Blackjack is a commonly played card game and has been for decades now and since becoming popular many people have tried using any advantage they can to win. One of the most common ways players try to gain an advantage in blackjack is by counting the cards that have been dealt. It isn’t that difficult to count cards when you’re playing blackjack because it’s a fairly slow game and the cards are all visible the entire hand so you get more then a glance at the cards.

The goal of counting cards is to gain an advantage over the house and it has worked many times over the years and many big stories have stemmed from card counting. Your goal when you’re counting cards is to establish the best times to increase your bets and you do this by keeping track of the cards dealt. There are numerous card counting systems out there which we’re going to take a look at in other guides, but most of them start with a solid zero count. All of the cards will have a certain number attributed to it and your goal is to keep adding and subtracting the values as you see the cards. The advantages that you will gain from keeping a count of the deck are as followed.

* You will have an idea of when the dealer is likely to bust

* You will know when you have the best chance of being dealt a blackjack

* You will know when the deck is either full of high cards or low cards

By knowing these the things above you will be able to increase or decrease your bets based on how hot or cold the deck is. It’s really simple to become good at counting cards and you don’t need to be a genius or anything to be successful at this. The one problem most card counters face is the fact they end up getting caught by the casino.

It’s completely legal all around the world to count cards as long as you’re not using any devices except your brain. The problem though is when casinos catch you they often want a little bit of there own justice so things can tend to get crazy if you get caught card counting. Legally the casino needs to pay you though and you can sue them if they don’t pay you the money that you won. Generally the casino will just pay you, but most of the time they will also state you can’t come back to the casino ever again. You also may get blacklisted from other casinos once news is out that you count cards, so try to be extremely careful and not get caught so you can keep making money.

The first blackjack card counting system dates back to 1962 which is almost fifty years ago now. Since then systems have become more complex and you can definitely gain a nice advantage on the house if you can successfully count cards. The most important thing when you’re counting cards is to keep it unnoticeable and also stay focused so you don’t lose count.