Card Counting Chart: Hi-Lo Values, Deviations, and Drills

A card counting chart is the values for every rank in the deck. In Hi-Lo, that is eleven numbers total: 2 through 6 are +1, 7 through 9 are 0, and 10 through Ace are -1. That is the entire system on paper. The work is not memorizing the chart. The work is running it in your head at casino pace, converting it to a true count, and putting the right bet out when the count says so. Most people stop at the chart and wonder why they are not winning.

How a card counting chart works

The chart assigns a value to every card. Plus for low cards, minus for high cards, zero for the neutrals. You add the values as the dealer reveals each card. The number you carry is the running count. That number gets divided by the decks left in the shoe. The result is the true count, which is the only number that drives a betting decision.

Why low cards are +1 and high cards are -1: low cards leaving the shoe makes what remains richer in tens and aces. Tens and aces favor the player because they make naturals at 3:2, they make double-downs hit, and they make the dealer bust on stiff hands. When the count climbs, the bet goes up. When the count drops, the bet goes back to the minimum.

That is the whole shape of card counting. The chart is the alphabet. The true count is the language. Betting is the sentence.

The Hi-Lo card counting values, card by card

Here are the eleven values that make up the chart:

• 2: +1
• 3: +1
• 4: +1
• 5: +1
• 6: +1
• 7: 0
• 8: 0
• 9: 0
• 10: -1
• Jack: -1
• Queen: -1
• King: -1
• Ace: -1

Thirteen ranks total, but 10, J, Q, K all share the same value of -1, which collapses the chart to six decision points and a few duplicates. The Ace gets its own decision because it is the most valuable card to the player and the most expensive card to lose to the discard pile.

The system is balanced. Across a full shoe, the +1s and the -1s cancel out exactly. That balance is a built-in self-check. Count down a single deck face-down at home. If you end on anything other than zero, you missed a card and need to count it down again. The error tells you exactly where you are in the drill.

That self-check is non-negotiable. If you cannot count a single deck to zero at speed, you cannot count a six-deck shoe under casino conditions. Twenty minutes a day on a fresh deck until you can run it cold beats two hours of drill once a week.

For a deeper breakdown of why each card lands at its specific value, see our post on card counting values.

Blackjack card counting chart vs basic strategy chart

These are two separate charts and they do separate jobs.

The basic strategy chart tells you the correct play for every hand at a neutral count. Hit or stand on hard 16 vs dealer 10. Split eights against everything. Double soft 18 against dealer 6. The chart assumes the shoe is neutral. Most of the time at a casino, that assumption is correct.

The card counting chart is the count system itself. Eleven values. The job of the count chart is to tell you which cards have already come out so you can size your bet to the current state of the shoe.

You need both. The basic strategy chart underneath. The count on top. At a typical 6-deck H17 DAS LS game, perfect basic strategy alone leaves you at -0.47% house edge. At a $25 average bet and 80 hands per hour, that is roughly $9.40 per hour in expected loss. The count is what flips the math positive. A clean Hi-Lo player with a 1-8 spread pulls to roughly +1.0% to +1.5% edge at that same game.

A new counter who is sloppy on basic strategy is donating a larger edge than they will ever recover through the count. If you have not memorized the blackjack basic strategy chart cold yet, that is the work to do first. Drill basic strategy until it is automatic, then add the count. The order matters.

What the card counting chart leaves out

Here is where most counters quit early. They memorize the chart, run a clean count on a single deck, sit at a $10 minimum table, and lose money for three weeks. Then they decide the system does not work.

The system works. The chart they memorized is incomplete.

The eleven values get you the running count. That is one piece. The true count conversion is another piece. The bet ramp is another piece. The deviation indices are another piece. Cover is another piece. Bankroll math is another piece. The chart is the entry point. Six other parts of the system have to fall in line behind it.

The deviations are the biggest gap. Basic strategy at TC+0 is correct. Basic strategy at TC+5 is sometimes wrong by a meaningful margin. 16 vs 10 at TC+0 is a hit. At TC+0 climbing to TC+5, that same hand becomes a stand. 12 vs 3 at TC+2 is a stand, not a hit. Insurance at TC+3 is a take, not a never. The Illustrious 18 plus Fab 4 captures roughly 80% of the available index EV with 22 plays. The CountEdge free tier trains the I18 and Fab 4 because it is the highest-leverage 22 plays in the game.

The count chart on its own is the alphabet. The deviations are the grammar. You need both before any of it earns money. For the full system breakdown, see the Hi-Lo card counting system.

Hi-Lo is still the right system for 95% of new counters. YouTube has spent a decade pitching Zen Count, Wong Halves, and other multi-level systems to people who cannot count a single deck cleanly. A clean Hi-Lo player capturing roughly 97% of the theoretical edge with a fraction of the error rate is the math that wins money. The fancy systems are a hobby for people who already mastered Hi-Lo and got bored.

The Illustrious 18 and the Fab 4 were published by Don Schlesinger in Blackjack Attack and remain the standard deviation set used by working pros. The original Hi-Lo system goes back to Harvey Dubner in 1963, documented in detail at Wizard of Odds.

How to drill the chart until it's automatic

The drill is dumb on purpose. A single 52-card deck. Face the cards one at a time. Track the running count out loud. End on zero.

Time yourself. The first run will take three minutes and feel hard. After a week of twenty-minute sessions, you should be under sixty seconds and bored. After a month, you should be under thirty seconds and able to do it while someone is talking to you.

Then the same drill on a single deck flipped two cards at a time. Then four cards. Then on a shuffled six-deck shoe, calling the running count at the cut card and again mid-shoe on the dealer's hand. Then with a TV on in the background. Then with someone asking you trivia questions. Each step adds a layer of casino noise. The chart never changes. Your ability to run it under interference is the actual skill.

The cost of skipping the drill is showing up at a $50 minimum table and miscounting four cards in the first shoe. That is the entire shoe wasted, the entire session deflated, and a bankroll that lost to your own attention rather than to variance. Most people think card counting is hard. It is easy as long as you put the time in. The time is the hard part.

CountEdge's free trainer runs the chart drill under casino-pace conditions with no credit card required. Indefinite access. The free tier includes the I18 plus Fab 4, the AP Analyzer for EV and Risk of Ruin math, a session tracker, and 2 saved game profiles. Full details on the pricing page. If you are going to drill the chart, drill it under realistic conditions, not in silence.

Using the card counting chart at a live table

The chart is invisible at a live table. It has to be. The pit boss is not watching the cards. The pit boss is watching the bets. A counter who visibly tracks the cards is more obvious than a player who jumps from $10 to $300 on the first hot count. Both are giveaways. The first is worse because it telegraphs intent before the bet even moves.

The bet ramp is where the chart becomes money. At TC+1, you stay at the minimum. At TC+2, the bet steps up to roughly 2x the minimum. At TC+4, the bet steps up to 6x or 8x. At TC+6 and above, you put the top of your spread on the table. At a $10 minimum table with a 1-50 spread, that means $10 at neutral, $20 at TC+2, $80 at TC+4, and $300 to $500 at TC+6. The exact ramp depends on bankroll size and Kelly fraction, but the shape is the same: the bet only matters when the count tells it to matter.

That ramp is also what gets you backed off if you run it without cover. A clean step from $10 to $500 the second the shoe turns positive is the most visible thing at the table. Smooth ramps, occasional flat bets through a positive count, and a persona that matches the spread keep the game alive longer. The chart is the signal. The ramp is the engine. Cover is what keeps you in the seat to use both.

The hardest part of learning to count was not the math. The math is learnable. The hard part is putting the big bet out when the count calls for it and not pulling back at the last second. Early on I convinced myself the entire casino was watching. The moment the count climbed and I needed to push $300 onto two hands, I would shade the bet down. Put out $100 instead. Tell myself I would spread harder next shoe.

The reality: 90% of the time the pit is watching the dealer, not you. The cost of shading the bet was real. Doubling tens on a dealer ten at TC+4 with $300 out instead of the $600 the count called for is the count earning half what it should. The chart on its own does not save you from that. Putting the money out is the actual game.

If you are scared to spread, do not count. Train, build a bankroll, and come back when you can.

The slow player at the $5 minimum table reading the strategy card between hands is a different game entirely. That player is not a target for the pit. They are just slow. A counter cannot afford to look like that. Memorize the chart at home. Arrive ready. The chart never comes out at the table.

The gap between knowing the play and someone watching you make it is where most counters live for years. The mistakes you cannot catch on yourself are always the expensive ones. That is why CountEdge coaching reviews the actual hand decisions, deviation accuracy, and bet ramp compliance from the app's hand logging, not the summary you would give over a call.

The card counting chart is eleven values. The system is the count, the conversion, the deviations, the ramp, the cover, the bankroll, and the discipline to keep them all aligned for an entire session. Memorize the chart, then drill it until the eleven values are invisible. Add the true count, the deviations, and the bet ramp. Lay basic strategy underneath. Stay disciplined through the variance.

You will not feel it working session to session. You will see it in the graph. It dips and turns like the stock market, but it goes in one direction. Up.