Leetcode Solutions: Count Asterisks

class Solution(object):
    def countAsterisks(self, s):

        if not "*" in s:
            return 0

        stack = []
        count = 0

        for char in s:
            if char == "|":
                count += 1

            stack.append(char)

            if count == 2:
                while count:
                    el = stack.pop()
                    if el == "|":
                        count -= 1


        return "".join(stack).count("*")