Hi-Lo and my story

[ZenKinG]

Im proud to say ive gone full circle. Two years ago I picked up counting while I was in college. I quickly picked up Hi-Lo before moving to Zen right around the time I joined this forum. So I stayed with zen without even learning indices as I was still a novice and didn't know what I was doing and like many new players, we think we knew a lot and didn't know anything. I was oblivious to the math and thought it was all about RC and TC conversions. Thanks to this forum and many of the long time pros, I quickly learned what it really takes to be successful as a counter and how hard it really is and how much you have to grind it out.

Day by day reading the forums, it became apparent if I was serious about the game and playing it long term, I would need to buy CVCX, in which I did. And just to note, CVCX was one of the best softwares I ever bought and I'm not just saying that. It really helped me learn about the game not just from playing, but the ins and outs of the game. The math was right in front of me and it kind of forced me to learn by myself, which all new players should aspire to do. Constantly asking questions on the forum, it helps, but you won't develop as a player. CVCX not only devised the optimal spreads for my bankroll, calculated risk, etc, but it helped me see the math of the game and made me play around with it and ultimately see where the money is made and where it goes.

So I started thinking to myself now that Ive got a real understanding of the game, let me pick one final count and get the most out of it. I decided on going for something with the highest possible BC, without needing to go to anything beyond level 3. I was and still am a shoe player, so that's all I really wanted. So I found wong halves, learned as many indices as I could(to date, nearly all of them, very close) and decided to start playing more seriously. I'm a little above expectation for the many hours that I've logged and that is great and all, but I'm starting to realize maybe I've made costly errors while playing and my EV could be even higher by just playing a simple count. We all think we are perfect players and we never miss a calculation, but it's simply not true. As KJ has mentioned during his tenure, he played with RPC for I believe 18 months or so before switching back to Hi-Lo and I'm on a similar path. Speed and less errors is what it's all about for me now. And although I was fast to keep up wit any dealer out there while using halves, I just want the peace of mind at the table with as less mental stress while playing to make sure I'm playing a sound and error free game. Hi-Lo also has very similar indices as Halves, so it was very encouraging to revert back to.

Lastly, I'm looking now to really focus on counting multiple tables at once, which I was not able to do with Halves because of the decimals. The decimals .5, 1.5 really made it difficult to keep track of both tables because I like to use my fingers to keep the second count and with decimals it makes it a lot harder than it needs to be. Also as a side not, I'm in no way saying level 2 and 3 counts are not worth it and if you're confident with them and you are positive you are not making any errors, then stay with it, but for me it was more of a peace of mind thing. I was very confident I didn't make much errors if any, but I want to start focusing on more important things and Hi-Lo will help me get there, as well as help me get into other AP techniques later on, if I choose to do so.

Hopefully I didn't bore you guys to death, but just thought I'd let you guys know where ive come and gone and maybe inspire the new players to what really matters when playing long term.