I think everyone’s mind works a bit differently, over time mine has become a bit of a mix. 

A few things that are very important:

• Do it the same way every time. If you wait for the table to be dealt to add it up, always wait. If you count as they come out, always do that. Otherwise you’re likely to miss a card or double count.

• Don’t try and “uncount”. If you’ve already adjusted your running count and then you are trying to back it out because you see that the table is easy to cancel hands out, you’ll probably make a mistake

Learn to count based on sets of cards, rather than individual cards. Efficiency means you don’t have to focus as much, and you don’t make as many mistakes since you don’t have to pay attention to every single detail.

I count on my fingers but I only have 10 and just one deck has 52 cards :/

sacrifice a deck of cards. Take a sharpie and write the value of your count on each card.

Practice counting down a deck. Go by pairs or triplets of cards learning how to cancel or look at groups of cards. Do it with two decks. Hide six hards so you're not always going back to zero by the end of the deck. Do it while watching TV or playing videos or having a Convo with someone.

I group them after the second pass on the first round. After a while you'll just glance at them and know what it is. So an ace and a five is nothing because the two cancel. A 7 and a 4 is +1. Pair of eights is 0 etc. 

I visualize the count in my head. I don't say it. I find it easier to keep track that way. 

When converting to the true count I round to the nearest deck. It seems to work good enough. 

Remember that if the true count is +3 or higher to take insurance.

The deviations yield you more return but are bit trickier to remember if you ask me. 

Counting cards is really just about keeping track of what cards have been played and what cards are still in the deck. You want to know how likely it is to get a face card or a 10.

Depending on the system you use, each card has a certain value. The simplest system is that every time you see a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, you add 1 to the count. Every time you see a 10, a face card, or an ace, you subtract 1 from the count. A high count favours the player, so you bet high. A low count favours the house, so you bet low.

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Wong Halves

Count Type: Balanced Difficulty: Advanced Card Values: • 2, 7 = +0.5 • 3, 4, 6 = +1 • 5 = +1.5 • 8 = 0 • 9 = -0.5 • 10, J, Q, K = -1 • A = -1

Notes: Highly accurate due to fractional values, but tough to use without lots of practice. Requires true count.

The hard part isn’t getting the basics of the skill down. Anyone can do that. What makes card counting hard is perfecting the skill, having the discipline to trust the math/bet spread, not getting distracted and being able to keep the count perfectly, having a good cover at the tables and being able to act naturally and fit in with other gamblers, etc. there are plenty of resources for learning counting, but books are a good start and/or a blackjack apprenticeship membership. Also, they have an app for like 5 bucks or so that is good for training in Hi-Lo if you want the bare minimum

Pointing out that you “weren’t winning EVERY hand” and your edge shooting up 1-2% is not something somebody who knows what’s going on would ever say. Not winning every hand is such an obvious thing to a card counter so pointing it out as a meaningful observation is like pointing out the sky is blue. And no, your “theoretical edge” did not increase by 2% after counting cards for a few hours. A 2% edge increase, say from 0.5% house edge to 1.5% player edge is about the max edge increase perfect counting gives you. The commonly cited amount of time (which was true in my case as well) it takes to actual learn card counting at a level to beat the casino is about 200 hours. That’s where the difficulty is, having the discipline to drill 10s of thousands of hands of blackjack with perfection and then having the nerves to replicate it in a casino with real money.

You're so good at counting. ignore the dude you're talking to and go straight to the casino. Max bet as soon as the time is right and generate that easy money.

Counting is one of the easiest parts to it. Basic strategy is a little more difficult imo. Then you have emotion and bankroll management. You have to have a bankroll, the ability to find and travel to a decent game or be lucky enough to have a couple decent games in a distance that financially makes sense to travel to. Then you have to be lucky that the decent game you found doesn't have such a scrutiny for loss that you can get some hours in, hopefully you don't get flagged at all the local casinos from a single event.

Go to a real casino and back count. That's pretty easy to do.

Now play the table minimum and try to count and play perfect basic strategy with the proper deviations. It's much more difficult than it looks. Keep the count in your head at all times with distractions like the dealer talking and other players.

This takes a lot of practice to get good at.

If you ask me it's kind of boring and repetitive and mentally fatiguing.

Be sure to group the cards after the second pass. So a King and a 4 would be 0 since the two cancel each other out. 2 and 5 would be +2. 7 and 3 would be +1. You get the idea.

It's pretty straight forward but takes a lot of concentration and practice.

Try having your friend deal you an 8 deck shoe as fast as they can and see if you can still count.

Despite making the technique seem a lot easier than it really is (division is important when penetration is deep, since both betting and play variations depend on it), my main complaint is that it's hard to get many hours in before you get kicked out.

The subscription list registration is wonky on your website. At least for me. I added my name and half my email address before it went haywire. Could be just me, though.

Good job!

Edit: it worked the 6th or 7th time.

Team I forgot about pen and it will forever haunt me that I didn't mention it in the video 😂

This is a great video! Commented on YouTube as well. This is a great beginners guide honestly. I loved the breakdown of the difference between dependent and independent events that you explained in such an easy to understand way. That's honestly one of the biggest reasons why counting works. It's also why no one who plays seriously should ever play at a continuous shuffle machines. SAY NO TO THE CARD SNAILS PEOPLE!

I missed this week’s episode. Will it continue??

Modern blackjack. Black belt in blackjack. Blackjack attack. Knock out blackjack.

But really, first thing you should do is go to blackjackinfo.com and under the ‘Learn’ tab click “Blackjack School” (it’s free). It’ll run you through start to finish on what you need to know. If you find that interesting and something you want to pursue, then buy Casino Vérité and practice on that (computer program that simulates real play).

Learning from books is less about what card counting is and how to do it. It’s more about that ‘extra’ kind of stuff that although isn’t necessary to know, sure is or can be helpful when dealing with certain situations.

you should see a blackjack apprentieceship youtube videos if you want to watch a statistics for blackjack you can see this channel on youtube. Kelly Criterion good luck brother

Honestly, have a pack of cards on you wherever you go. Try to flip through 52 cards as fast you can. On the bus, during lunch, taxi rides wherever. Best practice.

Ap what is that

I learned to count doing the exact same thing. Only I bought six decks and a shoe and dealt out hands playing them while counting. It took me nearly a year of steady practice a few nights a week before I really felt like I was getting it down. After a year I bought the BJA membership and man I wish I had a year ago.. just the training suite alone would have accelerated my learning and cut the time in half at least. It’ll come though, just keep working at it. I wouldn’t suggest learning deviations until 1) you have basic Strat absolutely perfect with zero thought required 2) you can keep the count without mistakes through multiple shoes. Start weaning yourself off the phone, it isn’t helping. I think of it like a separate little section in the back of my brain where I keep the running count at all times. Just keep repeating the count in your head over and over. It’ll get easier. This isn’t easy though, it took me way longer than I thought it would and I became a bit frustrated after 6 months or so when I still wasn’t perfect yet. Do yourself a favor: BUY BJA!!

Don’t “follow your intuition” in counting, study the deviations, at least the illustrious 18, before you ever try playing a casino. Your game should be tight before you ever play for real

What I did when I first started was I used the $5 BJA app to really get my counting down and learn some of the basic deviations. I then upgraded to CVBJ to be able to practice counting full tables, as well as edit my strategy to learn even more deviations. CVBJ really unlocked a lot of doors, and it becomes much easier with this. It taught me to watch for dealer errors, make sure I am betting the correct amount with the betting strategy I enter, and become even better at counting by changing the dealing speed.

Repeating count in your head between rounds helps, you should be able to carry a conversation while thinking 4 4 4 4 4 4 for example. But first, put the phone down.  You can’t use it in casino, why condition yourself? Practice w basic initially,  but with distraction…a “real casino environment.” Have  a friend be a chatty dealer who goes on about a sport you couldnt give a shit less about . Other friends sit next to you and simulate “players” who yap your ear off and ask you where you’re from , your job , are you up,/down, do you have kids, etc. Maybe one blows smoke at you. Smacks the table and yells when they win.  Have music blaring , etc. Have someone play a pit boss who comes to you 3 different times asking if you want a players card. Have your backstory and why you don’t want it.. have a girl play a cocktail waitress and ask if you want a drink every 7 min regardless of how many times you refuse.  Now..what’s the count? That is real life. 

Get your deck estimation down. Don’t tilt your head like a parrot while looking at discard tray.  Pause the whole thing now and then and check your running/true accuracy. When you get that perfect, then go for deviations. Then bet sizing , then camouflage , and others . A library of books from the masters is out there. Read em.

Continued practice is always a good thing. One thing that does make things easier is rather than count every card one at a time, wait until each player's second card is dealt and look at the pair. Often (like K-5) they'll cancel each other out so there's no need to adjust the count. so try drawing 2 cards from the deck(s) when you are practicing.

Learn the deviations for your game (I18) and stick with them no matter what your gut says. Trust the math.

Practicing is one thing; playing in a real casino is another. You won't have time to check your phone to see if you are accurate. There are distractions galore, and it's easy to lose count. I'm no AP, and I play BJ as entertainment (and as cheaply as I can), so I continue to strive to be a better counter. I take a 'bathroom break' a TC -2, refill my soda, and take my time getting back to the table. I increase my bet when the count warrants it and groan (with the rest of the table) when the dealer won't bust on a 15 or 16 when the TC = +5.

• qfit.com/book

• Blackjack Attack

• Professional Blackjack

Read them and ask questions

Save up a bankroll.

Buy the QFIT (Casino Verite) software package, and practice.

Profit. (maybe)

I started first with my fingers then progressed to my toes. Later I got some smart glasses and I counted thru blinking. GL

Blackjack apprenticeship

google

After you memorize Basic Strategy, the simplest counting system is Ace-Five. Wizard of Odds is free site with easy to understand explanations. You will see lots of advertisements for casinos, but you can ignore those, and strictly use the site for education.

The casino is always counting so if y'all bet high everytime the count is high, they got you

I like watching YouTubers count cards at casinos.

It’s legal to count cards and it’s legal for casino to ban you for any reason. If you all keep changing bets in unison with him it won’t last long. Try to obfuscate the play a little, maybe act drunk, that might buy you some time. They can count cards too and if they see the count high and all your bets go up they will likely intervene at some point.

Get simulation software first. You can count perfects but if you don’t know how to bet you’re still just trying to get lucky