card counting practice

Blackjack Card Counter Practice

	
	My Las Vegas game of choice is Blackjack.  It's one of the few games where you can reduce the House's advantage by using correct play. For every hand of cards you hold and knowing the dealer's "up" card, there is a play that maximizes your chance of winning certain good hands, and minimizes your losses on hands that are just plain losers in the long run.

	These correct plays collectively are called the Basic Strategy, which can reduce the House's advantage to about 0.5%.  You can actually swing the advantage to slightly in your favor by counting cards (about 0.5%).  For comparison, betting red/black on Roulette has the House advantage of 5%.  I tried learning to count cards, but it's too much work (for me), and I'm there to have fun, get a few free drinks, and maybe get lucky using the Basic Strategy. I wrote this program to practice keeping the count to know when the odds swing slightly in your favor, that is, when you are supposed to increase your bet. 

	The odds can be in your favor when the deck is "ten rich", and not in your favor when the deck is "ten poor". When there are more tens (and aces) in the next cards to be dealt you are more likely to get a blackjack.  So is the dealer, and he wins your bet, but you get paid 3:2 when you get a blackjack. You can stand on totals like 12-16; the dealer must hit those, and is more likely to break. You can double your bet on two card totals like 10 and 11, and increase your chances of drawing a ten and getting a much stronger hand.

	When the deck is "ten poor" it has more small cards to be dealt, and the dealer is more likely to make a hand, i.e., not bust.  There will be fewer Blackjacks, and if you double down, you are less likely to improve your hand.

	In the Hi-Lo counting system, the cards have the following values:
		10, J, Q, A      -1
		7, 8, 9              0
		2, 3, 4, 5, 6    +1

	As the cards are dealt, keep a running count.  For example, if the cards dealt are ten, ace, 2, 8, 7, 5, 5, then the count is +1.  Unfortunately, there may be 6-8 decks in the shoe, and you need to divide the running count by an estimate of the number of decks remaining, so if the running count is +5, and you estimate 5 decks remain, the true count is +1.  A positive count means the deck is ten rich (in your favor).  A negative count means the deck is ten poor not in your favor).  Make a minimum bet when the count is zero or negative, and a larger bet when the count is positive.

	This program shuffles and deals a single deck so that you can practice keeping a running count.  You can hide the count if you wish, and then show it to see how you are doing.  This is a very minimal explanation of card counting.  There are more sophisticated web sites that explain Basic Strategy in detail and explain card counting in more detail.

Like here: 
https://www.blackjackinfo.com/blackjack-school/lesson-03-counting-cards-the-basics/

Card values:
10, J, Q, A	 -1
7, 8, 9                0
2, 3, 4, 5, 6      +1