Card Counting at Blackjack

19 December 2023

By Frank Scoblete

Every so often you will read about card counting at blackjack. As many casino players know, blackjack used to be a secondary or even tertiary game well behind craps and roulette from World War II through the mid-1960s – and then something happened that spun the casino world on its heels.

Actually, two things happened. The first was the fact that some very smart people figured out the optimum way to play one’s hand versus the dealer’s up-card. This made the game a close contest, a very close contest, between the player using the basic strategy and the house.

Then a young man named Edward O. Thorp figured out a way to actually beat the game! He wrote the very first book on card counting titled “Beat the Dealer” in which he laid out his method for beating blackjack and how he arrived at it.

Ba-Boom!

Soon thousands of players memorized the strategy and hit the casinos. Many players never memorized the strategy but they too hit the blackjack tables now knowing that the game was vulnerable. Many of these learned the basic strategy for playing their hands against the dealer’s up-card. This helped their play but could not give them the edge. Today, I would guess that most players do play some form of basic strategy, perhaps getting one, two or a few strategies moves wrong.

Craps and roulette soon lost some of their luster and blackjack became the favorite table-game in the casino by the mid-1960s. Indeed, it still is the favorite table-game and has strongly outlasted many other card games offered to players.

The casinos did not take the arrival of card counting sitting down. Many changed the game from one deck to two to four to six to eight to unlimited decks which can be found today. These changes have not reduced the number of players who enjoy playing the game.

And what of those card counters, probably many hundreds if not thousands of them, still attempting to overcome the casino edges at blackjack with card counting, despite the lack of truly quality games in today’s casinos? Oh, yes, they are still out there.

And the casinos welcome them with open arms and loving hearts. Oops, sorry, got that wrong. The casinos dislike card counters and prefer that these players do not sully the casinos’ coffers with their play. Although counting cards is not illegal, since it is not against the law to use one’s brain in a casino, the casinos will take counter measures against such counters.

Some card counters will be told that they cannot play blackjack at the casino. You see it is not illegal for a private business to decide who can frequent that business. What if the world’s champion eater visits an all you can eat buffet restaurant? I’m guessing that particular business would not want this person and his hungry friends to hang out there on a daily basis.

Casinos have the right in most states to ask card counters to leave the premises and some such players are even told not to return or they will be considered trespassers. Some casinos in some areas of the country won’t be allowed to ban such players but the casinos in these areas can dictate what bets such players can make.

What is the actual juice of card counting? It’s simple. The card counter knows when the cards remaining to be played favors the casino or favors the players. When the player is in a favorable moment, he or she bets more; when the casino has the edge, the player bets less.

There are now hundreds of card-counting books and dozens of card-counting systems. This technique is not likely to disappear from the houses of Lady Luck anytime soon.