Mar 04, 2019  I use ace/five count with much success! The key is betting correctly though, since the odds of getting a blackjack are smaller than getting two face cards when using standard hi/low counting formulas. Usually an ace will come out when the count is good, but another player will get it, or worse of all, the dealer snags it.

• Aces And Fives Blackjack Card Counting Method
• Back Counting Blackjack
• Blackjack Card Counting Aces Fives
• Blackjack Counting Cards

The Wong Halves Count is one of the most advanced card counting systems you’ll find. Few people actually use this strategy, as it’s pretty complex, but it’s still an interesting counting system to analyze and discuss. Many of the principles involved in card counting in general are well-illustrated by this system.

How to Count Cards

The goal when counting cards in blackjack isn’t to memorize which cards have been dealt so that you’ll know which cards are still in the deck. That kind of savant-style behavior looks great in movies like Rain Man, but in reality, counting cards is much simpler. It’s just a way of tracking the ratio of high value cards versus low value cards in the deck.

The simplest card counting systems are known as “Ace-Five” systems. These card counting techniques only require the player to track the number of aces and fives being removed from the deck during play. Each ace that is removed from the deck is counted as a -1; each five that is seen adds +1 to the count. Ace-Five Counting Systems. One of the easiest card counting system currently available is the Ace-Five count. Other systems that use this particular name share a common factor: they only count the Aces and Fives, and ignore the rest of the cards. This is due to the fact that Aces are the best card in the shoe for the player and Fives are the worst.

Blackjack is unlike other casino games, because it has a memory. When you spin a roulette wheel, the odds of landing on a specific number are 37 to 1 every time. The wheel doesn’t remember what happened on previous spins.

But suppose you had a roulette wheel where a specific number was removed after being landed on? Your odds of hitting another number would improve to 36 to 1.

Those odds would continue to increase until you hit your number.

There is no roulette table that works in this way, but blackjack works in a similar way. Once a specific card has been dealt, it can’t be dealt again until the deck is re-shuffled.

Aces And Fives Blackjack Card Counting Method

Since some of the cards in a blackjack deck are better for the dealer and some of the cards are better for the player, it’s a relatively easy matter to guess at which cards make a difference to a blackjack player.

Back Counting Blackjack

Since blackjack pays off at 3 to 2 when you’re dealt a natural, the cards that can form a natural are obviously favorable to the player. The only cards which can result in a blackjack (natural) are the tens and the aces, so you want to bet more when the deck has more of those cards compared to lower cards like deuces or fives.

All counting systems track this ratio by assigning a heuristic value to each card type and then keeping an ongoing count of that total. Usually these values are easy to keep up with—you just add 1 or subtract 1 from the count, according to the rules of the card counting system that you’re using.

Of course, this only provides an ESTIMATE of your advantage.

More complicated systems use different values for different cards, usually between 1 and 3, either positive or negative.

How the Wong Halves System Is Different

The Wong Halves System is different because it uses fractions. The following values are used in the Wong Halves System:

• Aces are tens are worth -1.
• Nines are worth -0.5.
• Deuces and Sevens are worth +0.5.
• Threes, Fours, and Sixes are worth +1.
• Fives are worth +1.5.

If that seems complicated, it’s because it IS complicated, which is why this system isn’t commonly used by card counters today. This system does, however, provide a very accurate estimate of how good the player’s advantage (or lack of an advantage) is.

Card counters evaluate card counting systems in part based on a number called “betting correlation”. This is a percentage that rates how accurately the system estimates the player’s advantage. The Wong Halves System has a 99% betting correlation, which is one of the best in the business.

Blackjack Card Counting Aces Fives

Of course, everything is relative. The Hi Lo System, for example, has a betting correlation of 97%, which makes it only slightly less accurate. It’s also far easier to implement. In the Hi Lo System, aces and tens are still worth -1, but 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s are all worth +1 each. That’s a lot easier to remember and use.

What Do You Do with the Count

Almost all card counting systems, including the Wong Halves Count, requires a conversion from the running count to the true count. The running count is the raw number that you come up with while you keep count of the card values in your head. The true count is that number divided by the number of decks that still haven’t been dealt.

Blackjack Counting Cards

Converting the running count to a true count compensates for the dilution effect of having so many cards in the deck. It might seem like it wouldn’t matter, but the effect of having 1 card out of 52 dealt is significantly greater than having 1 card out of 416 dealt.

Either way, the main goal of the card counter is to bet more when the count is high. This coincides with the counter’s secondary goal of betting less when the count is low. By ranging their bets in this way, users of the Wong Halves Count put more money into action when they have an edge over the casino.

Some counters also use the count to change their basic strategy decisions to more accurately reflect what’s left in the deck. This can add a tenth of a percent (or two) to the player’s expectation, but it’s not the main source of a card counter’s profits. The main source of those profits is the additional money that’s bet when the player is more likely to be dealt a “natural”.

The Wong Halves Card Counting System is an interesting curiosity, but it’s not a commonly used system. Beginners should learn something simpler, like the Hi-Lo System, and even experts will probably be better served by using a system that’s simpler but similar in terms of accuracy