Ace Tracking and Ace Side Counts are not black jack card counting methods on their own, but are actually extra counts that you can track along side your running count in order to improve the accuracy of your favorite system.
Ace Side Count
Blackjack Strategy. When the value of dealer's revealed card is 4,5 or 6, it may be fruitful to double your bet with an Ace and 4 in hand. You may want to surrender if you have 16 in your hand while the dealer has a 9,10 or A. You should always split if you have a pair of Aces.
- The ace is the most valuable card in a blackjack game. It may be used as a 1 or 11, whichever is more advantageous for a hand. It is also half of the hand that makes a blackjack, which pays 3-2 at most tables. A pair of aces is the best start hand in Texas Hold’em. Blackjack is not much different. Split aces allow a player at least two.
- The more aces remain, the higher your chances of getting a blackjack. Ace side counts for non-balanced counting systems (like Zen Count or KO Count ) are calculated in a different way and are used to increase the accuracy of playing strategy, particularly as to whether a player should take insurance.
This is done in one of two ways, depending on what card counting method you are using. For balanced counting systems like Hi-Lo Count and Hi-Opt I the correct way to perform an ace side count is to take the number of aces dealt divided by the number of decks remaining, similar to how you would convert a running count to the true count. The more aces remain, the higher your chances of getting a blackjack.
Ace side counts for non-balanced counting systems (like Zen Count or KO Count) are calculated in a different way and are used to increase the accuracy of playing strategy, particularly as to whether a player should take insurance.
Ace Tracking
Ace tracking (also called “Shuffle Tracking”) is the approximate art of trying to determine when and where the ace will appear by paying attention to the cards directly underneath the ace, so that when the cards are picked up and shuffled the player can recognize the neighbor cards and bet that the ace will be next.
Blackjack 2 Aces
Players interested in ace tracking should check out Arnold Snyder’s The Blackjack Shuffle Tracker’s Cookbook.