Red Seven Count Blackjack System

The Architect Behind the Red Seven Count Blackjack System

Arnold Snyder, author of "The Blackjack Formula" among other books, and editor/publisher of "Blackjack Forum," a popular journal for card counters, recognized the difficulty that was involved in true count conversion. It is indeed an inexact science when it comes to estimating the number of decks that are remaining to be played, and this leaves a lot of players making mistakes from a mechanical standpoint.

Arnold Snyder saw that there were unbalanced ten counts, which did not carry a high betting correlation, but no unbalanced point count. As Snyder pondered the situation, he came up with a solution that he couldn't believe no other author had come up with before. What Arnold Snyder did was devise a count that required no true count adjustments and no strategy index, with the objective to minimize errors, while at the same time offering some strength.

The Red Seven Count Blackjack Betting System

The "Red Seven Count" was the product of this contemplation. Arnold Snyder assigned the card value of +1 from all 2', 3's, 4's, 5's and 6's, with ten-value cards and Aces counted as -1, and the 8's and 9's as neutral. Snyder then made the assignment that made this count a little different than any other, and it was here that the genesis of the system's unusual name could be found. He called for red sevens (the seven of hearts and the seven of diamonds) to be counted as +1, with black sevens (the seven of spades and the seven of clubs) not counted (neutral). That meant that the sevens did not cancel each other out, but instead would be "sided" toward being a favorable card for the player when removed.

This is what created the desired imbalance in the count - desired because it would preclude the need to keep a true count. When you counted this blackjack deck down, you would come to +2, which would be the pivot point on a per-deck basis. That would be multiplied by the number of decks, so in a six-deck balckjack game, the pivot point would be +12. What you would do then, if you were going to be counting down that six-deck blackjack game, was start at -12, and when you got to a positive number (+1 or higher), you be at an advantage against the casino.

Choosing the seven (7) as the card to "split up" in terms of count values is not arbitrary. It is indeed a card that is advantageous for the blackjack player if it is removed, though it is not as advantageous as the small cards (2 through 7) are. Snyder points out that the player doesn't necessarily have to count the red sevens at +1. He could count just the black sevens, count every seven as +1/2, or count every other seven. The bottom line in the Red Seven Count is to count them in such as way as to affect the imbalance that is intended by the count value assignment.

Red Seven Count Vs. Other Blackjack Betting Systems

The Red Seven blackjack betting system called for very few blackjack strategy variations; only the basics. The key to the Red Seven Count was not to offer a guide as to how to play hands, but how to bet money. According to Arnold Snyder, the strength of this blackjack system is a 97% betting correlation which put it right up there along with the Hi-Lo blackjack system when it came to identifying favorable blackjack betting situations. That is one of the higher betting correlations of any other of the popular blackjack systems.