Counting cards in blackjack takes extreme skill. You’ll need to be quick at math and have a great memory. There’s one key thing to remember with counting cards, though. While it’s not entirely illegal, if you’re caught, you’ll most likely be thrown out of a casino and asked to never return. You’ll be put on the casino’s blacklist.
Why would the casino kick you out? It is a casino’s right to refuse play to anyone, and counting cards puts the favor to you instead of the house, which means they’ll lose money. Since they don’t like to lose money, they don’t want you having an upper hand.
The basic principle to counting cards is keeping track of the high values versus the low values in the deck. The higher numbers, like the ten and face cards, as well as aces, are more likely to help you get a blackjack, which pays 3:2. The smaller cards, like the 4, 5, and 6, help the house because they will likely get you to bust. Keeping track of these through a variety of different strategies will help you keep track of what’s left in the deck, making you more or less likely to ask for another card. The whole idea is to get a blackjack. If you haven’t gotten a blackjack, you can still win the hand by not taking a card that will set you over 21. Going over 21 means that your chips instantly go to the house.
Unlike what you may have seen in movies, you don’t have to memorize every single card that’s been played. You do, however, have to remember the values you’ve assigned everything previously. The more cards that’s been played, the more you have to remember. There’s 52 cards in the deck, but most casinos play with 6 or 8 decks, so that means that there are 24 or 28 aces and even more values of 10, giving you plenty of opportunities to get blackjack. It also gives you plenty of opportunity to miss your counts. Single deck blackjack is available at some casinos, even online, but it’s not very common and usually has a very high limit to the table.