to deviate from the basic playing strategy based on the count, how to compute the true count in multiple-deck games, how to disguise your card-counting skills, and much more – consult the Ultimate Blackjack Guide