Learn to Count Cards
Six lessons, starting from nothing. Each one builds on the last.
This is teaching, not drilling. It assumes you know nothing at all. It starts with what each card is worth and finishes with the true count. Nothing appears on screen without being explained first. When it starts to feel easy, move on to the Counting Trainer. Nobody prompts you there.
The app opens across the whole page and can be expanded to full screen.
- Six lessons, from what a card is worth to the true count.
- It assumes no prior knowledge of counting at all.
- Each lesson unlocks the next and ends with a check that you can do it.
- Nothing appears on screen before it has been explained.
- Free, in your browser, no account and nothing to install.
What the six lessons cover
Each lesson unlocks the next one, and each ends with a short check that you can actually do the thing before you move on. There is no account, no timer on the early lessons and nothing to install.
Card values
What each card is worth in Hi‑Lo, and why it is worth that. Low cards are +1 because their leaving helps you; tens and aces are −1 because theirs hurts. Sevens, eights and nines do nothing at all.
Running count
Holding a running total without thinking about it. Cards come one at a time, you add the tags, and the number stays in your head rather than on your lips.
A whole round at the table
Counting the way cards actually appear — a full round, several hands at once, the dealer's hole card staying face down until the end. This is the first lesson that looks like a casino rather than a flashcard.
A round with no prompts
The values above the cards disappear, and so does the running total. The round plays out and you say what you got. This is where you find out whether you were counting or reading.
Estimating the decks left
Judging by eye how much of the shoe is still to come, from the height of the discard tray. Half a deck of accuracy is plenty — nobody can tell 2.0 decks from 2.25, and nobody needs to.
True count
Running count divided by decks remaining. This is the number your bet comes from, and the reason the previous lesson exists. A running count of +6 means almost nothing early in an eight‑deck shoe and a great deal with one deck left.
What you need before you start
Nothing about counting. That is the point of the course. It is genuinely built for someone who has never seen a count before.
It does help to know how blackjack itself is played — who acts when, what a double is, what a split is. If any of that is shaky, read the rules first; it takes ten minutes and the lessons will make far more sense.
What you do not need is a memory for numbers. Counting is one running total that changes by one at a time. The hard part is doing it at the speed of a real dealer while looking like you are not doing it at all, and that is a matter of practice rather than talent.
What comes after the course
Finishing the six lessons means you can keep an accurate count. It does not yet mean you can beat a table, and it is worth being clear about the gap.
Counting only pays if you also vary your bet with the count, play correct basic strategy without thinking, and sit at a table where the dealer deals deep enough into the shoe for the count to reach useful numbers. That last one decides more than the other two put together — see deck penetration.
The honest arithmetic of what all of it earns is in what counting actually pays. It is a smaller number than most people expect.
Keep going
By Martin Kosek · every number on this site is computed by us, not copied.
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