#card counting

[yours-trudy]

The main objective of Mahjong is to put together a winning hand.

[jayjtheunsuspiciousmelodicathem]

On card counting

So those who have followed me for a while know that I'm really into card games and playing cards. I seldom play poker and blackjack (outside my job at the casino that is) and I've never once played for money, and my interest lies mainly in the more skilful games like tarot and tarock, bridge, 1000, gin rummy or mahjong (I play riichi).

(mahjong's a tile game, yes, but the tiles function the same as cards, and mahjong works very similarly to conquian and gin rummy so I'm counting it as a card game for the purposes of this post)

And often when I play with people new to card games they almost always crack a joke about card counting - and i'm always like "... yeah you have to count cards if you want to play well".

And this happens so often that I realised that people don't actually know why card counting is "frowned upon" for lack of a better term, even though the reason is simple and obvious - casinos.

Card counting is, simply put, the act of tracking how many good cards have been played or discarded over the run of the game - with this you can make informed decisions and educated guesses on which cards will be your winners and which will lose you the play. And as such, card counting is integral to the strategy of many trick-takers - one of the first things we were practising at bridge club was keeping track of trumps, and in mahjong you can/have to analyse a player's discards to determine which tile(s) they need to win.

And it's pretty much the same with blackjack, the casino game where players get the most information. If you're playing with a mechanical shoe (and thus hand-shuffled cards), you can count cards to you great benefit - and casinos don't like that.

Card counting is frowned upon because it reduces the edge/advantage the casino has, the edge that lets casinos profit from its business. And because in the modern world most people associate playing cards with casinos, card counting's reputation carried over to the public consciousness but without the reason for that reputation.

Casinos simply don't like skilled players - they want unskilled players to lose as much as possible.

So yeah don't be afraid to count cards or tiles if you're playing games of skill, not luck. Card counting is essential for a skilful card player.

[xenon1962]

[ichhabkeinahnungwieichheisssoll]

In case y'all haven't seen it in my bio, I'm continuing learning to become a card counter. It's something I'm very passionate about, as I love the process and viscerally hate casinos. Since it's such a misunderstood practice, I'd love to invite any questions y'all have, as well as provide a basic guide.

But first, what's the most common thing you've heard about card counting?

It's illegal

You need a photographic memory

You need to be really good at math

You can't lose and make money fast

See Results

Voting ended onJun 25, 2023

Since these are the things I listed, it shouldn't surprise you that these are myths (yes, even See Results). Card counting is a skill, so it's perfectly legal, but casinos can back you off. You also don't need a great memory or be good at math, as everything involved is fairly simple. Finally, it takes time to make a profit, but the rate increases the longer you play.

Now on to the guide!

Bear in mind that this is a quick guide to the basics, so I won't go into bankroll management. However, remember that EV means expected value and RoR means risk of ruin. I'm also assuming you know how to play Blackjack.

The first thing you need to learn is basic strategy. This is the optimal way to play the game, which lowers the house edge to about half a percent, given you're playing a table with good rules, which includes splitting aces, double after split, double on anything, late surrender, hand shuffle, 3:2 naturals, etc. Below is a basic strategy chart for S17 games.

Once you've got basic strategy down, you can finally start counting. The system I use, as well as most other counters, is Hi-Lo, as it's extremely effective and easy to learn. The first index you need to keep is called the running count, which keeps track of player vs. dealer advantage. This goes as follows:

2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Add 1 to the running count

7, 8, 9 - Do nothing, these are neutral cards

10, J, Q, K, A - Subtract one from the running count

The reason we add and subtract in this way is interesting. Unlike other games, which are pure chance, because we know what's in the shoe at the start, we can know what's left by tracking what comes out. Because a player blackjack pays out at 3:2, it means that the player has a greater advantage when the shoe is rich in high cards. The Hi-Lo system is balanced, meaning the count starts and ends at 0. To practice, just thumb through a freshly shuffled deck of cards and keep the count. If you can get through it in under a minute accurately, you're on the right track; your goal should be around 20-30 seconds.

Now comes the slightly hard part. The math isn't difficult, but it takes some refreshing to get used to. In order to more accurately know your advantage, you need to convert to the true count by dividing the running count by the number of remaining decks in order to get your average number of high cards per deck. The main skill you need to cultivate is the ability to estimate how many decks are remaining, but the best return you'll get for your effort is by estimating to the nearest half deck. You can find lots of practice apps or have someone stack cards.

Personally, I multiply by the reciprocals of the decks remaining to get the true count, since I can't divide by halves fast enough.

For the last section, I wanna delve into something a little more advanced: playing deviations. You can get about a 20% boost to EV by using only 20 or so deviations. You deviate from basic strategy when the count goes a certain way. For example, you should never split 10s, but if the true count is +5 or higher, you should split them. This allows us to take advantage of the count by doing more than changing our bets. Here're the BJA S17 playing deviations:

T,T vs. 4 - Hit at +6+, otherwise stand

T,T vs. 5 - Hit at +5+, otherwise stand

T,T vs. 6 - Hit at +4+, otherwise stand

A,8 vs. 4 - Double at +3+, otherwise stand

A,8 vs. 5 or 6 - Double at +1+, otherwise stand

A,6 vs. 2 - Double at +1+, otherwise hit

8 vs. 6 - Double at +2+, otherwise hit

9 vs. 2 - Double at +1+, otherwise hit

9 vs. 7 - Double at +3+, otherwise hit

10 vs. 10 or A - Double at +4+, otherwise hit

11 vs. A - Double at +1+, otherwise hit

12 vs. 2 - Stand at +3+, otherwise hit

12 vs. 3 - Stand at +2+, otherwise hit

12 vs. 4 - Hit at under 0, otherwise stand

13 vs. 2 - Hit at -1-, otherwise stand

15 vs. 10 - Stand at +4+, otherwise surrender or hit

16 vs. 9 - Stand at +4+, otherwise surrender or hit

16 vs. 10 - Stand at above 0, otherwise surrender or hit

15 vs. 9 or A - Surrender at +2+, otherwise hit

15 vs. 10 - Hit at under 0, otherwise surrender

16 vs. 8 - Surrender at +4+, otherwise hit

16 vs. 9 - Hit at -1-, otherwise surrender

Insurance or Even Money - Take at +3+

That just about covers the basics of the Hi-Lo system. I left out a whole bunch about bet spreads, bankroll management, risk asessment, avoiding heat, and other tricks, but this is more or less here to spur interest in card counting. Feel free to ask any questions, happy counting!

[canon-but-like-gayer]

Games that the team refuses to play (for money) with Spencer Reid-

Poker

Go

Scrabble

Chess

Banana grams

Clue

Uno

Checkers

He is also banned from hustling his team members when betting on sports- strangers not included.

[mudwerks]

(via Casino Cheating Expert Sal Piacente Reviews Card Counting and Casino Scams From Movies | Vanity Fair)

absolutely fascinated by this stuff

human behavior, tech, AND math?!?! I’m in. 

[clemsfilmdiary]

The Card Counter (2021, Paul Schrader)

10/4/21

[wtf-fun-factss]

Despite it being common practice for casinos to ban card counters, a 1979 New Jersey Supreme Court decision banned all Atlantic City casinos from doing so, making them the only state in America where they can't throw out skilled blackjack players. – WTF Fun Facts Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_counting#Legal_status