Hi-Lo card counting, explained

The card values

• 2 to 6count +1
• 7 to 9count 0
• 10 to acecount -1

Low cards (2 to 6) count +1. Middle cards (7, 8 and 9) count 0. Tens, jacks, queens, kings and aces count -1. Each deck holds twenty +1 cards and twenty -1 cards, so a whole deck counts to zero.

What the count tracks

The count is a running summary of the cards you have already seen. When more low cards than high cards have come out, the count rises, and the cards still in the shoe hold a larger share of tens and aces. When more high cards have come out, it falls.

Keeping the running count

Start at 0 when a fresh shoe begins. As each card is turned face up, add its value: your cards, the other players' cards and the dealer's cards. The dealer's hole card counts when it is turned over. Here is a short run of cards:

After those seven cards the running count is +2. Carry it from hand to hand until the shuffle, then start again at 0.

Counting faster

A high card and a low card in the same round cancel each other out, so you can skip them. Many players count cards in pairs or by whole hands rather than one at a time: a 10 and a 4 together are 0, a 5 and a 6 together are +2.

Practising the count

1. One deck, one card at a time. Turn over a single deck and count down to the last card. A complete deck ends at 0, which makes it easy to check yourself.
2. Pairs of cards. Turn two at a time and add the pair as one number.
3. Full rounds. Deal a few hands, then count the whole table at once, the way it looks on a live-dealer stream.
4. Accuracy first, then speed. Once you finish a deck at 0 time after time, start timing yourself.

Try it at a table

The trainer demo deals four hands at an 8-deck table and shows the running count after each card, so you can check the count you are keeping in your head.

The course is built for live-dealer online blackjack dealt from a real shoe. Computer-dealt RNG games usually reshuffle before every hand, so they are not the game this course teaches.

Next: the true count

A running count of +6 means something different early in an 8-deck shoe than it does near the cut card. The true count adjusts for that by dividing by the decks still to come. Counting also builds on basic strategy, so learn the chart first.