--- title: 'How To Count Cards: It''s Easier Than You''d Think' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=WkGldDHLb5k' video_id: 'WkGldDHLb5k' date: 2026-07-07 duration_sec: 0 --- # How To Count Cards: It's Easier Than You'd Think > Source: [How To Count Cards: It's Easier Than You'd Think](https://youtube.com/watch?v=WkGldDHLb5k) ## Summary Card counting is a legitimate strategy for gaining an edge in blackjack, and it doesn't require a photographic memory or advanced math skills. This video explains the high-low card counting system, including how to assign values to cards, keep a running count, and convert it to a true count for betting decisions. ### Key Points - **Card Counting is Real and Simple** [00:01] — Card counting doesn't require a photographic memory or MIT degree; it's a simple system of adding and subtracting one. - **Professional Card Counter's Background** [00:31] — Colin from Blackjack Apprenticeship has beaten casinos for roughly $4 million and provides training and tools for card counters. - **Casino Back Room Incident** [00:43] — A team was taken to a back room with $140,000 in chips because the casino suspected cheating, but they were simply counting cards. - **Prerequisite: Perfect Basic Strategy** [01:24] — Card counting is useless without perfect basic strategy; you must know it 100% of the time. - **High-Low Card Counting System** [02:04] — Assign +1 to cards 2-6, 0 to 7-9, and -1 to 10s and Aces. Keep a running count by adding or subtracting as cards are dealt. - **Running Count Practice** [04:41] — Practice keeping the running count through multiple rounds of blackjack, adding and subtracting by one. - **Why Running Count Matters** [07:11] — A positive running count means more low cards have been dealt, leaving a surplus of high cards, which is favorable for the player. - **True Count Calculation** [08:03] — Divide the running count by the number of decks remaining to get the true count, which adjusts for multiple decks. - **Using True Count for Betting** [09:24] — The true count determines bet size and playing deviations; higher true counts indicate a player advantage. - **Practice and Execution** [09:38] — Card counting requires many hours of practice to perfect skills and avoid detection in casinos. ### Conclusion Card counting is a learnable skill that gives players a statistical edge over the casino, but it requires dedication to master basic strategy, counting, true count conversion, and proper betting. ## Transcript turn the tables on the casinos and gain the edge of blackjack, you've probably wondered, is card counting real? Do you need a photographic memory like Rainman? in your brain like Allen from The Hangover? The good news is it's nothing card counting is and how to do it in this video. I'm Colin from Blackjack Apprenticeship and I've been a professional card responsible for beating casinos for roughly $4 million. And now I provide training, tools, and community for card counters through blackjack advice, and lessons on beating blackjack with card counting, make sure you subscribe below. Once in an earlier blackjack team I was playing on, we ended up in a back room of a casino with $140,000 in chips. We were in the back room because they said they wouldn't cash us out unless we went with them and explained to them how we had cheated them. The irony is we weren't cheating. We were simply counting cards and the casino was flabbergasted that we had previous several days. They wanted to know how did we know how to bet and we system and we use betting software that shows us exactly how to bet based on our Eventually they cashed us out. We got out of there with all of our money. But the reality is not even the casino understood card counting. Let's get into it. How does card counting work? First off, it doesn't involve memorization. You don't need a memory technique or a photographic memory or to have graduated from MIT to do this. It's actually fairly simple. That doesn't mean it's first step is to know how to play perfect basic strategy. If you can't follow perfect basic strategy 100% of the time, card counting is useless. Now, strategy, let me show you how card counting works, and you'll be surprised assume you have a working knowledge of completely new to blackjack, make sure you watch our video, how to play description below. I'm going to be showing you the high low card counting system. It's the one that myself and my teams, the MIT teams, and most other card counters I know have used. The first step is to assign a value to every card. So, here we have ace through king. Here's a quarter of a deck before us. Every deck of cards is just all four suits of ace through king. And for the cards two through six, we're going to assign the value of plus one. That means whenever we see one of these cards dealt, we add one. For 7, 8, and 9, these are going to be our neutral cards, and we're going to give those a value of zero. We don't add or subtract. We basically just ignore them. Now, for the remaining cards, which is the 10 valued cards as well as an ace, we're going to subtract one for those. Those are our high cards. Every time we see a high-v value card, we subtract one. Now, to show what this looks like, I'm going to take this quarter of a deck, shuffle it up, and then we'll try counting through it. Let's count through this quarter deck. Our first card is a low card, so we're going to add one. So, our running count is plus one. Now, we have a high card, so we're going to subtract one. So, we're back to zero. Now, we have a neutral, so we're going to stay with our zero running count. Another minus makes it -1. minus makes it -1. Another minus makes it -2. A neutral means we're still at -2. A low card brings us back to -1. A low card brings us back to -1. Another low card brings us back to zero. Another low card brings us back to zero. A high card makes it -1. A neutral stays at -1. A low card brings us back to zero. Another low card means we're at plus one. And with one card left, that means we have a plus one. And we're going to always end at zero with high low count. So there's our high card. And we're back to zero. Let's try it again, but I'm just going to say the running count as I flip over the cards. Here we go. One, two, one, zero. zero. 1 0 1 0 1 and zero. This is called keeping the running count. We card counters do this on a much larger scale, adding and subtracting by one through the entire shoe. It doesn't matter if it's 1, 2, 4, 6, or eight decks. We do this from the first card until the cut card comes out. Let's practice keeping the rank count Let's practice keeping the rank count through a few rounds of blackjack. neutral. four, three, and two. So, our run count is two, and this first player is going to hit. to hit. Now, we're at plus one. And they bust with the neutral. So, still + one. Player two is going to double. Now we're at plus two, and plus two. So the rank count's plus two. Got a push and a loss. So we're going to keep that plus two into this next round. Now we have we had two. So now we have three four couple of neutrals. Three four five. So we have a plus five running count. So this first player is running count. So this first player is going to hit Five. six and five. Now we've got a plus five running count going into the next round. So you're going to keep that number in your head and then start adding to it in the next round. [Music] All right, we got a plus five. And now we've got 65 67 8 7 8. 8 7 8. He stays. Got a double. He stays. Got a double. We're still at plus 8. plus 9 and a bust. We have a plus 9 running count. By keeping this running count or in this situation, this plus 9, it means that we know that a surplus of nine extra low cards have been dealt. Why does that matter? To help illustrate, imagine Grandma Jones bakes you a delicious blueberry pie, but in the process, she doesn't do a good job of evenly distributing the blueberries. So, it's all baked. She cuts into the pie and gives the first slice. But lo and behold, there are no blueberries. Second slice of pie, also no blueberries. Third, fourth, fifth slices of pie, still no blueberries. As we get towards the end of the pie, we know it has to be chalk full of blueberries. Or in the case of this shoe, chalk full of of high cards have been dealt and there's a surplus of small cards remaining, that's bad for us. This is going to dictate when we gain the advantage and how we will change our betting and our playing accordingly. deck blackjack with good rules, like back in the 60s and 70s, basic strategy we need. Casinos thought they could thwart card counters by going to two six and eight decks. And while I deck games that they offered before I was born, it didn't kill card counting. It simply added an extra step for us, which is calculating the count per deck or the true count. See, if we have a running count of 10 with five decks situation than a running count of 10 with only one deck remaining. All we our running count by the number of decks that remain to be dealt. So, if we have a running 10 with five decks left, we a running 10 with five decks left, we say 10 / 5 gives us a true count of two. If we have a running 10 with only one deck left, then 10 divided by 1 gives us a true count of 10. Here are a few more examples for you. Let's say we have a running 15 with three decks left. 15id 3 gives us a true count of five. Let's say gives us a true count of five. Let's say we have a -2 with four decks left. -12 / 4 gives us a true count of -3. What if we have a running eight with three decks left? That's going to give us a true count of two and you just ignore the remainder. The fourth step is to use the true count for our betting understand how to count cards with perfect basic strategy. counting, true count, betting, and deviations. You can play and use this information in a way to gain the edge over the casino. The bad news is simply having the Not only do you need to be perfect at these skills, which takes many hours of practice, but you also have to know exactly how to bet. You have to know the to acquire the art of card counting so kicked out the minute you sit down and start card counting in a casino. The good news is, while it's not easy, it can be done. My card counting teams and trained hundreds of card counters to employ these exact same strategies to beat casinos for large profits. Is it time to cash your paycheck and head know exactly how to become a professional card counter, which I cover professional card counter, which I cover in this video.