1. Blackjack Counting Software
2. Advanced Blackjack Card Counting Games
3. Advanced Blackjack Card Counting Software

1. Use our Blackjack Training Drills to master blackjack basic strategy and card counting: Our Basic Strategy Drill trains you at basic strategy so you never make a wrong playing decision; Our card counting Drill trains you at keeping the running count so you can.
2. Counting cards is something players using both basic and advanced strategies may wish to take advantage of. However, card counting is considerably trickier when using advanced strategies. In all blackjack strategies, you will need to “gauge” the types of cards which remain in the deck. If they are high-value cards, this favors you.

You might think of the Revere Advanced Point Count system as
a sort of sequel to the Revere Point Count. The problem with
this system is that it’s not easy to use at all. Some card
counters like to milk card counting systems for every tenth of a
percent of advantage that they can. A system like the RAPC might
be appropriate for such players, but newer, easier-to-use
systems offer the same advantages without the difficulty.

Lawrence Revere co-designed this system with Julian Braun.
Revere was one of the interesting characters in the early days
of blackjack card counting. He developed multiple systems with
Braun, but the one that’s in most use still today is the Revere
Point Count.

Over the years, Card Counting has become an increasingly popular advanced Blackjack strategy technique. Perhaps it’s due to the technique taking the certain stage in movies like ‘21’, ‘Rain Man’ and ‘Holy Rollers’ or maybe it’s simply due to the fact that blackjack players are seduced by better prospects of winning at the table game when card counting is applied.

Most of his systems can be read about and learned from his
book Playing Blackjack as a Business.

But some of Revere’s and Braun’s systems are considered
proprietary, meaning they’re not just available in a book. You
have to actually buy the details for using the system. The
Internet is full of gambling systems you can buy, and most of
them are worthless. Unlike most of those systems, the RAPC will
actually help you get an edge over the casino. But you can find
other card counting systems that will give you an edge over the
house that don’t require you to buy them.

In fact, you can learn everything you need to make a profit
counting cards on the internet—on this site, in fact.

Of course, different systems offer different advantages and
disadvantages, but we tend to agree with David Sklansky, author
of Sklansky Talks Blackjack. He suggests that the Hi-Lo Count is
powerful enough for anyone, and it’s easy to use.

This page describes in some detail how card counting in
general works and how the Revere Advanced Point Count in
particular works. We also provide some analysis of its
advantages and disadvantages compared to other systems.

More about Lawrence Revere

Lawrence Revere is the author of Playing Blackjack as a
Business, which is worth investing in if for no other reason
than the charts and tables are so pretty and colorful. That’s
not a practical attitude, you might think, but we do think that
being willing to look at the materials is practical in the
extreme. After all, you need to stay motivated to do the work
required to learn the system.

We mentioned earlier that he was quite a character. One of
the reasons we suggest this is because of anecdotes we read in
Lance Humble’s book, The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book. We’ve
also read that Revere worked both sides of the casino industry.
He was consulting with casinos about how to detect card counters
while at the same time consulting with players about how to
avoid detection.

He died in 1977, so a lot of the card counting techniques he
was a proponent of were cutting edge at the time but are
obsolete now. The RAPC is considered one of them, but we present
the details here for those interested in how such things work.

How Card Counting Works

Counting cards in blackjack takes advantage of the fact that
the composition of a deck of cards changes during play. When
certain cards are dealt, the ratio of high cards to low cards
can change. A deck with a lot of 10s and aces—compared to the
lower cards—is more likely to result in a player being dealt a
“natural” or a “blackjack”. Since that hand pays off at 3 to 2
instead of even money, a player who raises her bets when the
deck is rich in aces and 10s can get an edge over the casino.

Blackjack Counting Software

But that’s just one way card counters get an edge (albeit the
most important one). The other way counting cards help is that
basic strategy changes based on the composition of the deck.
Basic strategy is simply the correct playing decision for every
possible combination of player totals versus dealer upcards.

When the composition of the deck changes, certain decisions
change. Whether or not to take insurance is an easily-understood
example. Insurance is just a side bet that the dealer will have
blackjack. If the deck has proportionally more aces and 10s than
low cards, the dealer also has a higher probability of having
such a hand. So insurance, which is normally a sucker bet, can
be the right play in certain situations.

And card counters don’t actually memorize which cards have
been dealt and which ones are still in the deck. They assign
values to certain cards and use those values to keep a rough
estimate of how favorable or unfavorable the deck is at any
given time. The low cards have positive values, as their removal
from the deck improves your odds. The high cards have negative
values, as their removal from the deck worsens your odds.

The values given to each card are the meat and potatoes of
any card counting system.

How the Revere Advanced Point Count Works

Here are the values assigned to the various cards in the RAPC
system:

• You’ll notice that almost every card in the deck is given a
  value. The only cards that count as 0s are the 8s.
• You’ll also notice that the values given range from +/- 1
  through 4. Most beginner systems are called “single-level”
  systems, because they only require you to add and subtract a
  single value, usually 1, but sometimes 2. The number of values
  in use can be used to describe the system. In this case, we have
  a 4-level system.
• When the total is positive, you raise your bets. When the
  total is 0 or negative, you bet the table minimum. The higher
  the count, the more you raise the size of your bets.

The Pros and Cons of the RAPC

You can look at the effectiveness of a card counting system
according to how well it estimates when you should raise and
lower your bets. You can also look at how well it measures when
you should take insurance. They can also mathematically estimate
how well a system advises your strategy decisions.

These measurements are usually expressed as a number between
0 and 1, with a 1 being perfect. The betting correlation for the
RAPC is 1.0, which is perfect, but many simpler systems provide
an almost equally accurate estimate of when to raise and lower
your bets.

The insurance correlation for this system is far better than
most, though, at 0.71. That sounds low compared to 1.0, but most
systems don’t do this good a job of measuring when you should
take insurance.

The playing efficiency is a measure of how well the system
advises your basic strategy, and the playing efficiency for this
system is 0.53. This probably sounds quite a bit worse than it
actually is. We know of plenty of card counters who don’t even
bother adjusting their basic strategy when playing—they just
raise and lower their bets according to the count, and they win
plenty of money.

The biggest disadvantage of the RAPC is its complexity. Much
easier systems exist which provide you with results just as
positive. We recommend using one of them instead.

The Revere Advanced Point Count is an obsolete, hard-to-use
card counting system. It’s interesting more as a look at what
kinds of complex systems might have been in use in the past.
More modern and easier to use systems provide just as much of an
edge with less work on the part of the player, though. We
recommend trying one of those.

Card counting is a system that experienced blackjack players use to get a profitable advantage over the casino. There are many individual “counts” or systems. Many of them are named after colorful professional gamblers from times past.

The 2008 movie “21” bought card counting to the attention of the general public. It followed the true story of members of the MIT blackjack team as they won millions from casinos in LasVegas. This movie also highlighted the key challenge faced by card counters. To make a profit using these systems, you need to bet significantly more when the odds turn in your favor. Casinos are aware of this — and will quickly ban players they believe are counting cards.

This page has everything you need to know to get started with card counting. Below you will find the basics of how it works. Famoussystems, the ideal games for counters and how online blackjack can help you learn to count are also covered below.

How to count cards in blackjack

Blackjack is a game of incomplete information. Players act based on their own two cards and the single dealer up-card. Players must risk busting in many situations, even though the decisions are mathematically correct.

Small cards are the enemy of blackjack players. Values of two through six can make for the trickiest decisions. In fact, if you remove any significant number of small cards from the shoe, blackjack not only becomes easier, the player gets a mathematical edge over the house.

This is where card counting comes in.

Counters track the proportion of small cards to face cards and aces. At a certain point, the deck turns “positive.” The higher proportion of face cards means every hand played will generate long term profit for the player — not the house. This is because profit comes from doubling, splitting and hitting blackjack (natural21). All of these are more frequent when there are more high cards in the shoe.

To take advantage of this edge, counting players must boost their bet size. Without this bet size boost, money spent playing while waiting for the deck to turn positive would cancel out any wins.

There are multiple factors that affect whether a specific game is a candidate for card counting. The number of decks of cards in play, the rules on splitting and doubling down, and how the dealer reacts to a soft 17 all come into play. To get the best from counting cards, you need to find the games with the lowest house edge.

Level 3 card counting systems & true count explained

Card counting systems have three levels of complexity. The simplest systems are Hi-LoCounts. You count low cards as +1 and high cards as -1. The higher the count, the bigger the proportion of high cards to low cards.

Advantage players will increase their bets once a specific count is reached. To be sure that they have an advantage, they need to translate the current total into the “true count” first. This involves dividing the count by the number of decks still in play. If the count is +10, with five decks remaining in a six-deck shoe, then the “true count” is 10/5 = 2. This means games like double-deck blackjack are better for counting. Players do not need to play through those first decks in the shoe while waiting for the true count to be positive.

Level two and level three counting systems are more accurate. They assign +2 to some cards and +1 to others. This splits the twos and sevens from cards three throughsix, with some systems also counting nines differently. There are systems with separate counts for aces. Your bet sizes need to increase in line with the positive count — for example adding a unit every time the true count increases by two points.

If you are new to cardcounting, then a simple Hi-Lo Count is the place to start. Once you have mastered keeping track of the count while playing each hand perfectly and chatting with the other players, you will be ready to move to the next level.

Examples of card counting systems

The systems below range from level one to three. These are five of hundreds of possible systems, giving you an overview of how different systems vary in their complexity.

• Hi-Lo Count: This is a balanced count and is the first system that new counters use. You add one to the total for each card value from two through six — and subtract one for 10s through aces. Seven, eight and nine are neutral. You then divide this count by the number of undealt decks and round up as needed. You should increase your bets when the count is positive — betting more the larger the positive number that you count. The advantage of the Hi-Lo system is simplicity. Compared with other blackjack counts, Hi Lo card counting does lackprecision.
• Hi-Opt1 and 2: These systems were developed by LanceHumble, though they can be traced back to the 1960s. There are many more“neutral”cards compared to the Hi-Lo Count. Hi-Opt 1 uses aces, twos, sevens, eights and nines as zero for the count. Three, four, five and six are +1, and 10s through kings are -1. This system works best for single deckgames. Hi-Opt 2 makes 10s through kings -2 on the count, with +2 for fours and fives, +1 for twos, threes, sixes and sevens. Aces, eights and nines are neutral. These are accurate systems, though with single deck games rare (and closely watched), it can be difficult to find a suitable game to use them.
• Ace-Five System: You will need to double your bet repeatedly as the count increases to make the Ace-Five System work. This is a simple count, involving only aces andfives. Every time a five is dealt, you add one, and every ace you see removes one. When the count is +2, you double your bet. Increasing it again for every +2 that gets added. If the count reverts to +1 or less, you go back to your initial bet size. The key advantage of this system is the simplicity. The always-changing bet size is likely to attract the attention of casino pit bosses.
• Uston Advanced Count: Ken Uston was a famous card counter, known for his flamboyant lifestyle. His most complex system is the “Uston Advanced Count.” Aces count as zero in this system. Fives are +3; 10s through kings are -3; nines are -1; twos and eights are +1; and threes, fours, sixes and sevens are +2. As with the other systems, you increase your bets in line with how positive the count gets — keeping the number of decks in mind. This system is designed to work best with a separate count of theaces. The complexity means that it is for experienced card counters only.
• KO Counting System: This system works like Hi-Lo, with an extra feature involving the insurance against dealer blackjack bet. It counts cards two through seven as +1, eight and nine as neutral and 10 through ace as -1. You should increase your bet at +2 or more (based on the true count). At +3 or greater, the insurance side bet becomes profitable and should be taken.

Which blackjack games are best for card counting?

Big casino resorts in Las Vegas, AtlanticCity, downtown Detroit and elsewhere run a wide selection of blackjack games. At the lowest buy-ins (typically $5 and up per hand), the rules give the casino a huge edge over theplayers. Examples include paying 6:5 instead of 3:2 for blackjack, limiting doubles after splits and having the dealer hit on soft 17. These unfavorable rules can easily boost the house edge to 3% or even more. With six or eight decks, getting a true count can be difficult.

Contrast this with the best games. An ideal setup is a single deck game, with liberal splitting/doubling rules, dealer standing on soft 17, late surrender and 3:2 for blackjack. With a house edge of 0.5% orless, these games are restricted to the high-limit rooms. This type of game is most likely to be closely monitored. Suddenly increasing your bet would be an instant trigger for experienced casino staff to watch closely.

Successful counters look for games with the lowest natural houseedge. They know the basic blackjack card counting strategy perfectly, so as not to give any edge back to the casino in the form of mistakes. If you do not know how to adapt blackjack strategy to subtle differences in the rules, then you are not yet ready to learn card counting techniques.

Is counting cards illegal in the US?

Counting cards is legal, unless you are using a mechanical or electronic device to help you keep track of the cards. Casinos do not want card counters in their games. People who are suspected of counting will be asked to leave the casino. Repeat offenses can see players banned — with trespass laws coming into effect if they attempt to return.

In 1979, Ken Uston took a casino in Atlantic City to court, challenging its right to ban “skilled” players. The court found in his favor. Rather than banning players, AC casinos now implement measures to stop card counting from working. They include regularshuffling, limiting players to flat bet sizes on each shoe and not allowing players to join a game mid-shoe.

Elsewhere, casinos will quickly ban players caught counting. This was the reason that the MIT team played in pairs. One player (betting small) would keep count, then signal to the big bet player when the count was positive. This player could then join the table, betting big amounts, while the original counter continued with smaller bets.

Card counting in other casino games

Very few casino games use a shoe containing several decks of cards. Casino poker variations like Caribbean stud or Ultimate Texas Hold ’em have a continual shuffle system, where a fresh shuffled deck is used for each hand. Baccarat does use a shoe, though it is not suitable for counting due to the complex scoring rules. Edge sorting is used in baccarat, though it is considered illegal in many jurisdictions.

This leaves blackjack variations like Spanish 21 and Free Bet Blackjack as the only candidates for card counting systems. Many variations of blackjack have a higher house edge than the main game. Spanish 21 removes 10s from the deck — starting the count on a negative.

Experienced advantage players use card counting to beat optional side bets. This requires a separate understanding of how each side bet works, with a counting system developed separately. Separate aces counts in blackjack can determine when the insurance against dealer blackjack bet becomes profitable.

Is it possible to count cards online?

Online casinos in regulated states have both live dealer and software-based blackjack options. They also have a range of games with different rules and side bets. Add in the game variations based on the 21 concept — and you will find a wide array of choices.

Advantage play through card counting is not possible at online casinos. Software based games use random number generator software to shuffle the cards for every hand. This means no count is possible. Live dealer games that are dealt in real time use eight deck shoes. What they do differently from brick and mortar casinos is reshuffle after around half of the cards are dealt. This makes it hard to spot situations where there is a positive true count. Add to this software that will instantly detect the bet sizing changes associated with counting.

What you can effectively do online is practice your counting skills. There are live dealer rooms at many of the biggest online casino brands, including Golden Nugget and BetMGM. You can enjoy a game and learn to keep score of the count while you play. Starting with simple systems like Ace-Five and Hi-Lo is ideal — you can move on to the more advanced systems as you gain experience.

If you live in a state with legal online casinos, make sure you keep a close eye on the casino bonus and promotion offers. You never know when a bonus aimed at blackjack players will become available.

Wrapping up: Card counting in blackjack

Card counting has been a part of blackjack since the1960s. Famous players including Humble and Uston published books on beating the house. Many of them are now considered among the classics of gambling literature.

Counting cards in blackjack gives you an edge over the house when there are relatively more high cards in the deck. This takes advantage of the player’s option to split, double down and to take insurance against dealer blackjack. Counting systems are graded into three levels, depending on their complexity. More complex systems are more accurate — though harder to use.

Advanced Blackjack Card Counting Games

There is an Achilles’ heel for card counters. To make your knowledge of the count profitable, you need to significantly boost your bet sizes when the odds are in your favor. These bet size increases are a flag to casino staff to watch your play closely — which leads to card counters being banned. Card counting is not illegal, unless you use a device to help you keep track.

Advanced Blackjack Card Counting Software

Online casinos are the perfect place to practice your card counting skills. You will not be able to get an advantage from them — as safeguards are in place. Live dealer casinos show a real table, making this the ideal way to find the right card counting system for you ahead of your next visit to a brick and mortar casino.