Card counting involves knowing what cards have already been played and what is still in the deck. It does not involve memorizing the cards, which is what is shown in the movie Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. In its simplest form you simply assign a value to each card as it is dealt. Cards 2-6 are worth +1 each, 10s and all face cards are worth -1 each, and 7-9 are worth 0. As each card is dealt, you keep a running tally, and the count will rise and fall. When the count is negative the deck is in the dealer's favor, and you should bet low. When the count is positive the deck is in your favor and you should bet high. There are more advanced systems which value the cards at multiple levels, but the basic Hi-Lo strategy works.
On the downside, it is not a guarantee, simply a method to move the odds to your favor. You have to pay attention, really pay attention to pull it off. The casinos know this and have a number of countermeasures, from simply trying to distract you and make you lose count, to more frequent shuffling, which erases the count but slows the game considerably. Another tried and true method, not used so much in the U.S. but very popular in third world shitholes, is to take you out and bury you, often with a single hand showing above ground, holding a card. Card counting is not illegal. Using a mechanical or electronic counter is extremely illegal. Worst of all, the advantage is small enough that you need to be playing for large sums to make it worthwhile, hence why I was playing at the $50 and up table.
By the time it became common knowledge how to do this, most casinos started tracking known counters and using computer software to analyze betting habits and facial recognition to discover disguised counters, and then ban the counters from returning. Nobody knew me yet.
The system works. It isn't easy, and you really need to pay attention, and that was why I couldn't have my buddies hovering over me yakking it up and kibbitzing. I sat there and gambled for a couple of hours before Ricky and Marty came searching for me. Thankfully I was in a definite hot streak where the count was very positive and I was able to make some large bets and pocket some serious coin. They came up behind me and saw the amount of chips on the table and gasped. "Buckman! Where have you been? We've been all over the place looking for you. Holy shit! What are you doing?!"
I still had a nice positive count going, so I played one more bet for $300, hit a blackjack, and collected at 3:2. At that point I stood up and slid a chip across the table to the dealer. "That's for you. I think I'm going to cash out." The guys had totally blown my concentration, but it was time to quit anyway. The count was turning.
"Thank you, sir. Cashing out!" My chips were placed in a small rack and handed to me, and Ricky and Marty followed me in astonishment over to a cashier's window. I had about four grand in cash, including my original one grand stake, so I was up about three. Not bad for an afternoon. Still, I wasn't sorry they had stopped me. I just don't have the fire in the belly that a lot of gamblers have. For me it was just a job, and one where having people at my side was a distraction I couldn't afford. It was lonely and sterile. I had never done it before because I had never really had the money to be able to sit at a table for the hours it took, and at the stakes necessary, to make it worthwhile. Now I had the cash, but it was still something that left me cold.
Real gamblers, the guys who get in trouble, are different. They get a thrill that is almost sexual in nature when they are making bets, no matter what on. They've run MRIs and scans and stuff on these guys, and the same parts of the brain light up like when you're on drugs or getting laid or whatever. It's part of why they have to gamble even when they are losing. Me, I just don't get that same sort of thrill. I smiled at the cashier and sorted through my money. I counted out five hundred dollar bills and handed them to Ricky, and then another five hundreds to Marty. "Here, take these."
Marty stared at the money. Ricky asked, "What the fuck is this?"
"This, my friends, pays for our vacation! Say thank you!"
Marty looked at me. "Are you shitting me?"
"I am dead serious. I'm still ahead. Come on, let's get a drink! I'll tell you there." We found a bar and grabbed a seat at a table against one of the walls.
"Okay, what's going on? What's with the money? When did you become a big time gambler?", asked Ricky.
I motioned him to be quiet when a pretty waitress came up and took drink orders. We all ordered beers. Once she went away, I considered what to say. This was in the days before microscopic cameras and microphones could allow each table to be monitored in a casino. I just nodded and said, "Okay, but this is just between the three of us. If anybody ever asks, just tell them I got lucky, real lucky at the casino, and leave it at that. Nobody'll believe you anyway."
"Believe what?"
I leaned forward and said quietly, "I can count cards."
I was surprised in that neither of the guys knew what I was talking about. "What's that?", asked Marty.
"Yeah, not following you either.", agreed Ricky.
"I'm surprised. I'd have figured that at a science and engineering school like the 'Tute everybody would've known about it." I shrugged my shoulders. "Okay, lesson time in applied probability and statistics. Most of what goes on in a casino has fixed probabilities of outcomes. For instance, at the roulette table, you have a wheel with 38 slots, numbers 1 thru 36, alternating in red and black, and the numbers 0 and 00 in green. Following me so far?"
"Sure.", said Marty. Ricky nodded.
"So, pure probability theory states that the odds of hitting any given value is 1 in 38. In a perfectly even payout, if you hit that number, they should pay you 38 to 1." Again, more nods. "But they don't, they only pay at 36 to 1. They keep the percentage from hitting the 0 and 00. The only way to play those two numbers is to bet directly on them, and they still only pay 36 to 1. The house keeps that fraction, roughly 2 in 38, as the house cut. That's their profit."
"What's that got to do with blackjack?', asked Ricky.
"I'm getting there. The thing to remember is that most of the games, the slots and wheels and dice and everything, they are based on totally random events. You can't control what number shows up on the roulette wheel or how the dice turn up. The casinos know that and have it manipulated so that they always get a piece of the action. There's only two games where you can beat the house, poker and blackjack."
"What?"
I nodded some more. "Poker is actually skillful, reading the other players and not the cards. A lot of casinos simply allow games to be held, and take a cut out of each pot. It's not even their money. Blackjack is more complicated. Over the course of a game, going through the cards, the house has the edge, but during the game, there will be moments when the house has the advantage and moments when the player has the advantage. When you have the advantage, you bet big, and when you don't, you bet small. That shifts the game's odds from the house to the player. That's what I was doing in there."
"And you can do this? You've done this before? How hard is it?", asked Ricky excitedly.
"Whoa, hold on! Don't get too excited. This is the first time I've ever tried it, more to see if I could do it than anything else. I can, but it is not easy. It requires a lot of concentration. That's why I had to be by myself. I have to watch every card as it's dealt and keep a running total in my head. Somebody talking to me, drinking, smoking, girls, anything and my concentration is shot and I start losing money."