Card counting strategy

**Fabian90** · 07-31-2014, 04:21 AM

Hi guys,
I'm currently practicing KO preferred but I was wondering if there is any other counting system (a more difficult one) that has a higher playing efficiency than KO but at the same time there is no need for true count calculation.
Many thanks.

**Dog Hand** · 07-31-2014, 06:33 AM

Fabian90,

Systems that don't require a "true count" conversion are called "unbalanced" systems: instead of using the TC for betting and playing decisions, unbalanced systems use just the running count (RC). Thus, KO is an unbalanced system. Since KO uses card tags of -1, 0, and +1 only, KO is called a "Level 1" system. For that matter, HiLo is also a Level 1 system.

One very powerful unbalanced system is the "Unbalanced Zen2" system (also known as UBZII). UBZII is a Level 2 unbalanced system that was developed by a long-time (and still current) player writing under the handle "George C." His book is available in a Kindle edition from Amazon: go there and search for "The UnBalanced Zen2".

Hope this helps!

Dog Hand

**Fabian90** · 07-31-2014, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by Dog Hand

Fabian90,

Systems that don't require a "true count" conversion are called "unbalanced" systems: instead of using the TC for betting and playing decisions, unbalanced systems use just the running count (RC). Thus, KO is an unbalanced system. Since KO uses card tags of -1, 0, and +1 only, KO is called a "Level 1" system. For that matter, HiLo is also a Level 1 system.

One very powerful unbalanced system is the "Unbalanced Zen2" system (also known as UBZII). UBZII is a Level 2 unbalanced system that was developed by a long-time (and still current) player writing under the handle "George C." His book is available in a Kindle edition from Amazon: go there and search for "The UnBalanced Zen2".

Hope this helps!

Dog Hand

Many thanks for your help Dog Hand. Do you think its really important to purchase the book? I already have CVBJ and CVCX so I could learn and practice it using CVBJ. One more thing, how can I compare UBZII to KO preferred? I've just looked at both playing strategies on CVCX using practically the same bet spread and UBZII only earns a few more dollars an hour and practically the same RoR than KO preferred. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

**DSchles** · 07-31-2014, 07:42 AM

Depending on rules, conditions, decks, spread, etc., on average, UBZ2 will outperform K-O by 5-10%. All of the various comparisons can be found in the SCORE chapter of BJA3.

Don

**seriousplayer** · 07-31-2014, 08:06 AM

Originally Posted by Fabian90

Many thanks for your help Dog Hand. Do you think its really important to purchase the book? I already have CVBJ and CVCX so I could learn and practice it using CVBJ. One more thing, how can I compare UBZII to KO preferred? I've just looked at both playing strategies on CVCX using practically the same bet spread and UBZII only earns a few more dollars an hour and practically the same RoR than KO preferred. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

CVCX does not contain the full indices of UBZII for Multi-deck games. For any reason you want to use full indices on a Double Deck game you will need to generate playing indices using CVDATA.

**Fabian90** · 07-31-2014, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by seriousplayer

CVCX does not contain the full indices of UBZII for Multi-deck games. For any reason you want to use full indices on a Double Deck game you will need to generate playing indices using CVDATA.

Thanks. Is there a way of finding out what indices cvcx does use? I thought of just learning the UBZII composite strategy from CVBJ v5.6, would the full indices make a massive difference?

**seriousplayer** · 07-31-2014, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by Fabian90

Thanks. Is there a way of finding out what indices cvcx does use? I thought of just learning the UBZII composite strategy from CVBJ v5.6, would the full indices make a massive difference?

First I would identify the purpose why you are switching to UBZII.

**Fabian90** · 07-31-2014, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by seriousplayer

First I would identify the purpose why you are switching to UBZII.

I started practicing Hi-Lo but to be honest I found the true count calculation quite difficult. I could divide by whole number of decks just okay but it still took me 2 to 3 seconds to make the division and round down. I could not imagine how it would be like to divide by "4.5 decks remaining" later on like some AP do when they get to a certain level, so I searched for the simplest unbalanced system and came across KO and REKO. I started practicing KO and found it to be very simple as keeping the correct running count hasn't been a problem so far. So now I'm searching for a more complicated system that performs better than KO but at the same time doesn't make use of the true count calculation.

**seriousplayer** · 07-31-2014, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by Fabian90

I started practicing Hi-Lo but to be honest I found the true count calculation quite difficult. I could divide by whole number of decks just okay but it still took me 2 to 3 seconds to make the division and round down. I could not imagine how it would be like to divide by "4.5 decks remaining" later on like some AP do when they get to a certain level, so I searched for the simplest unbalanced system and came across KO and REKO. I started practicing KO and found it to be very simple as keeping the correct running count hasn't been a problem so far. So now I'm searching for a more complicated system that performs better than KO but at the same time doesn't make use of the true count calculation.

Performing better in terms of what? I am not trying to convince you to stay with KO but think about it KO already have a Betting Coefficient of 98% and UBZII has BC= 97%. Unless you want a count that has better playing efficiency and insurance correlation. Depending the games (Single Deck and Double Deck) you are playing the PE and IC of UBZII will outperform KO but not by much.

If you are playing mostly shoe games than there is no need to switch in my opinion.

**Fabian90** · 08-01-2014, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by seriousplayer

Performing better in terms of what? I am not trying to convince you to stay with KO but think about it KO already have a Betting Coefficient of 98% and UBZII has BC= 97%. Unless you want a count that has better playing efficiency and insurance correlation. Depending the games (Single Deck and Double Deck) you are playing the PE and IC of UBZII will outperform KO but not by much.

If you are playing mostly shoe games than there is no need to switch in my opinion.

Thanks for the info. I normally play 6 or 8 deck shoes so probably the best thing will be to stay with KO for now. I'm still not 100% confident with the terms betting coefficient, IC.. so if anyone could direct me to a webpage with clear explanations I would appreciate it. Also if anyone knows any other unbalanced system far superior to KO in shoe games please let me know

**Bodarc** · 08-02-2014, 01:46 AM

Originally Posted by Fabian90

I'm still not 100% confident with the terms betting coefficient, IC.. so if anyone could direct me to a webpage with clear explanations I would appreciate it.

http://qfit.com/book/ModernBlackjackPage169.htm

**muckz** · 08-01-2014, 10:57 PM

Originally Posted by seriousplayer

For Fabian

I will offer you my two cents. If you must look for an unbalanced system that is superior to KO in terms of efficiency in performance. I would suggest you an unbalanced count system called the Adjusted KO. With the tags:

A-(-1)
2-(1)
3-2
4-2
5-3
6-2
7-1
8-0
9-0
10-(-2)

BC=.97, PE=.62, IC=.82 but the BC is still 1% less than the original KO system.

It is an unbalanced level 3 card counting system. I've been studying up on that system recently. The best part about the Adjusted KO is that all you need to do is double all KO indices, IRC, Key Count and pivot and the system is ready for use. Since it is similar to KO you can also apply the Color of Blackjack modification to the system to fix the problem of missing early opportunities early on in the shoe and overbet later in the shoe with no true count conversion.

Hope that helps.

A system with an imbalance of +8 per deck is not going to give results that correspond to Griffin measurements, unless it is true counted. For solely running count or hybrid running count systems it is best to have a pivot that acts as hilo True 2. If you want to break away from a level one count and remain imbalanced AND use running count mode only, then ubz2 is a very good choice. The improvement from lvl 1 to lvl 2 is noticeable, the improvement from 2 to 3 is very little.

**KronikBuddha** · 07-31-2014, 01:50 PM

I used REKO Full for a year before switching to UBZ2 at the beginning of this year. I used CVData to generate the full set of indexes for all the different games (varying rules and number of decks) I play. The book by George C. is not really useful at all if you have CVData and CVCX, because you can generate all the index numbers yourself and get accurate optimal bet spreads. And the kindle version of the book has really bad images of the charts that make a lot of the numbers illegible.