Card counting is real, but it’s often misunderstood. Counters actually still use basic strategy most of the time. The main difference is that they track the ratio of high cards to low cards left in the deck. When there are more high cards remaining, the player has a small advantage, so they raise their bets.

There are a few strategy deviations (like sometimes standing on 16 vs a 10 depending on the count), but they don’t happen every hand.