A:
[Editor's Note: Colin Jones is a new name to Question of the Day. He learned to count cards right out of college, started off with a $2,000 bankroll, and a short time later partnered with a friend to form his original "team." That eventually grew to encompass 30 investors, 40 players, and a $1 million-plus bankroll; between 2006 and 2011, the "Church Team" won $3.2 million. (A movie, Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card-Counting Christians, about the Church Team came out in 2011.) After disbanding the team, Colin transformed his team training program into BlackjackApprenticeship.com, using videos, drills, an online forum, and boot camps to turn out hundreds of professional-level card counters. Colin is currently writing a book, tentatively titled The 21st Century Card Counter; look for it soon. He provided the following answer.]
Yes, technically, an app on the market ("Blackjack Card Counting" for iOS) will keep the count for you, simply by tapping zones on the screen -- the left side of the screen for low cards or the right side for high cards. The app got a lot of publicity when it came out in 2009, particularly from casinos freaking out in response to card counting on smart phones.
However, there are a couple of catches.
First, using an electronic device in a casino is illegal pretty much everywhere. This wasn't always the case and there are amazing stories of the early "shoe computers" used to beat blackjack and roulette. But casinos wised up and lobbied to get "devices" outlawed.
While running our blackjack teams, we knew some card counters who used devices to call other players into hot shoes. Our team avoided it, because it wasn't worth the risk of casinos claiming we were using devices to beat them. Instead, we used our brains and more traditional team-play signals.
Secondly, even if the device tells you the running and true counts, that doesn't make you a winning player. You must also know perfect basic strategy, the appropriate playing deviations, betting strategies, bankroll management, and casino comportment to be a winning card counter. And if you can master those skills, then you can certainly spend a little extra time learning to count cards the good old-fashioned way (in your head), rather than needing a device to do it for you.
The bottom line: While card counting is still one of the most viable ways of gaining the edge over the house, make sure you have all the skills you need to beat the house and please don't risk going to jail to try to gain the edge as a card counter. There are better ways to beat the dealer that are much less risky.
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