Card Counting Values
Option 1: Create a card using the report editor. The first method to create a card is to use the report editor in Power BI Desktop. Start on a blank report page and select the Store Open store count field. Power BI creates a column chart with the one number. In the Visualizations pane, select the card icon. Essentially, counting cards in blackjack involves assigning values to every card dealt out. By keeping a running count, you can assess whether the cards still to come will be high value or low value. The player continues to add to the count for every card dealt, including the dealer’s cards. The higher the running count, the more you bet. Gamblers who are experienced with baccarat and blackjack sometimes wonder if the latter can be beaten through card counting. Reasons why include that baccarat is dealt from a shoe, and players can track card values as the shoe is dealt. Baccarat maintains some similarities to blackjack in terms of card counting. The Basics of the REKO System. The REKO system works like any other card counting method in that it uses numerical values assigned to each card in the deck to create a running count that is expressed by a positive or negative number.
- New Card Counting Methods
- What Is Counting Cards
- How To Count Cards Easy
- Blackjack Card Counting Values
This article will teach you how to count cards using the Hi-Lo Method. The reason the player who can properly count cards is feared by the Casino is simple. It puts the odds in the player’s favor. The house edge in the game is destroyed when the shoe is rich in face cards. The odds for the rest of the shoe will remain with the player to win more bets than the dealer due to the fact that he can wave off hitting a card on a likely to bust hand. The dealer must hit any hand lower than a soft 17 (Ace and a six). A rich shoe in face cards means the dealer has a higher chance of busting their hand.
The idea behind card counting is to count the shoe down by keeping track of the cards as the dealer shows them. You know how many face cards are in a six-deck shoe and how many cards are under six not counting the aces. When few low cards remain and the majority of the cards in the shoe are high cards, the shoe favors the player. When this situation is present, the player raises the size of his bets. The easiest and most popular method of card counting is the Hi-Lo method which will be described here.
If a range, such as A2:D20, contains the number values 5, 6, 7, and 6, then the number 6 occurs two times. If a column contains 'Buchanan', 'Dodsworth', 'Dodsworth', and 'Dodsworth', then 'Dodsworth' occurs three times. There are several ways to count how often a value occurs. Count how often a single value occurs by using the COUNTIF function.
First, you must know the point values to assign to each card. Memorize these or you will never be able to successfuly implement this strategy.
Low Cards: Two, Three, Four, Five and Six cards are valued at +1. Low cards are helpful to the dealer who keeps drawing while the value of his hand is under 17. Low cards give the dealer a higher chance of beating your hand and a less likely chance to bust.
High Cards: Ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace are valued at minus (-) 1. You want the deck to have more high cards remaining near the end of the shoe. This is because they make the dealer more likely to bust. It also gives you a higher chance of getting dealt 17 or higher on your first two cards, including blackjack.
Neutral Cards: Seven, Eight and Nine have no value, or zero (0). The purpose of this is to balance the system. It allows there to be an equal number of high cards and low cards so the final count of an entire shoe equals zero.
Now for the process of counting. When you have the counting values of each card down, you will now start to keept the “running count“. The running count is the process of adding and subtracting the values of each card as they are dealt. For example, if the first five cards that come out of the deck are Jack, 7, 3, King, Ace, the running count would be minus (-) two. (J=minus 1, 7=0, 3=+1, King=minus1, Ace=minus1). This may seem easy or difficult to you, but either way, practice makes perfect. The more you practice keeping the running count, the better you will get. The purpose of this site is to help you get better and this is why we provide the unique Card Counting Trainer for your use. Use it as often as you like to get better at keeping the running count.
The running count, however, is not the final step in the Hi-Lo method. You must also learn to convert the running count into the “true count” of the shoe. The true count gives you a better determination of whether the shoe gives you the advantage. The way to determine the true count of the shoe is to divide the running count by the remaining cards left in the shoe. Casinos offer games ranging from a single deck of cards to eight decks of cards, so you will have to know how many decks are in the game you are playing. You will then also have to be able to estimate how many cards or decks are left in the shoe. The way to estimate this is to look at the amount of cards in the discard tray by the dealer. Let’s say you are playing a standard six deck shoe, your running count is at 9, and you see about three decks in the discard tray. Take your running count of 9, divide it by the remaining amount of decks 3 (6 deck shoe minus 3 discarded decks = 3 remaining decks) and you get a true count of 3. to be more accurate, you can estimate to the nearest half deck of cards remaining.
The last step is applying your card counting skills to your betting. You gain your advantage against the Casino by betting larger when the count is positive and betting smaller or the minimum when it is negative. The true count determines the size of your bet. What you will do is value each bet as a unit based on the size of your minimum bet. If you are playing a $25 table, one unit is $25. You will increase the amount of units based on the true count. Follow the table below for playing at a standard 6 deck table.
True Count Units to Bet
0 or less 1
+1 2
+2 4
+3 8
+4 10
+5 or greater 12
Now you know the basics of card counting using the Hi-Lo method! As stated earlier, practice makes perfect. Please utilize our unique Card Counting Trainer to help you get better and better at keeping the running count. You can also visit some of our recommended online casinos to test your counting skills while wagering real money. While online casinos do not keep a true shoe and the card counting will not give you an advantage, it will still help you get ready for the live casinos by including all of the actions of placing bets, keeping the count, and knowing when you would increase your bet.
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By Ralph Welton
There are many ways to evaluate the strength of a bridge hand. The most common is to assign point values to honor cards:
ace = 4
king = 3
queen = 2
and jack = 1
Then you simply add up all your points, and you get a number for the strength of your hand – its 'high card points.' The assumption is that hands with more points are likely to take more tricks.
♠AQ852 ♥KJ4 ♦Q8 ♣KQT How many points?
♠K52 ♥A83 ♦AKQ8 ♣T98 How many points?
♠9 ♥KQJ63 ♦KJ7 ♣AT52 How many points?
♠J63 ♥AJT9 ♦KQJT ♣Q4 How many points?
♠AKQJT8763 ♥7 ♦ – ♣Q52 How many points?
Counting high card points is simple, and good enough to get you started with evaluating the strength of your hand. However, there are adjustments to the count that improve the accuracy. So let's talk about the best and easiest to learn adjustments.
We count 3 points for a king, but that doesn't mean that all kings are equally valuable on each and every hand.
- Sometimes a king takes a trick, and sometimes it doesn't.
- Sometimes a king helps you establish skaters in a long suit, and sometimes it doesn't.
- Sometimes a king helps establish other honors as trick takers, and sometimes it doesn't.
To say that a king is worth 3 points implies that it's always worth the same amount. But that's simply not true.
Can we predict when a king should be counted at full value, and when it shouldn't?
Yes! Take a look at these two kings:
♠T932 ♥K ♦K742 ♣8765
Count the full 3 points for your ♦K. But your ♥K is worth less because you have no choice about when to play it. If your opponents play the ♥A, you won't be able to play a spot card on the trick. You will have to play your singleton king under the ace. So sad.
What do we do about this?
We adjust our counting by subtracting a point for honors without a lower card in the suit. This modest adjustment corrects for the disadvantages of honors in short suits.
(If you skipped the Bridge Bears pages on How To Win Tricks, especially blocked suits and skaters, now would be a good time to read them.)
How do we evaluate a doubleton KQ?
♠T932 ♥KQ ♦KQ42 ♣765
Follow the same procedure. Count your high card points, then subtract 1 point for not having a smaller card in the heart suit.
Even AKQ loses a point for not having a lower card in the suit.
♠KQ ♥AJT83 ♦ QJ6 ♣AQ8 How many points?
You didn't click this button to see the answer before counting the hand yourself, did you? There'll be no honey for Bears who won't count!
♠A ♥KQJT ♦ QJT ♣KJ964 How many points?
♠KQT98 ♥AQJ ♦ 832 ♣AQ How many points?
(hearts and clubs have no spot cards)
I hope you had no trouble with those, because I'm ready to move on to another adjustment.
Subtract a point for hands with 4-3-3-3 distribution.
A hand with only one 4 card suit provides almost no chance of developing skaters. And you have no short suit where you might trump partner's losers, either.
Let's try counting some hands where I've mixed in both 4-3-3-3 distribution and honors without spot cards.
♠K532 ♥QJT ♦AT9 ♣KQJ How many points?
(4333, and no club spot card)
♠QJ9752 ♥A ♦K876 ♣QJ How many points?
(no heart or club spot cards)
♠KQ6 ♥AKQ ♦T876 ♣A64 How many points?
(4333, and no heart spot card)
New Card Counting Methods
♠K2 ♥JT7 ♦AQT93 ♣KT6 How many points?
We've covered when to subtract from our high card points. Are you wondering if we ever add points? Yes we do.
If you have enough trumps in the dummy, you may be able to trump one or two of declarer's losers. This wins tricks just as surely as winning with honor cards.
So we can assign a point value to the ability to trump.
We do this in two ways:
- Add a point for each EXTRA trump in support of partner's suit. How many is extra? Well, that depends on how many trumps you need for an 8 card fit. If partner has shown a 5 card suit, you can raise with 3 trumps. So a fourth trump is one extra (count 1 extra point), and 5 trumps is two extra (count 2 extra points).
- After you've found a fit, you can also count points for shortness in side suits. The sooner you run out of cards in a side suit, the sooner you can start trumping. The extra points are called dummy points.
- count 2 dummy points for a singleton
- count 5 dummy points for a void
Let's look at a few examples of adding extra points. You'll need to know how many trumps partner has, so you can figure out if you have any extra trumps.
Partner opens the bidding with 1♠ (5+ suit).
You hold: ♠K972 ♥7 ♦KJ32 ♣A642
Your hand is worth 11 + 3 dummy points = 14 total points.
The extra points are +2 for the singleton, and +1 for an extra trump.
Partner opens the bidding with 1♥ (5+ suit).
You hold: ♠A54 ♥QT8 ♦K9852 ♣76
Your hand is worth 9 (0 dummy points).
Partner opens the bidding with 1♥ (5+ suit).
You hold: ♠K542 ♥AT752 ♦ – ♣QJ86
Your hand is worth 10 + 7 = 17 points.
The extra points are +5 for a diamond void, and +2 for extra trumps.
I've made the next three hands as tricky as I can. Count carefully.And no peeking before you count!
Partner opens the bidding with 1♠ (5+ suit), and you hold:
♠QJ82 ♥JT7 ♦KQJ ♣KT6 How many points?
+1 for an extra trump
-2 for 4333, and no diamond spot card
Partner opens the bidding with 1♠ (5+ suit), and you hold:
♠AQT82 ♥4 ♦KT7652 ♣6 How many points?
+2 for extra trump
+2 for a singleton heart, and +2 for a singleton club
Partner opens the bidding with 1♥ (5+ suit), and you hold:
♠ 9 ♥KQ ♦KQT86 ♣AJ986 How many points?
-1 for hearts with no spot card
Do not count +2 for the singleton spade because you do not have a trump fit.
Little Bear asks, 'Aren't there other times when we should add or subtract points? What about when I have a really good long suit?'
Yes, Little Bear. There are many other adjustments that experienced players make when counting their points.
But let's not try to learn too much all at once. Remember, high card points all by themselves are a good start. After that, make the adjustments that you remember.
What Is Counting Cards
Dummy points are only counted when supporting partner's trump suit. Do not count dummy points when you are bidding your own suit. (Only the dummy counts dummy points – Duh!). Do not count dummy points for no trump, even if you have support for a suit partner has previously bid.
If partner has bid a major suit, count dummy points whenever you have a fit. Declaring in the major suit is preferred to declaring in no trump.
How To Count Cards Easy
But if partner has bid a minor suit, do not count dummy points when you raise because many hands with a minor suit fit wind up played in NT. Partner needs to know when the points you promise with your raise will contribute to taking tricks in a NT contract. Dummy points do not.
If partner has avoided NT and has bid his minor a second time, count full dummy points when deciding if you should raise to a minor suit game.
Summary:
Count 4-3-2-1 points for honor cards.
Subtract points for honors without a spot card, and for 4-3-3-3 distribution.
Blackjack Card Counting Values
Add 1 point for each extra trump.
Add dummy points for short suits, after you've found a fit...
- singleton = 2 points
- void = 5 points
Go to the next topic:
→ How to Count Points
Bridge Bears is run by a retired teacher and ACBL life master who has 35 years teaching experience and who's been playing bridge for over 50 years. I don't claim to be one of the top players, but I do understand how slowly beginners need to go when they are trying to learn how to play bridge.
Copyright © 2010-2020 by Ralph Welton. All rights reserved. No part of this website may be copied, displayed on another website, or distributed in any way without permission from the author.