Taj London: Advantage PlayerSunday, December 28, 2008
KIOSK
The Hi-Lo System of Counting Cards
Step 2 to becoming a card counter is learning how to count cards.
There is a common misconception that you need to be some sort of genius to be able to count cards. I mean, keeping track of all the cards already being played to figure out what cards are left in the deck? Who can do that?
Well I'm here to tell you that counting cards is easy. Anyone can do it with a little practice.
Back in the movie '21', you may have remembered they used a secret code to tell the new player what the count was. Instead of 16, they would say 'sweet', or instead of 14, they would say 'chair'. The code itself is not important, it is the numbers that are important.
So what have these numbers got to do with counting? Everything. Let's face it you have to be super human to be able to keep track of every single card shoe after shoe. So counters don't keep track of every card, but assign values to each card and keep a running count.
There are in fact many different types of counting methods, Zen, Hi-Lo, Red-Seven, KO, Mentor, Kisses and many more. There's also balanced counts and unbalanced counts. But let's keep it simple for now and stuck to the popular Hi-Lo system. This is the one I started on and the one I'll be using for quite some time. In fact, most counters don't ever move beyond Hi-Lo. It's easy to use and does the job.
What is Hi-Lo
The Hi-Lo system is a balanced count system. It is simple to learn and decently efficient to use. In the Hi-Lo system, you assign the value of 1, 0 or -1 to each card as so:
Face Value Count Value
2,3,4,5,6 1
7,8,9 0
10,J,Q,K,A -1
This means that every time you see a 2, you add 1 to the running count. if you see a 10, you subtract 1. If you see a 7,8 or 9, you ignore the card as if it wasn't there.
And that's the Hi-Lo counting system. You start from a count of 0 at the beginning of the shoe and keep a running count as each card is dealt. Of course there's more to it than that, but this is sufficient to know for now.
Read on in the next post:
http://confessionsofacardcounter.blogspot.com/2008/12/learning-to-count-cards.html
There is a common misconception that you need to be some sort of genius to be able to count cards. I mean, keeping track of all the cards already being played to figure out what cards are left in the deck? Who can do that?
Well I'm here to tell you that counting cards is easy. Anyone can do it with a little practice.
Back in the movie '21', you may have remembered they used a secret code to tell the new player what the count was. Instead of 16, they would say 'sweet', or instead of 14, they would say 'chair'. The code itself is not important, it is the numbers that are important.
So what have these numbers got to do with counting? Everything. Let's face it you have to be super human to be able to keep track of every single card shoe after shoe. So counters don't keep track of every card, but assign values to each card and keep a running count.
There are in fact many different types of counting methods, Zen, Hi-Lo, Red-Seven, KO, Mentor, Kisses and many more. There's also balanced counts and unbalanced counts. But let's keep it simple for now and stuck to the popular Hi-Lo system. This is the one I started on and the one I'll be using for quite some time. In fact, most counters don't ever move beyond Hi-Lo. It's easy to use and does the job.
What is Hi-Lo
The Hi-Lo system is a balanced count system. It is simple to learn and decently efficient to use. In the Hi-Lo system, you assign the value of 1, 0 or -1 to each card as so:
Face Value Count Value
2,3,4,5,6 1
7,8,9 0
10,J,Q,K,A -1
This means that every time you see a 2, you add 1 to the running count. if you see a 10, you subtract 1. If you see a 7,8 or 9, you ignore the card as if it wasn't there.
And that's the Hi-Lo counting system. You start from a count of 0 at the beginning of the shoe and keep a running count as each card is dealt. Of course there's more to it than that, but this is sufficient to know for now.
Read on in the next post:
http://confessionsofacardcounter.blogspot.com/2008/12/learning-to-count-cards.html
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