Okay, we’ve all seen the movies, we may have read the books, but let’s get one thing clear at the outset, card counting at blackjack is no easy task. You’re as likely to get thrown out of a casino as to make any money from it if you are not very careful, and if you don’t already have basic strategy all but memorized, you might as well forget your chances of getting anywhere close to profiting from card counting. In short, card counting is not for the amateur blackjack player.
Card counting involves assessing when a deck has a glut of 10s and aces (which works out well for the players) or a lack of them (which puts things in favor of the dealer) and wagering accordingly. For instance, when the card counter knows there are many 10s, picture cards and aces to come in the deck, he would alter the way he plays, upping his bets and amending his strategy to go against the basic strategy in certain circumstances when deciding to split, hit or double when the basic strategy says to stand.
Of course, card counting usually takes place in bricks and mortar casinos rather than on USA online blackjack sites (whose standard blackjack games are powered by Random Number Generator software). The advent of live dealer blackjack, however, has given hope to some that you might just be able to get away with a spot of card counting when playing online while not of course running the risk of getting thrown out (there are no cameras watching your every move when you play online of course!). Even though live dealer blackjack games involve real dealers and real packs of cards, the likelihood of you being able to gain any advantage from counting cards is small at best, and even then it is probably reliant on dealer error. This is the case for one simple reason: deck penetration.
Deck penetration refers to how far into a deck (or, more usually, the decks – plural) the dealer will allow play to go before reshuffling. The larger the deck penetration, the better chance card counting has of bearing fruit. Alas, most live dealer blackjack dealers reshuffle after about half the cards have been dealt, which – especially with the commonly used eight-deck shoe – is not nearly enough to make card counting particularly effective. In other words, when playing blackjack online, simply stick to basic strategy for your best chance of winning!
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