What are the Hi-Lo card values?

2 to 6 count +1, 7 to 9 count 0, and 10, J, Q, K and A count −1. A full deck adds up to 0.

What is the difference between the running count and the true count?

The running count is the sum of the values seen so far. The true count divides it by the number of decks left, so it means the same thing early or late in the shoe.

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Hi-Lo Card Counting for Beginners: The Running Count in Five Minutes

Hi-Lo is the most widely used card-counting system because it fits in one sentence. Learning the values takes five minutes; keeping up at a live table with seven seats is the hard part.

CountPilot guides · Updated 8 October 2026

The three groups

Cards	Hi-Lo value	Why
2, 3, 4, 5, 6	+1	Small cards help the dealer. Each one that leaves makes the rest of the shoe better for you.
7, 8, 9	0	Roughly neutral — ignore them.
10, J, Q, K, A	−1	Big cards help you (blackjacks, strong doubles). Each one that leaves makes the shoe worse.

There are five +1 ranks and five −1 ranks, so a complete deck adds up to exactly 0. That is a useful self-check: if you count every card of a shoe and do not end at 0, you missed or double-counted something.

A worked example

The cards come out 5, K, 9, 2, A, 6. Add as you go:

Card	Value	Running count
5	+1	+1
K	−1	0
9	0	0
2	+1	+1
A	−1	0
6	+1	+1

That last number is the running count. On its own it is misleading in an 8-deck shoe: +5 with seven decks left means much less than +5 with two decks left. Dividing by the decks remaining gives the true count — see True Count Explained.

How to practise

Count in pairs. A small card and a big card cancel out. Seeing "6 and Q" as zero is faster than adding twice.
Run a single deck. Flip a shuffled deck one card at a time and check you finish at 0. Then hide one card at the start and name its group from your final count.
Speed comes last. Accuracy first. A count that is fast and wrong is worse than no count, because you will bet on it.

Why live online tables are harder

At a seven-seat live table, a round can put twenty or more cards on the felt within seconds, hands are partly covered, and the stream can lag. Most counting mistakes there are not arithmetic — they are cards that were never seen. A missed card does not push the count one way, but it makes the true count less certain. That is why CountPilot shows a ± range next to every true count instead of a single confident number.

What the count does not tell you

A positive count does not predict the next card. It says the remaining cards are richer in tens and aces than usual, which shifts the odds of the next hands slightly. The advantage is small and only shows up over many hands.

Check that counting aids are allowed where you play — many casinos' terms prohibit them.

Try it on a real table. CountPilot reads the live table for you and shows the true count with its error range, bet sizing and strategy prompts in a small window over the game. Free 30-minute trial, macOS and Windows.
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