Card counting is a skill that can only to be learnt with time and experience and can only be done when you are playing blackjack using a shoe where the cards that have already been played get laid aside until the shoe is nearly empty. This way you can count the cards that have left the game and you know what cards are left in the game. Once the shoe is nearly empty, all the cards will get shuffled and placed back in the shoe for the next few rounds. Online casinos and land based casinos will often try to stop effective card counting by shuffling the decks in the shoe long before it is eve half empty.

Many casinos nowadays have automatic shuffle machines and once a hand has been played the cards are put straight back into the machine and they are then shuffled for the next round. This is most popular when playing with one or two decks and it makes card counting useless as the card that you might just have played can reappear in the next round.

The whole concept of counting cards is something that we would all like to be able to do and to become a good card counter is not difficult, it is just a question of practise and time but being a successful card counter is quite difficult. There are many different aspects to card counting and it is not simply being able to count but think of all the different emotions that you have to be able to control and at the same time play your blackajck hands correctly. If you have just lost 25 hands at 100 euro a piece, then you have to be able to stick with the system and keep on going as if you where just starting which may sound easy but it is not. There are many players who practise card counting in the world but only a handful that are successful.

The whole system of card couting is based on statistics. If you know what has already left a deck or decks then you have a better chance of knowing what is coming. If you where to be playing blackjack with one deck and in the initial deal there were 8 cards with a value of ten then you know that there are only eight, 10 valued cards remaining. With this knowledge you can change your way of playing to your advantage but always remember that card counting is a question of chance and probability; nothing is certain in these games.

Before you get too enthusiastic about counting cards, try doing it at home and see how you get on.