online card counting

Hi all this is my first post on this board, I am a complete newbie as far as BJ and card counting is concerned(poker is my usual game) but if it is profitable I am more than willing to learn.

Now my question is this, is it possible to card count while playing BJ at online casinos if it is how do you know how far down the 'virtual deck' has been cut or is it that each new round comes from a new virtual deck??

Would appreciate any input from you guys

Thanks Rivermaster

There should be a FAQ page that gives all this info. The shuffling should be supervised by and outside company (just like the poker sites). I don't know if they are required to list how far into a deck they cut, but there should be some info on the FAQ about shuffling procedure.

I've many horror stories regarding crooked online casinos.
You should seriously re-think online play and stick with land based casinos.

I'm not aware of any online casino that does not "reshuffle" after every hand. So normal count systems are useless.

You almost answered your own question when you asked "how do you know". The point of the matter is that you don't. Even if the casino was not shuffling after every hand you must still know when the deck/shoe starts over. If there's nothing to indicate this, don't bother.

There are some who were making money, most were working the signup bonuses and/or a combiniation of other things. I decided it was way too much work for relatively small amounts of money.

Thanks for your input guys, so what you are saying is its no use trying to card count when playing online only at a bm casino.

Just one more question have any of you actually employed card counting and was/is it profitable, I have read that card counting played with basic strategy can give the player a positive EV of about 1%.

Is this about right or have I misinterpreted what I read??

Thanks again
Rivermaster

It varies with the specific rules. Games that pay 6:5 for Blackjacks can't be beat by standard counting.

If you're going to put in the time to be a decent card counter, it doesn't require much more effort to learn some indexes which will increase your edge.

You asked if card counting is profitable - the answer is yes, but it is different (in my opinion) than poker. Some of the math guys can answer this more effectively than I. I'm a poker newbie, but my observations so far is that poker, even for the very skilled, contains a larger gambling element than card counting. Card counting is pretty much straight by the numbers and completely controlled by statistics. Unfortunately the controlling statistics includes standard deviation. In a nutshell this means, yes, you will make money but maybe not today, this week or this month (depending on how many hours you are playing). But if you play as perfect a game as possible then you will make money in the long run.

If you haven't read any of the major books on BJ, you should before putting money on a table. Any of the books in the catalog here under Blackjack for Starters will get you well down the road. Stanford's Pro Blackjack is my personal choice.