Professional Gambling 201 - How to Win at Black Jack II

Blackjack is unique among all casino games. Unlike every other game available, which are based either on specific probabilities or player skill (competitive poker), Blackjack is the only game with a "history". It is an integral part of the game that the cards dealt in previous hands are gone, and only a portion of those available at the beginning of a round remain.

If a player can somehow harness that component of the game, and turn it to his or her advantage, then - and only then - can the player actually shift the odds into a favorable position.

But keeping track of which cards have come and gone is incredibly difficult. There are 52 cards in a standard deck, and they come out fast. It pushes human capability right to the limit just to stay aware of where all of them are. If you're playing in a casino, then you're looking at a minimum of six decks in a shoe. Unless you're a savant, the feat of counting that many cards while playing is an utter impossibility.

Effective counting, when combined with Basic Strategy, can yield huge gains. If you know what's coming, you can adjust your bet accordingly, and take the house for all its worth. If you know the odds of busting are high, because there are a large number of high-value cards remaining in shoe, then you can adapt. The house can't, and so the house will bust much more frequently. All a player has to do is not lose.

And that's just for starters. A highly skilled counter can count on an increased frequency of getting Blackjack, and so increase his or her winnings even more. Likewise, doubling down carries an increased potency. On a bet that has already been increased in reaction to the 'weight' of a shoe, that can be especially devastating.

But how can one bridge the gap between potentiality and actuality? How does a person keep an accurate count, with so many cards?

The solution becomes obvious once a player accepts that he or she will never be able to predict exactly what the next card will be. Counting is useful for measuring 'the lay of the land', or gauging probabilities, but isn't a matter of total precision. A player can minimize his or her risk, and maximize his or her potential winnings when conditions are favorable, but the key is to remember that these are still matters of risk and potential. Gambling is still gambling, and, as such, there is no such thing as a sure thing.

So, since the game functions in term of general probabilities, an effective count should operate the same way. The only thing a player really needs to know - the only knowledge that has any real meaning - is whether the shoe is heavy or light, and by how much.

The most effective way to keep track, then, is to only keep track of the high cards and the low cards as they relate to each other. It doesn't matter if 10 tens and 9 twos have passed. All you need to know is that the remaining weight of the deck is light by 1.

All you need to do is keep track of two numbers: +1 and -1. There are five cards with a value of 10 or higher: 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. Each of these is counted as -1; a shoe with a very negative count has passed a lot of tens, and there are more low cards concentrated in the remainder.

Conversely, there the five lowest cards count as +1. For every 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 that hits the table, the concentration of high cards increases in the remainder.

7, 8, and 9 have a value of 0 for counting purposes.

If a shoe has a high count, say, +12, then it is rife with 10's and Aces just dying to come out. If the count is negative, then the odds of any card that hits the table being of high value are slim. BUT, with every card that comes out, the count changes.

Keeping the count while the cards are flying is still a tough trick, and playing right while you're doing it is even harder. But it is possible. And it works.

A word of warning, however: while card counting is not illegal - the history is a key part of the game, after all - most gaming establishments frown on the practice. I strongly advise that you study hard and learn how to do it without thinking before you try it. If you get caught, you might be, shall we say, asked to leave in a less than polite fashion.

Also, there is more than one way to get caught. Dealers, Pit Bosses, Security Guards, and all manner of other people with very expensive items of technology are specially trained to watch YOU for fluctuating bets, winning streaks, consistent gains, and all manner of other clues that reveal your dirty little secret: that you know what's coming next.

Perhaps the biggest gamble of all in advanced professional Blackjack comes not from winning or losing on any given hand, or risking large sums of money, but from playing the game to its full potential. It's you vs. house on a whole other level that goes way beyond the stacks of chips on a felt covered tabletop.

That's the curse of high-stakes pro gambling. You can win and still lose everything, or you can fail to win big, but still beat the house at the biggest game of all.