The next important step in learning blackjack strategies, if you have already known how to use the chart, is the card counting. This is very useful skill which allows you to predict the moment when you have the edge over house. The main idea of card counting is to understand the correlation of high and low cards in a hand.

The best variant is when you have more high cards in comparison with the low cards in card deck, because you chances to win the game with 21 points or come closer to this goal rise. Furthermore in a case you count cards the dealer becomes not so save and you can bust him.

Though it can bring to you the great advantage, the card counting is quite difficult process. At the same time it requires practice and good skills, which should combine with the sharp eye and the basic math knowledge. The idea of Card counting can comes from the year 1962 when Dr. Edward O. Thorp has published the popular book Beat the Dealer, where he mentioned all the things which were necessary for the successful card counting. Thorp can’t be called the inventor of this strategy, but he is probably the first who describes this system in details.

Joe Bernstein and Jesse Marcum were among the authors who used card counting and even wrote about it earlier. Herbert Maisel, James McDermott, Wilbert Canteny, and Roger Baldwin can be called the authors of the card counting system, they discovered it in 1957, that was five years before the popular book was published. The so-called Four Horsemen, the men used the ordinary technology and mechanical calculators for creating this great system.

As we have already said, you don’t need to be a mathematical genius for understanding how the card counting works and successfully use this knowledge, though it’s not easy. First of all the counter should classify all cars according to the specific values, from +1 to -1 with the zero in the middle. The +1 value can be used for the cards between 2 and 6, the 0 value means the cards between 7 and 9, and at last -1 is need for the 10 and the picture cards.