No matter how many decks are in use, as the cards are dealt history begins establishing itself. And as you know, card counting involves using history to gain a better understanding of what cards remain. That’s best accomplished by assigning a point value to each card and then keeping a cumulative running total, commonly referred to as a “running count.”
When the remaining cards are rich enough in 10s and aces, the player has the advantage. When the remaining cards are rich in small cards, the house has the advantage. This is largely due to several reasons, most notably that the dealer has to abide by a predetermined set of rules that forces him to draw until reaching a certain total. Other factors are that the player, unlike the dealer, gets paid at lVr.i for blackjack, and that the player can take advantage of options like doubling down, splitting pairs, and surrender when available.
The first step in gaining an insight into what cards remain is to keep track of those cards that have already been dealt. As far as the running count is concerned, low cards like 2s and 5s have a point value of +1, whereas high cards like aces and all 10-valued cards (hereafter referred to as 10s) have a point count value of -1. So if an abundance of low cards is dealt, the running count will likely be positive—to reflect the fact that a lot of high cards remain. Conversely, when lots of high cards have been dealt, the running count should be negative—to reflect the fact that the remaining cards contain an abundance of low cards.
