Does the count ever go negative in blackjack when you count cards?

Question

Yeah, I know the values but I don't know if the count will ever go negative.

I use the Hi-lo system,

2-6= +1

10-A= -1

7-9= 0

Answer 1

Yes, The count can go negetive just as easily as it can go positive.  And you will see negetive counts exactly as oftan as you see positive counts.

when the count goes negetive the house advantage increases, and its a good idea to stop playing and find another table.

Answer 2

of course

if you are using the system above, the deck is negative when ever more low cards were dealt than high cards

for example, round 1 the following cards were dealt out

K8, Q7, 849, JJ, and A489 the count would be

-1 + -1 + +1 + -2 + 0 = -3

so the count would be -3 at that point

in this system, keep the bets low when the count is negative (or even sit out a few hands if you can) and raise the bets when it gets positive

your count would be

Answer 3

50% of the time the count is positive and 50% of the time it is negative for the simple reason that in each deck there are 20 positive cards, 20 negative cards and 12 zero cards.

Because of the house edge, low positive counts do not have a winning expectation. The count becomes advantageous at about True +1. Approximately half of the positive counts are below true 1 and half are above. This means that on average only about one quarter of all hands have a winning expectation. Idealy, one would only bet during this time, that is, 'wong in' at true 1 or better. If one is playing all the hands then it is essential to increase one's bets substantially during the high positive counts to recover negative expectation losses and then make a profit.

Answer 4

You must not be counting correctly.  If you were you would know the count goes negative all the time.

For example if you see a 10 as the first card, it's negative already!  The count is now  -1!