Learn to count
School
Hi-Lo indexes for multi-deck games where the dealer stands on soft 17, as listed by the Wizard of Odds. Where the dealer hits soft 17 most of them move very little.
Scorecard
Edge lab
The edge on the next round, and the value of every play on the hand in front of you, worked out from all the cards you haven't seen, is hidden. Turning it on is like playing with a perfect card counter at your shoulder. Use it to study, switch it off to test your own read.
This decision
How each bet's edge moves when one card of a value leaves the shoe, in hundredths of a percent. Green means the bet gets better once that card is gone, red means worse. Every blackjack count is built from this table.
Low cards leaving helps you because the dealer has to hit stiff hands and busts more often in a shoe rich in tens, and because blackjacks pay you 3 to 2 but only cost you 1. Perfect Pairs doesn't care which card leaves. It gets better when a few ranks run heavy, which the rank bars on the shoe will show.
Give each card a tag, pick the bet you're tracking, and the lab keeps your running count. Every round dealt this session is plotted: your true count against the real edge that bet had. A good count makes a tight rising line.
By bet
Expected is what your bets were worth on average if you played every hand by the book, using the exact edge when you placed each one. Play cost is what your own decisions added or took away against the best play for the cards left. Whatever is left over is luck.
Your plays against the book
Do losing streaks end?
Every round you bet this session. If a cold table were real, the win rate would sink the longer a losing run got. With no memory in the cards it stays near 43% win, 9% push, 48% loss.