Lesson description
Multiple decks in blackjack can skew the accuracy of your card counting and affect your bets. You can avoid these pitfalls, as Mr Blackjack shows, with the true count.
INSTRUCTOR: The principles of card counting are the same between single and multi-deck games of 21. But when you're playing with multiple decks, you need to start calculating the true count.
Lesson 5 - single-deck, multi-deck card counting. How to determine the true count. You already have the running count, which we learned in previous videos. That is the total count up to date, but now you must divide that by the number of decks remaining in play to get the true count in the game. This gives you a more accurate probability rating of the cards that will come out in the next hand.
Let's say your running count is plus six, and there are three decks in the discard tray. If you're playing at a table with a six-deck shoe, that means three decks remain in the game. You divide your running count by the number of decks remaining, so your true count is plus two.
In multi-deck games, you should be changing your bet spread according to the true count and not the running count. This is because the true count reflects all the decks and play in the game. So if we refer to our chart from earlier - true count, how much to bet - if the true count is plus one or lower, you bet one unit. If the true count is plus two, you bet two units. If the true count is plus three, you bet four units. If the true count is plus four, you bet eight units. If the true count is plus five or higher, you bet 12 units.
So if we used our true count of plus two from our previous example, the chart says we should bet two units. If we had relied on a running count of plus six, we would be betting 12 units. This is why keeping track of the true count is so important in multi-deck games. 10 units is a big difference and can affect your payouts massively across the blackjack session.
Keeping track of the true count does add another layer of complexity to card counting, which is why playing a single-deck game is easier than a six or eight-deck shoe. It's also why casinos mostly feature multi-deck blackjack tables.
Coming up we're showing you how to combine bet spread and card counting like the professionals. Stay with us.
Thanks for watching, players. If you want to learn more, check out our guides on blackjack strategy through the link.
