Ace five count

Ace five count

A card counting methodology which tracks the number of aces and fives in the deck only. Having a high proportion of aces in the deck gives the player an advantage, because of the higher chance of being dealt a blackjack. Fives, on the other hand, hurt the player's expectation, making it more likely for the player to be dealt a stiff hand totaling 15 as their first two cards.

In the ace five count, aces count as -1 and fives count as +1. The Wizard of Odds, Michael Shackleford, presents a detailed ace five count card counting strategy on his website. Ken Uston also presented an ace five count in his book Million Dollar Blackjack. You can find more details about the Wizard's counting system here.

A deck that has few aces in it proportional to the other cards is considered ace poor; a deck with a relatively large number of aces is considered ace rich.