Card Counting
Blackjack is the rare casino game you can beat. Counting cards is legal, it genuinely works, and you do not need to be a math genius. The catch: the edge is small and it takes real practice. Here is exactly how it works, and a step-by-step path to learn it.
Is it legal?
Yes
It is just thinking. No law bans it, but casinos can still bar you.
Your edge over the house
0.5–1.5%
A real, lasting advantage, but a thin one. Profits come from volume, not big nights.
Do I need a photographic memory?
No
You keep one running number in your head, not the cards. Most people can learn it.
Why blackjack can be beaten at all
In roulette or craps, every spin and roll is independent, so no amount of watching helps you. Blackjack is different: cards are dealt from a shoe and not reshuffled after every hand, so what has already come out changes what is left.
High cards (tens and aces) are good for the player. They make blackjacks, they help your double downs, and they bust the dealer when the dealer is forced to hit a stiff hand. Low cards help the dealer. So when a lot of low cards have already been dealt, the shoe left behind is rich in high cards, and that is when the player has the advantage.
Card counting is simply a way to know when that has happened, so you can bet more when the odds tip your way and bet the minimum when they do not. You are not memorising cards. You are tracking one running number.
Learn this first. Counting only adds about half a percent to a game you are already playing perfectly. It does nothing if your basic decisions leak more than that. Get basic strategy automatic before you count, using the Strategy Engine and the Trainer.
How to count, in four steps
This is the Hi-Lo system, the standard starting point. It is balanced, powerful, and simple enough to run at real table speed.
Give every card a value
Each card is worth +1, 0, or −1. Low cards score +1 (a good card just left the shoe). High cards score −1 (a card you wanted is gone). The middle cards are neutral.
Keep a running count
Start at zero when the shoe is shuffled. As each card hits the table, add its value. That single number is your running count. A rising count means the shoe is getting richer in high cards.
Cards come out one by one. Add each value to the total:
Running count after these seven cards: +2. The shoe is now slightly player-favourable.
Turn it into a true count
A running count of +6 means a lot more with one deck left than with six decks left, because the good cards are more concentrated. So divide the running count by the number of decks still to be dealt. That gives the true count, the number you actually bet on.
Bet the count
When the true count is low, bet the table minimum (or sit out). As it climbs, raise your bet, because that is when your money is working with the odds instead of against them. This bet spread is where the profit actually comes from.
| True count | What it means | Your bet |
|---|---|---|
| +1 or lower | House has the edge | 1 unit (minimum) |
| +2 | Edge tips to you | 2 units |
| +3 | Clearly in your favour | 4 units |
| +4 or higher | Strongly in your favour | 8 units |
Bet sizing is where the money is made
Keeping the count is only half the skill. The count tells you when to raise your bet, and that bet variation, not the counting itself, is what actually produces your profit.
Count perfectly but flat-bet the same amount every hand and you will barely beat the game. The gap between your small bets when the count is low and your big bets when it is high is the whole advantage.
Wider spread, bigger edge
The bigger the gap between your minimum bet and your top bet, the more you earn. A 1-to-8 spread makes far more than 1-to-2. It is the strongest lever you have.
Size it to your bankroll
Bet only a small fraction of your bankroll, so a normal losing streak cannot wipe you out. Overbet a thin edge and the swings ruin you before it pays off. This is why counters need hundreds of units behind them.
The spread is what gets you caught
Jumping from a $10 minimum to $200 the moment the count spikes is easy to spot. Real counters disguise it, which limits how aggressively they can spread.
Ready for the exact numbers? The Blackjack School covers money management and bet sizing in depth, including how to set your unit size and your risk of ruin.
What counting is actually worth
Counting works, but it is a grind, not a jackpot. Set your expectations before you sit down.
Your edge
~0.5% to 1.5%
With good rules and deep penetration. For every $100 you bet across a session, you win about 50 cents to $1.50 on average.
Bankroll
Hundreds of units
The edge is thin, so short-term luck dominates. Too small a bankroll and normal swings can bust you before the edge pays off.
Variance
Losing days are normal
You can play flawlessly and still lose for hours, or a whole trip. The advantage only shows over tens of thousands of hands.
Time to learn
A few weeks
To count accurately at full table speed while playing perfect strategy and hiding it. Real, but not a weekend project.
Is it illegal? Will you get caught?
Counting is legal No law broken
You are using your own brain to make betting decisions with information anyone at the table can see. No jurisdiction treats that as cheating. Using a device or a partner to help count is a different matter and can be illegal.
Casinos can still stop you Private property
A casino is private property and can ask you to leave or refuse your action. Their defences: frequent shuffles, continuous shuffling machines, dealing fewer cards before reshuffling, and watching for players who raise bets with the count. Getting barred is the real risk, not arrest.
Can you count cards online?
Short answer: not in any way that pays. Here is why, for both kinds of online blackjack.
The deck is shuffled every hand
Standard online blackjack is a random number generator. It reshuffles a full deck before every single hand, so nothing carries over and there is nothing to count. The count never leaves zero.
Real cards, but shuffled too soon
Live-dealer tables use real cards on a stream, so in theory a count exists. In practice the studios shuffle early and deal shallow, and many use auto-shufflers, so the count almost never gets high enough to matter.
Which counting system should you use?
More complex systems squeeze out a little more edge, but they are harder to run without mistakes, and a mistake costs more than the extra power is worth. Start simple.
| System | Difficulty | Power | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hi-Lo | Easiest | Strong | Almost everyone. The recommended place to start. |
| KO (Knock-Out) | Easy | Strong | Players who want to skip the true-count division. |
| Hi-Opt II | Harder | Higher | Serious players ready to track a side count. |
| Omega II | Hardest | Highest | Advanced counters chasing maximum efficiency. |
Want to compare the exact strengths of any system? The System Efficiency Calculator scores Playing Efficiency, Betting Correlation and Insurance Correlation for any tag set.
Learn to count, in order
You have the concept. Follow this path to turn it into a skill you can use at a table.
Card counting FAQ
Is card counting illegal?
No. Counting in your head is legal everywhere. It is not cheating because you use only information available to everyone at the table. Using a device or a team to feed you the count is a separate issue and can break the law.
Do I need a photographic memory or to be a maths genius?
No. You keep one small number in your head and add or subtract one as cards appear. The movies exaggerate. The hard part is doing it fast, accurately, and without being noticed, and that comes from practice, not talent.
How much money can I actually make?
The edge is roughly 0.5% to 1.5% of the money you put at risk, so earnings depend on how much you bet and how many hands you play. It is a slow grind with big swings, not a fast payday, and it needs a bankroll large enough to survive the losing stretches.
Can casinos ban me for counting?
Yes. A casino is private property and can refuse your play or ask you to leave, even though you have broken no law. That is why counters spread their bets carefully and avoid drawing attention.
Does card counting work in online blackjack?
Not in a way that pays. Software blackjack reshuffles every hand, so there is no running count to build. Live-dealer tables use real cards but shuffle early and deal shallow, so the count rarely gets high enough to be worth anything.
Which system should a beginner start with?
Hi-Lo. It is the easiest balanced system to learn and still captures most of the available edge. Move to a more advanced count only once Hi-Lo is effortless and you want to squeeze out a little more.
Ken Smith
Founder of BlackjackInfo.com and lifelong advantage player
Ken founded BlackjackInfo in 1998 and built it into one of the most trusted blackjack resources on the web. A professional tournament player with thousands of events behind him, he appeared in every broadcast season of GSN’s World Series of Blackjack and has taught players to count and play with an edge for over 25 years.
- Won the premiere event of the Ultimate Blackjack Tour on CBS in 2006
- Author of the two-volume “How to Win More Blackjack Tournaments” series and columns in Blackjack Confidential and All In Blackjack
- Publisher of the plastic basic strategy cards (2008) and the Advanced Strategy set with card counting indexes (2013)
LV Bear
Advantage player and longtime BlackjackInfo forum administrator
LV Bear has played advantage blackjack for decades and helps run the BlackjackInfo community, where he moderates the advantage-play and game-protection discussions. He reviewed this article for accuracy on the mechanics of counting, casino countermeasures, and the realistic economics of playing with an edge.
- Decades of hands-on advantage play across shoe and single-deck games
- Administrator and moderator of the BlackjackInfo advantage-play forums
World’s greatest job my eye. It’s more like a job of last resort. The pay is low, comparable to minimum wage, but rather than a reliable pay of 10 bucks an hour it’s more like heads you win 510, tails you lose 490 in a given hour, and it’s the only job in the world where you’ll get fired by your employer for being too good at it. In other words, you’ll be banned from the casino. But since no one would ever hire me to do anything, it’s the only prospect I could ever have. But chances are, even if you do it WELL, your blackjack DEALER will get paid more than you.
Want me to demonstrate the prospects are that bad? It’s about like this, if you’re counting cards, your edge on the house is about 1/10 as large as theirs is on you all the time if you play roulette. So the average dollar you bet will return 1.005. So if you’re at a 10 dollar table, your average bet will be oh, 15 bucks let’s say, because most of the time you’ll bet the minimum, occasionally there will be a small advantage and you’ll be betting 50 or 75, and a very small fraction of the time you’ll be betting more like 200. If you’re playing to minimize risk of ruin, which is what you should be doing if you don’t have f*** you money (and if you have f*** you money, you shouldn’t be playing blackjack in the first place). This depends on the generosity of the casino with the rules they offer and where they put the cutcard of course. So 15 dollar average bet, at a .5% advantage on average, meaning the average you will earn per hand is 7.5 cents. If you play 100 hands an hour, that’s 12.50 an hour. So much for the dramatization of rainman or 21. Me, after 4 years, the most valuable thing I’ve gotten from it is a bunch of free food. In terms of money, I think about 800 dollars ahead last time I figured it out. After 4 years. (I WAS 1900 ahead in March 2016.) And being banned from 3 casinos.
But it beats the stock market at least. The stock market is like a casino where all the cards are blank and the house decides what their values are after they’ve been dealt to you, decides whether you win or lose at their discretion. Team A is you, team B is everyone else, and team B decides what everything is worth. Ponder THAT for a minute and you’ll see you’re still better off gambling in a casino if you have to gamble. At least the odds in casino games are calculable with math.
Free bet is one of the worst games around.
Hi 🙂 I’m 19 and a French-Canadian so sorry for any grammar mistakes and weird sentences formulation 😛
I had just started to count card in the nearest casino from my house, and last time I could not play at my usual table because they were to many people who were playing really slowly (and really badly, but it’s not my problem), so I move my ass to an other table. That second table was a Free Bet Black Jack table. I have look up on the internet for some basic strategy charts with indexes, but none of them have the same rule has the one that I was playing. I know that it won’t make a big of a difference, but still.
So my question is : Can you tell my were to look to find the information that I want, which is a basic strategy charts for Free Bet table with full indexes?
Rules : BlackJack pays 3:2, 8 decks, Dealer hit Soft 17, Split to 4 hands, Double down after split allow (except after split of As’), No surrender, Split of As’ allow but only one time and one and only one card is given, No CSM, Free Bet on Hard 9,10,11 and any pair except pair of 10’s, Dealer Push on 22, Dealer BlackJack Push player BlackJack.
Tell me if you need any more information.
I am unaware of a published source for index numbers for Free Bet. You might want to try the message forums.
Does anyone know Kevin Barton?
Yes who wants to know?
On your blackjack strategy trainer can you use it to count cards?
Of course. The trainer uses a random shuffle, and shows you when the shuffle happens. Count away.
Does anybody know Kevin barton? He is my dad and I have been looking for him for 19 years. He is a really well known blackjack player card counter please any information about my dad would be really appreciated
Currently on trial for murder in Calgary.
Hi. I got into learning the KO counting and tried it out in the Casino Vérité Blackjack program and got really good at it and i now feel ready to try it out online. The problem is, it says to increase the bet at -6 BUT in the online casino i play at (unibet.dk) they change the shoe midway, so it often doesn’t even come down to -6, it’s stays around -10 to -16 most of the time. Is there a good way to know with the KO when to bet higher even if the TC isn’t down to -6??
You also mentioned that this is an 8 deck game. An 8-deck game that deals only 4 decks will rarely get positive. That’s what the KO count is telling you.
There is not a good time to bet other than when the count reaches the target count. Card counting online is rarely worth the effort. Most games shuffle every hand anyway, so it’s not possible. The few games where they do not shuffle every hand are very poor penetration, or exceedingly slow in the case of live dealer games.
To really get a chance to play profitable blackjack via counting, you will need to find a land-based game.
Thanks for the answer 🙂
Yeah that was kind of what i was “afraid” for. Is there a way to beat the online casino like counting in a land-based casino, or is the only way to try and beat it, by lower the dealers chance to win by using a Basic chart? I just feel like, using the chart as i did before i learned how to count cards, it wasn’t very profitable. I lost a 100, won a 100 and so on, but never a bigger win?
Ten years ago, online casinos were a fantastic opportunity, because of the generous bonus offers and promotions. They have been exploited so frequently that this opportunity is pretty much gone, due to much more restrictive wagering requirements. Since I am in the US (and not usually in New Jersey), I don’t have recent experience with any alternatives for beating casinos online. My guess is that you are unlikely to find much of an edge.
Your comment about trying to beat the game by using basic strategy is a little misguided, although I realize you may not mean it quite literally. If you play a negative expectation game long enough, any good luck that you happen to experience will not be enough to keep you ahead of the game. It’s just a matter of time. In games like this, if you are entertained by playing, then it may be reasonable for you to play. (And basic strategy will reduce your expected cost to a small amount.) But don’t expect to create a profit.
Ken, years ago I counted using HiLo. I would like to start counting again recreationally when I go to Vegas or a day trip to AC. I am trying KO because there is no need to estimate the number of decks in the discard tray. But I find the the increased negative counts hard to deal with and it is easier to know when I have an advantage using HiLo and the betting table is easier to remember. What would you advise for a recreational player, put up with deck estimation or get over negative numbers and unintuitive betting strategies? How accurate do I need to be at deck estimation?
KO really does perform favorably compared to Hi-Lo, so I think it is a very reasonable choice. Most people who choose KO end up adjusting the starting count and the key numbers up by enough to eliminate most of the negative running counts. That is a good plan.
Even so, I always personally preferred balanced counts despite the need to convert to a true count. With KO, you really can’t reliably know how big your edge is, just whether you have an edge or not. That bothered me, although the sims confirm it’s not a big deal. While deck estimation accuracy does matter, you will be fine if your accuracy is pretty reliable to one deck.
I don’t know how to count cards as far as 21 goes. So I don’t even know what Ko or hi-lo is; or how their done. Is there a way to learn them here on line? I don’t count cards; so from what I have read here; I am playing badly? So far this year I am up 920$ after 4 sets at the tables on 4 different days. I thought my play was fairly good? But now I am wondering if I could do better if I learn about counting?
I just saw information, and a UTube snippet on “Speed Count”, where one only counts the plus cards (2-7) played during the hand, and then subtracts the number of hands played to get a running count. Of course, they recommend their system highly, claiming a 1% player advantage using the system. What are the betting increase levels? ( I presume since they use 2-7 like KO and REKO, one starts out at -2 x [number of hands] )
I have tried to use REKO. I keep up the count just fine at 2 deck games, but have difficulty maintaining count at 6-deck due to not wanting to merely sit and stare at cards throughout.
What’s the “review” of SpeedCount.
I am not a fan of Speed Count, unless you really feel that you are unable to manage anything more powerful. Speed Count is quite a bit weaker than KO or Hi-Lo, and when you are playing a six-deck game it really extends the number of hands you must play before you reach the fabled “long run”. My recommendation is keep working at maintaining the count using KO. I have a tough time believing the claimed 1% player edge using Speed Count, except under very good conditions and a large bet spread. KO and Hi-Lo can rarely achieve that level in practice, with 0.5% to 0.7% being a more typical edge in a six deck game. Does Speed Count work? Yes, but your edge will be smaller, and it will take more hands to reach a high likelihood of being ahead of the variance of the game.
You called the casino to ask if you could count cards. You are an idiot.
In live casinos on line, one has the advantage of back counting (8 decks games).
the question is which is prefered, to back count and wait till the true count is high (say +3 or higher) and only then start betting, but then, you only play small number of hands per shoe. Or to play across the entire shoe, where you can play many more hands per shoe ?
Sorry, I thought I responded to this earlier. I must have forgotten to hit Reply.
There is no advantage in playing more hands per shoe if those hands have a negative expectation.
Your results will always be best if you can limit yourself to betting only in positive situations.
And to be profitable at all you must bet very little or not at all in even or negative counts.
Entering these games only at TC +3 or better will yield a nice percentage profit, but you will watch far more hands than you play. I would probably start at +2 instead, but it depends on your bankroll.
i called up the Mirage casino in Las Vegas five years ago I did not bother to call again on this date September 24 , 2015
asked is card counting legal they said no and i said even if i bet 5000 thousand dollars on seven hands at a table and they still said no
if i am standing on hard 13 , 14 , 15 they know i am studying the cards very well and if i bet much more money when the deck is rich in high cards they will no doubt know what i am deciding to do
if i leave the table when there are a lot of low cards in the deck they know what i am doing what do you think about my comments ?
I don’t know why anyone would call the casino and ask that question. Still, no matter what the Mirage chose to tell you, card counting is of course perfectly legal. And yet the casino is also within their legal rights to tell you that you can’t play if they think you have an advantage. Welcome to the cat and mouse game of card counting.
Counting cards is the easy part. Staying welcome to play is the difficult part. You are certainly not going to be able to just camp out at tables for hours on end varying your bets directly with the count. At low stakes to mid black chip action, you can survive by keeping sessions short and moving around a lot between casinos.
At the very highest stakes, this tactic is less useful. For bets in the thousands, there are better ways to beat them than card counting. At that level, you should be able to demand a percentage rebate if you lose on a trip. If you handle that well, it can be worth much more than counting.
Wow. While you were at it, did you contact the united chess federation while and ask if it’s against the law to think about your moves before you make them or if you’re legally required to move randomly when playing chess (not just by the rules of the game, but under penalty of law)? Maybe ask if it’s a misdemeanor or a felony to not move at random? You obviously either think we live in Orwell’s 1984 subject to enforcement by thought police (what, it’s illegal to try to REMEMBER something now? And we’re not even talking about a GOOD memory, a FISH could remember that much, it’s laughable how much an intellectual thing counting cards ISN’T) or don’t even know what counting cards is. All it is, is remembering a stupid number that starts at 0 at the beginning of the shoe, adding 1 to the total whenever you see a low card dealt out, subtracting 1 when you see a high card dealt out! Remembering a number. That’s IT! That’s all it is! That’s all it’s ever been! “Card counter” shouldn’t even be a NOUN! It’d be like “move thinker” in chess. If you’re not counting cards, it’s not that you’re avoiding cheating, you’re simply playing badly. Just like the chess player who refuses to do anything but move at random isn’t somehow doing something ETHICAL by refusing to form any sort of plan in his moves and play the game well, he’s just not playing the game well, he’s playing it like a 4 year old is all! You’re either counting cards or you’re playing badly. Those are your choices. And if you call the casino and announce your intention to count cards, you are an even bigger idiot than the people who go to the casino and play blackjack and DON’T count cards (i.e. play the game BADLY). Because the casinos make their money from stupid people. They don’t want people who play it well, they want imbeciles. And being a BUSINESS, they have a right to refuse to do business with anyone they want to, you’re just telling them you’re one of those people who they want to not do business with. Whatever. At best you’re a shill for a casino to ask a question like that on a website like this, but probably just someone who intellectually reaffirms my cynicism and disgust for the human race.
Hello there, firstly, I apologise if this has been asked and answered already, but could you go to a casino and watch a game from the sidelines whilst counting the table then when the edge is in the player’s favour, makes bets within basic strategy then? Not do this over and over but say for one or two rounds. Be in and out, make your profit (or loss) and leave?
Yes. Backcounting a table and dropping in when the count is good can be a very effective approach. It’s also known as “Wonging”, named for Stanford Wong.
Although many casinos now restrict mid-shoe entry to prevent this and similar strategies, it’s quite common still. For low bankrolls especially, this is a great way to play against the shoe games.
Great! Thank you for your reply. I’ve been doing my homework and I’m excited to invest at the table as per the brilliant guidelines laid out in the lessons on here. I live in England and the casinos that I’ve been to seem to allow you to watch from the sidelines and join in at anytime.
Yeah but it then becomes really obvious that your card counting had the casino will kick you out. I wouldn’t bother, if it were really that easy, everyone would be doing it and the casinos will lose money.
Hi Ken, I play the UK casinos and I too have no problem Wongin in but I have ‘respected’ the environment more now and will play through a moderately negatively shoe. However last month I played in continental Europe and after 15 minutes I was told I either play or go away. Later in the week, a player synchronised his bets with mine and also played deviations. We got chatting after and it didn’t go unnoticed that he attracted a lot of heat. He was informed his play was no longer welcome and we think it was because he was moving from table to table.
You can stand in the shadows and count, but when the dealer gets to certain point in the shoe, you will have to wait for the shoe to play out. So, if you are watching a 2 deck game, when a half deck appears in the discount pile, you will not be allowed to play the remaining deck and a half.