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Can You Count Cards in Live Blackjack Online?

Many players want to know if they can count cards when playing live online blackjack. Counting cards is a well-known strategy used by blackjack experts to gain an edge over the house. Mathematician Edward Thorp invented the strategy.

While counting cards at a land-based casino may be a manageable task, live blackjack is a different story. Read more to find out if it’s possible to count cards in live blackjack online.

Live Blackjack Counting Cards

How to Count Cards in Live Blackjack

Counting cards in live blackjack online is quite difficult because many challenges prevent it. For example, there are many things  that the dealer can do to prevent you from counting cards.

You can count cards in live dealer blackjack games. However, there are a few challenges that you need to be aware of. One of the challenges is that live dealer blackjack games are played with multiple card decks.

What’s more, these cards are reshuffled after each round. While the reshuffling of the cards is not as frequent as online blackjack, the deck penetration is at 50%. Furthermore, other challenges make it difficult for you to count cards.

For example, some dealers use auto reshuffling machines and the “burning” technique. There are ways that the casino uses to identify players who are counting cards. Remember that counting cards at the casino are not illegal, but it’s frowned upon.

For example, if you have a high winning streak, the casino will pay special attention. They want to see if you’re doing anything illegal to improve your chances of winning. However, the casino will not ban you  for winning.

How Do Casinos Stop Players From Counting Cards?

As we have mentioned before, there are several ways that the casino can prevent you from counting cards. Here are some ways that the casino uses to make your counting cards strategy difficult:

  1. Fewer Hands Per Hour: in virtual blackjack, the more hands you play per hour, the better your payout chances will be. However, live blackjack has a slower pace, and the dealers may use fewer hands per hour. It won’t be worth your while to count cards when this happens.
  2. Bet Tracking Software: many casinos use the software to track the decks of cards used and how the players are betting. So, the software can detect that your betting patterns match the card count.
  3. Continuous Shuffling: the dealers will continuously use a machine that shuffles the cards. So, the card counting strategy can be useless when this happens.
  4. Using Multiple Decks: many live blackjack games online are played using multiple decks. For example, a standard live blackjack game uses eight decks with 52 cards. So, it may be very difficult for you to count the cards belonging to various decks.

Final Thoughts

While counting cards may be difficult to do when you’re playing live blackjack. You can use various strategies to improve your chances of winning. We have several strategies for you to use at the blackjack table.