The Running Count
Updated
The running count is one number you carry in your head. Every card that appears moves it by +1, 0 or −1, and that is the entire mechanism. It is not the number you bet from — that is the true count — but everything starts here.
- Cards 2 to 6: add one. They are good cards to have gone.
- Cards 7, 8, 9: no change.
- Cards 10, J, Q, K, ace: subtract one.
- Start at zero after every shuffle. Count every card you see.
The values, and why they are these values
Low cards help the dealer, who must draw to 16. High cards help you: they make blackjacks, they make doubles land, and they break the dealer. So you track which kind has left.
A positive running count means more low cards have gone than high ones, so what remains is rich in tens and aces. That is the shoe you want.
Counting in pairs
Nobody counts one card at a time for long. You learn to cancel: a five and a king appear together and the count does not move. A whole hand of 10-6-5 is +1, seen at a glance rather than added up.
The standard benchmark is a full deck in under thirty seconds, ending on zero. Our free counting course builds up to it in six lessons.
Why the running count alone is not enough
+6 means something completely different with six decks left than with one. The running count measures how far the shoe has drifted; it says nothing about how concentrated that drift is.
Betting straight from it means treating a mild advantage and a huge one identically. Divide by the decks remaining first — that is the true count, and that is what your bet comes from.
Keep reading
By Martin Kosek · every number on this site is computed by us, not copied.
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