About Blackjack Count Coach
Blackjack Count Coach is a free practice site for learning blackjack and Texas Hold'em with a coach that explains every decision. There's no real money, no sign-up and nothing to buy.
Why it exists
Blackjack Count Coach is an independent project with no casino or gambling company behind it. It exists because most ways of learning these games are either dry charts or real-money tables. A practice table that stops you before a mistake and tells you why is a better teacher than either.
Where the advice comes from
Nothing the coach says is opinion. It's all math that has been published and checked for decades:
- Blackjack basic strategy is the standard strategy for 4–8 deck games with double after split and late surrender. It descends from the first computer-assisted analysis by Baldwin, Cantey, Maisel and McDermott (1956) and Edward O. Thorp's Beat the Dealer (1962), and has since been confirmed by billions of simulated hands. The chart also covers the five plays that change when the dealer hits soft 17.
- Card counting uses the Hi-Lo system, first published by Harvey Dubner in 1963, with the standard true-count conversion and the best-known deviation: taking insurance at a true count of +3 or higher.
- Dealer bust rates are rounded figures from standard six-deck simulations where the dealer stands on soft 17.
- Poker odds for outs are exact card-counting arithmetic. Your equity at the Hold'em table is estimated by simulating 1,500 random run-outs of the remaining cards against the hands your opponents would likely hold, given how they've bet.
- Starting-hand advice uses simplified six-handed opening ranges, and "top X% of hands" uses Bill Chen's Chen formula. These are sensible starting points, not solver output — real games reward adjusting to your opponents.
Spotted a mistake? Please report it through the contact form — errors are corrected and the date on the guide is updated.
Independence
Some pages show clearly labelled sponsored links, which help keep the site free. Sponsors have no influence over the coach, the guides or the drills. Read the affiliate disclosure for details.
Playing responsibly
Good strategy lowers the house edge; it doesn't remove it. If you gamble for real, set limits first, and if it stops being fun, free, confidential help is available.
Contact
Send a message through the contact form. Every message is read, usually within a few days.