---
title: 'Blackjack Hi-Lo Card Counting System Tutorial - How to Win at the Casino'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=KAyA_XTHi-g'
video_id: 'KAyA_XTHi-g'
date: 2026-07-22
duration_sec: 867
channel: 'BibboMedia'
---

# Blackjack Hi-Lo Card Counting System Tutorial - How to Win at the Casino

> Source: [Blackjack Hi-Lo Card Counting System Tutorial - How to Win at the Casino](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KAyA_XTHi-g)

## Summary

This video provides a tutorial on the Hi-Lo card counting system for blackjack, explaining how to track high and low cards to gain an advantage over the casino. The system assigns values to cards: +1 for low cards (2-6), 0 for neutral cards (7-9), and -1 for high cards (10-Ace). The running count is used to calculate the true count, which determines when the player has an edge.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to Hi-Lo Card Counting** [00:02] — The Hi-Lo system is the simplest and most popular blackjack card counting strategy, used by professional players and featured in movies like '21'.
- **Card Values in Hi-Lo System** [01:11] — Low cards (2-6) are valued +1, neutral cards (7-9) are 0, and high cards (10, J, Q, K, Ace) are -1. High cards benefit players by increasing chances of blackjack and successful double downs.
- **Starting a New Shoe** [03:20] — Card counting must start at the beginning of a new shoe to ensure an accurate running count. The example uses an online casino with eight decks.
- **True Count Calculation** [05:44] — True count = running count / number of decks remaining. A true count of +2 or higher gives the player an edge. Each increase of +1 in true count adds 0.5% to the player's edge.
- **Importance of Basic Strategy** [08:32] — Basic strategy is essential to reduce the casino's edge to 0.5%. Combining it with card counting allows for profitable play.
- **When to Leave the Table** [09:45] — Leave the table when the true count is -2 or lower, as it's hard to recover. Also leave when satisfied with profits or after a set session time.
- **Betting Spreads** [10:56] — Bet more when the count is favorable (e.g., 1-8 spread: bet 1 unit at +1 or lower, 2 units at +2, 4 units at +3, 8 units at +4 or higher).
- **Practice Tips** [12:19] — Practice counting a full deck in under a minute. The running count should return to zero for a fresh deck. Fast counting is crucial for real casino play.

### Conclusion

The Hi-Lo card counting system, combined with basic strategy and proper betting spreads, can give players a long-term edge over the casino. Consistent practice is key to mastering the technique.

## Transcript

here and welcome to a brand new video so today I'm gonna show you a tutorial of you're playing blackjack because this system can really be profitable in the long term and can really allow you to beat the casino and make loads of
profits so in this video I'm going to explain you what is the high-low card counting system and how to use so what exactly is the high-low counting system so it's basically the most simple and most popular blackjack card counting
strategy there is out there a lot of professional blackjack players use this strategy because like I said it's really simple and it's really effective as well have you probably heard of this system either from a book or a movie like the
movie 21 that's what they use as a system and it's one of the first card counting systems that existed and also the high-low count is basically a simple way to keep track of high cards left in a deck for a player to get an advantage
over the casino because high cards are really good for the players to have when it comes to blackjack so how to use the high-low telling system it's really simple all you need to do is to keep track of the number of high value cards
and low value cards and when you're counting when you're keeping track of this number it's actually called the running count so the smaller cards in the deck are giving a value of +1 so small cards in blackjack are considered
small cards in blackjack are considered cards like 2 3 4 5 & 6 the middle cards cards like 2 3 4 5 & 6 the middle cards also known as neutral cards which are 7 also known as neutral cards which are 7 8 & 9 are giving a 0 value now to face
cards also known as big cards like 10 Jack Queen King and ace are all giving a minus 1 value to the count so basically these all have values for a reason ok
are really good for the players to have and a low cards are not good for the and a low cards are not good for the players to have okay and reason why this is the case is because high cards allow players to get for example a lot of
black Jack's and you know that when you get a black jack as a player you get paid 3 to 2 so you get pay extra when you get a blackjack and also to double downs for example if you have two fives against a dealer's eight well
that is ten versus eight so you should usually double down and if for example there's still a lot of high cards left in the deck you know that when you double down you're mostly gonna win because the card that's gonna come out
because the card that's gonna come out next is highly probably gonna be a ten valued card or even an ace so you're probably gonna win versus a dealer's probably gonna win versus a dealer's eight like 95% of the time and seven
eight-nine are actually as good for the player than the dealer to have so that's why they have a zero value to them because it really doesn't really change too much on the advantage of the player or the casino when these type of cards
are dealt in the shoe so it may seem a lot for you to understand so to just really stress things out I'm going to go inside a online whiteboard and show you a quick example on how you can do this either online or in real life casino all
and this is a screenshot of an online casino and basically um as you can see over here the tray is empty okay because that means that it's the beginning of
the shoe so these five cards you see over here are the first cards dealt and a shoe and this is a really important rule when your card counting you really need to wait until a brand new shoe starts to start telling cards because
let's say you start telling a middle the shoe well you don't exactly know what the previous cards were dealt so you can't really predict what the count actually is right now okay so that's why you need to wait for a brand new shoe
like for example like this as you can see because it raised until here and an see because it raised until here and an online casino is usually there is a shoe of eight decks over here we have eight decks so basically what you do is we'll
see what the count is after you use five cards are dealt so as you can see the first card over here is an ace now ace is a big card so this is minus 1 to 2 now two is a small card so this is valued at plus one so right now with the
first two cards as you can see the running count right now is at zero because you did a minus one plus one which equals to zero now let's see these two other cards so this card which is a six is a low card so plus one to two
count and this the second card over here is a nine and a nine is a neutral card so it's valued at zero so right now you're running count your total running count with the first four cards is plus one why because as you remember first
two cards ran count was at zero but now you added a plus one to the count because there was a low card so now your total running count is at plus one and last card over here is a seven which is valued at zero so your total running
count for the first five cards is plus one okay so really simple matter right guys so it's really not complicated what a bit of practice you can really master this easily because remember you're just adding one and minus one every time so
adding one and minus one every time so it's really simple now I'm gonna go back inside a PowerPoint and show you extra things to take into consideration when you're counting cards so when do you get the advantage over the casino so you can
get the advantage over TC know and make be a profitable player when the true town is plus 2 or better now what exactly is a true count it's really simple to count equals to the running count and divided by the number of decks
remaining okay so I'll go back to the whiteboard and show you an example of whiteboard and show you an example of what is the true count on the screenshot that I showed you so as you can see over here now to calculate a true count right
now we're gonna do rank count divided by the number of decks remaining so in this example as you remember the running town for the first five cards was +1 for the first five cards was +1 now how many decks are remaining in the
shoe well as you know it's the first five cards in a deck that have been dealt only so there's probably still around eight decks left so you do one around eight decks left so you do one by eight okay and that's gonna give you
by eight okay and that's gonna give you the true count now 1/8 is a rat I think it equals around like 0.12 or something like that so it's way far from being a like that so it's way far from being a plus 2 okay so you're still not in a
profitable game but it's normal because there's only five cards that have been dealt probably in the middle of the shoe you're maybe gonna get to a point where a true count gets positive and you can start making bigger bets when it's you
um gets better and gets in your event okay so as you can see um on the little chart you have on a bottom it says that if you have a true count of plus one or lower the player's edge you you just have no edge still because remember that
um blackjack when you know how to play the casino already has a 0.5% edge on you when you have a true count of zero and every time the true town increases
by one the player's edge increases by 0.5 percent so a true count of plus one not a player's edge is 0% at a true town of plus two the player's edge is 0.5 percent at a plus three to count one percent plus four to count one point
five percent and it goes on and on when the true count increases okay now over here is a true count chart now it's just to show you some examples that you can literally get a really big true town like 12 13 14 and you can almost
literally get a 10 percent edge over a casino which is absolutely insane because remember that most table games that you play the casino doesn't is not even close of getting 10 percent edge on a player's okay usually the table games
average from one to five percent edge on a player so imagine you actually reversing the roles and getting up to a 10 percent edge when you're playing crazy it really happens but you can sometimes
if you get a really good shoe you can sometimes get results like this now counting cards is to learn basic strategy now basic strategy it's really simple it's basically a chart that tells you exactly what to play depending on
what hand you have versus dealer so for example the basic strategy chart over here tells you for example when the player has a 13 versus a dealer is 3 you need to stay if the player has an 11 versus a dealer's 8 you need to double
down every time you have aces and eights you want to always split them regardless what the dealer's up card is for example two fours versus a dealer's - you need
to hit so it really tells you exactly depending on what situation you are versus a dealer it tells you exactly what to play and once you notice by heart and combine this with card counting you will be able to be
profitable in long term because remember if you don't know how to use this by heart the casino can really get a really big edge on you like literally 5 10% edge on you but by using this that allows to decrease the casino edge to
0.5 percent only and that's why if you combine it with card counting then you're good to go so when should you leave the table when you're counting cards so what my personal experience I like to leave the table or change table
when to to town is at minus 2 or lower because -2 is already a pretty bad true town and it's really hard to go from minus 2 to plus 2 or plus 3 2 count um
during the shoe so usually I know it's but bad sign and if I come to playing in the shoe way true count of minus 2 or lower I'm basically gonna lose money for nothing so I rather just leave the table and try to find a brand new shoe with a
brand new table that's probably gonna give me better luck or I like to leave a table when I'm satisfied with my profits ok so some card calendars have certain goals let's say some people like to make $1,000 profit and then leave or you can
also say like I'll just stay and play three or four hour sessions and then leave regardless of what my profits are or what my losses are so that's your personal opinion on deck okay now a really important thing for card counting
really important thing for card counting for it to be effective is to learn different card-counting bedspreads okay so basically what our best breads it's really simple it basically tells you to bet more when the count is in your favor
and that small when account is not in your favorite okay it's real simple know you're in a disadvantage you don't see you like you basically want a bet a lot only when you know you have the edge and you're gonna win most of your hands
so a great example of a bedspread is the one to eight best bread so basically it goes from one unit to eight units now what does they name it guys it's really simple it's basically your best base bet so for this example the player should
bet one unit let's just take the $10 example okay as your base bed so you should bet $10 at a to town of plus one or lower you should bet two units which means $20 in this case at each your camp of plus two you should've bet four units
at a true town of plus three and eight units at a to town of plus four or higher so as you can see the better the true count is the higher you can bet because you know that at a true kind of plus four plus five plus six you're
mostly gonna win most of those hands and that's why you want to bet big and for will you all only want to bet ten dollars because you know you're gonna lose most of those hats and last but not least to really master card counting and
be a professional blackjack player you need to practice okay it's really important okay it's not the easiest thing to do needs anyone can learn it anyone can master it but it needs some time and practice for sure so before
practice at home and master card counting skills by carrying a deck with you you can buy a deck to the dollar store and literally on what you need to do is to count the entire deck like shuffle cards and then count the entire
deck and to know if you counted the cards well at the end of the deck it should arrive at a running count of zero because remember that in a fresh new
deck there's as much low cards and high cards in one deck so that's why the cards in one deck so that's why the count should arrive at zero and usually what I recommend before actually card account in your local casino or in
online casinos you should be able to count an entire deck under around a minute or even people who are able to count between a minute and a minute and
a half is still pretty fast because remember that dealers in real life with fast cars so you don't want to get mixed up and you want to keep track of it of the account and I'm just not getting mixed up so that's why you
really need to practice a lot and really count cards fast to apply it effectively in online or in real life casinos so this was pretty much it guys make sure to LIKE and subscribe I will really appreciate because there's amazing
content coming more card counting tips for you guys because my goal is to help for you guys because my goal is to help you just not be a regular gambler and lose all your money no like gambling is fun and all but it's really nice to
leave what profits okay not leaves so this is my goal where is channel is to teach car detailing to you guys for you guys to have fun while gambling and also be a profitable player and why not maybe make it a side job or maybe a full-time
job so yeah hopefully I enjoy it and see you next one guys bye bye