When it comes to playing online casino games, especially blackjack, one of the most common questions I’m asked is if it is possible to take advantage of card counting.
If you are not familiar with card counting, it is a tactic which is frowned upon at land-based casinos because it can be so lucrative.
It is basically where a player sits at a blackjack table and memorises the order in which the cards have been dealt so that they are then able to calculate the bets which they make, safe in the knowledge that have a good idea of the cards they will be dealt, this vastly increasing their chances of winning.
Card counting is a skill which needs to be learnt and if a pit boss in a land-based casino suspects a blackjack player of card counting, he or she will be asked to leave the casino.
It can be a hugely lucrative skill to learn and if you take a look, you will find stories of professional card counters who travel the world profiting greatly from their skill, often having to wear disguises as their faces are on a casino blacklist of suspected card counters.
If something seems too good to be true…
When you think about it, card counting is a pastime which lends itself perfectly to online casino play, you could openly make a note of every card that has been dealt so you would be able to increase the bets which you make accordingly.
Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?
The only problem is that it is not possible to card count online and anyone that tells you it is, either doesn’t know what they are talking about, or they are trying to sell you a blackjack card counting course or something like that.
That’s not to say that it is not possible to make a profit from online blackjack play, just not from card counting!
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Why doesn’t it work?
You are probably expecting me to tell you that card counting doesn’t work online for all sorts of complicated reasons and that the online casinos are up to all sorts of mischief to protect their coffers.
I’m sorry to disappoint you but the reason that card counting doesn’t work with online blackjack is simply because the cards are shuffled more often.
In a nutshell, that’s it!
Just by shuffling the cards more often means that it would be pointless getting involved with card counting, even if you wanted to!
Something else to bear in mind, let’s say that a live dealer casino came out and stated that the cards would be shuffles at the same frequency as a regular offline casino.
This would immediately prick the ears of blackjack card counters who would be getting excited, thinking that their dreams have come true.
Unfortunately, though, their excitement would be short lived, please let me tell you why.
To make card counting pay, it is believed that a player would need to be playing around 200 rounds per hour.
It sounds like a lot, but it is perfectly possible when playing at a land-based casino.
How many rounds do you think it is possible to play on live dealer blackjack on an online casino?
150, 100?
Think again.
From my experience, you are looking at somewhere in the region of 25 rounds per hour, depending on the table that you are playing.
Another nail in the coffin for card counting online I am afraid.
So how can you win playing live blackjack online?
Don’t worry, I’m not going to give you another lecture about playing perfect blackjack strategy, you can look at my other blog posts for a detailed explanation of how that works.
Using the perfect blackjack strategy, the best way to win online is to basically use a good staking system, my favourite being the sweeper system.
It is quite common to get 10 winning or 10 losing hands in a row but just imagine how fast your playing balance will grow if you are using the sweeper system and you encounter a few winning hands.
If you are using this system, it is a good idea to choose a table where larger stakes are being used because there is nothing worse than using this system on a winning run but being unable to raise your stakes to the desired amount because you have reached the table limit.
Try using the sweeper system when playing live dealer blackjack and you will soon realise that not being able to card count is probably a blessing in disguise.
