Carl Dalten: Need some suggestions Please!!!

[Carl Dalten]

How to choose a counting system?

I have read ?Professional Blackjack?, ?Playing Blackjack as a Business?, ?Powerful Profits from Blackjack?, ?The worlds Greatest Blackjack Book?, Blackjack For Blood? and ?New Ways to Win More at Blackjack?. I know Basic Strategy and have been practicing High Opt 1 and TC (at home only) for about 3 months. I am moving to NJ in about 3 months, so I will be spending most of my time in AC Casino?s trying to build experience with counting. I expect to spend at least another 6 months practicing before I venture into a casino.

My question is what system should I be spending my time learning, High Opt I, High Opt II, Omega II, or some other system. I am a pretty quick learner and spend at least 3 hours a day practicing.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Fred Renzey]

> How to choose a counting system? Any help would be appreciated.

>snip: Just my opinion here. I think if you want to keep things on the simple side and use only a level one count, then I would pick the unbalanced type -- such as KO, KISS II, KISS III or Red 7. There, all cards will have a value of + or - 1 and you can make all your bets and hand plays by the running count.
If you want more performance and have no trouble with a true count conversion, then I would go with a balanced level two count such as Zen or Mentor. These will increase your expected dollars per hour earnings by about 12% over the first group and your efforts will be roughly doubled.

[Parker]

> How to choose a counting system?

> I have read ?Professional Blackjack?,
> ?Playing Blackjack as a Business?, ?Powerful
> Profits from Blackjack?, ?The worlds
> Greatest Blackjack Book?, Blackjack For
> Blood? and ?New Ways to Win More at
> Blackjack?. I know Basic Strategy and have
> been practicing High Opt 1 and TC (at home
> only) for about 3 months. I am moving to NJ
> in about 3 months, so I will be spending
> most of my time in AC Casino?s trying to
> build experience with counting. I expect to
> spend at least another 6 months practicing
> before I venture into a casino.

> My question is what system should I be
> spending my time learning, High Opt I, High
> Opt II, Omega II, or some other system. I am
> a pretty quick learner and spend at least 3
> hours a day practicing.

I consider Ho-Opt I to be an obsolete system (Sorry, Lance). Without the ace sidecount it is inferior to Hi-lo or KO, and with the sidecount it does not out-perform Hi-lo despite the added complexity.

I recommend starting with a level one count, either Hi-lo, KO, or one of Fred Renzey's KISS counts. Remember, picking a counting system is not like getting married or joining the mob. After you have gotten some actual casino playing experience, there is nothing to prevent you from switching to a more complex count . . . if you still think that you can handle it.

As I have said before, people spend entirely too much time debating the merits of the various systems. They all do the same thing. Just pick one and (more important) learn how to use it perfectly.

[Carl Dalten]

Thank you Fred Renzey and Parker for your responses. The only place that I can find any information about "balanced Zen" is "Blackbelt in Blackjack" which I hope to have by the end of this week (that is if the seller actually has the book to sell).

If you know, what would be the advantage of Zen over Omega II. I am only curious because I already can count with Omega II (I haven't even looked at the Basic Omega II strategy).
Thanks Again

[Parker]

> Thank you Fred Renzey and Parker for your
> responses. The only place that I can find
> any information about "balanced
> Zen" is "Blackbelt in
> Blackjack" which I hope to have by the
> end of this week (that is if the seller
> actually has the book to sell).

> If you know, what would be the advantage of
> Zen over Omega II. I am only curious because
> I already can count with Omega II (I haven't
> even looked at the Basic Omega II strategy).
> Thanks Again

Advanced Omega II is actually a more powerful count than Zen, although not by any great margin. The downside is that it requires an ace side count, while Zen does not.

[Carl Dalten]

> Advanced Omega II is actually a more
> powerful count than Zen, although not by any
> great margin. The downside is that it
> requires an ace side count, while Zen does
> not.

Zen it is.
Thanks Again Parker

[MrPill]

> Thank you Fred Renzey and Parker for your
> responses. The only place that I can find
> any information about "balanced
> Zen" is "Blackbelt in
> Blackjack" which I hope to have by the
> end of this week (that is if the seller
> actually has the book to sell).

This book also has the Red 7 count so you can check it out too. I have found this to work pretty well against the 6 decker's over the past 3 or 4 years.

Pill

[Carl Dalten]

> This book also has the Red 7 count so you
> can check it out too. I have found this to
> work pretty well against the 6 decker's over
> the past 3 or 4 years.

> Pill

Looking forward to getting the book, have heard a lot about it. The nice thing is that my wife helps me practice.She is even better at what I have learned up to this point (she learned to count 2 decks using the Omega II system 1 at a time in 60 seconds over 2 days of practice, it took me a week to get to 70 seconds, and she is awesome with TC). Maybe I will let her learn Zen and I will learn Red 7.

[Sun Runner]

> Maybe I will let her learn Zen and I will learn Red 7

"Maybe I'll let her .. " ??

Maybe she'll let YOU!

[V-man]

> I will let her learn Zen and I will learn
> Red 7.

Maybe you both should learn the same count so that you both can be in sync ;-)