The first time I heard of card counting, now many years ago, I distinctly remember how I reacted, and it wasn’t a reaction of love and acceptance. My gut essentially told me that card counting was cheating; I mean how could it not be? Or, at the very least, it has to fall into the most dubious of categories of skill or indeed fair play. As time went on however, and the phrase didn’t disappear, in fact became more common and even boasted famous fans I began to rethink my attitude.
The first thing that came to my attention when I started to research card counting was that it is really not something for the amateur. Unexpectedly I learned that card counting would be very difficult for the blackjack novice and can only really be done well be people who have played the game, enjoyed the game, and internalized basic strategy; which I can tell you is no easy feat. In short the people who card count aren’t in-for-a-quick-buck, hit and run con merchants, rather they have spent many hours at the blackjack tables, they have put in the time and have become experts.
The next point that I realize when reading about card counting, was that the basics of it are simply logic; if no 10s have come out half way through the deck that’s good for the player because the dealer has to hit on anything less than 17; if there are lots of big numbers, i.e. 10s he is more likely to bust. Conversely, if all the high numbers have appeared that’s bad for the player, because when the dealer does hit he will only be left with low valued numbers which are more likely to help him than make him go bust. This translates as; no 10s, bet; all low numbers don’t bet.
Having realized that it is veteran blackjack players who partake in card counting and that the basic premise is really just logic, I decided to try to uncover a little regarding how card counting actually works. I was actually inspired to delve quite a lot deeper into the card counting concept. Card counting, as it turns out, is harder online than when you have the cards and the dealer physically in front of you; apparently the pace is quicker than any land based casino and this will ultimately affect your ability to count. However, this is not to say by any means that it’s impossible, and the online casino provides the perfect training ground for learning the art and practicing it until you feel confident enough to try it out in a land based casino.
In order to share the next stage of my blackjack-card-counting-rollercoaster-journey, which includes a basic understanding of how it works, you will have to read part II of my blog entry: suffice to say here, that I have in fact done a 180 degree turn on the subject.
