Card Counting in the Game of Blackjack
Casual Card Counting

The basic principle behind Card Counting as a Blackjack Strategy for Winning, is that a deck of cards rich is Tens (Ten's, Jack's, Queen's or King's) and Aces is favorable to the player, while on the other hand, a deck rich in small cards is favorable to the Blackjack Dealer. The logic behind this assumption is that a deck of cards rich in Tens and Aces is proportionately More Likely to Bust the Dealer, and bust the dealer more often.

Casual Card Counting

Casual Card Counting is just as the name implies, casual. Casual Card Counting does not take a lot of concentration nor does it require any complex mathematical calculations. In fact Casual Card Counting in the Game of Blackjack demands little use of your memory.

As stated above, the basic premise of any Card Counting System is that a deck rich in Ten-value cards lends an advantage to the Blackjack Player. So, to casually count cards during Blackjack Card Game Play, all you to do is casually observe the flow of cards as they come out of the deck or Blackjack Shoe. Case in point, if you are playing a multiple deck Blackjack Shoe and after a few hands you observe that there have been very few face cards or aces played, you have a situation where the next hand has a high probability of being good for the player. Therefore you could choose to increase your bet.

The key to Casual Card Counting while partaking in a Blackjack Card Game is to look for extremes. The absence or predominance of exposed high cards is easy to pay attention to through casual observation. You will play several hands where the mix of face cards and low value cards are relatively even, but when you see a noticeable absence of high value cards... it's a great time to increase your next bet.

Understand, that Casual Card Counting is something you should be doing as Basic Blackjack Strategy to Winning more Games. Nothing is going to guarantee a win every game, but Casual Card Counting will give you a slight advantage.

Blackjack Card Game Strategy

Understand that a Blackjack Player's decision to hit, stand, or double down, is still based on good Basic Blackjack Strategy. You have to master the Basic Strategy to Winning Blackjack before you can be successful at Card Counting, regardless of the style of Card Counting you choose to persue.

There are situations where alterations in Basic Blackjack Game Play Strategy is recommended based on the current running card count for the game..

If you have a hard 16 against a dealers up card of ten, and the running count is +2 or greater... stand!

This is against Basic Blackjack Strategy, but when you consider that the deck or shoe is rich in face cards you are more likely to bust, thus you ignore basic strategy and stand.