Card Counting in Blackjack: Legal but Challenging Strategy

Card counting is a strategy used by advantage players in games like blackjack. It involves paying attention to the cards played since the last reshuffle and making decisions based on them. This strategy has been known to work, allowing skilled players to win consistently against the house.

High cards in blackjack include 10, J, Q, K, and Ace. The Hi-Lo strategy assigns a value of +1 to low cards from 2 through 6, 0 to neutral cards of 7, 8, and 9, and -1 to high cards. The true count in card counting is calculated as running count divided by decks remaining.

Edge sorting is a strategy where players spot imperfections in the cards’ make and deduce what cards are coming next in the deck. Phil Ivey and Cheung Yin Sun were involved in a high-profile edge-sorting case, playing in Atlantic City and London between 2012 and 2014. Both cases were determined as cheating, and Ivey was ordered to repay the Borgata $10.1m and denied £7.7m in marked-card winnings.