Side counts and Zen

[Jabberwocky]

Yes counting the ace in the main count really cripples everything except BC. Hiopt2 is king and you must side count aces in any ace neutral count in order to make it worth using. Counting anything other than 4 and 5 as +2 tags in a level 2 count hurts your overall results. It is about better defining advantage or sorting situations into bins that have a much smaller range of advantage (This means bets are more accurate which is different than what BC says. BC says how well your count tags correlate to the different card ranks EoR's. Betting accuracy is not indicated by BC but there is a degree of correlation there). And counting the 9 messes up insurance and hurts your most common hit/stand deviations of a hand of 12. This is enough to outweigh any gains from counting the 9. The truth is Hiopt2 is not easy to use and side counting anything needs great deck estimation skills unless you use a balanced side count. That said if and when you get to be able to use Hiopt2/ASC proficiently you will be using the most effective count of the ones readily available.

The qualifier is "readily available" .

[seriousplayer]

Hiopt2 is king and you must side count aces in any ace neutral count in order to make it worth using. Counting anything other than 4 and 5 as +2 tags in a level 2 count hurts your overall results.

Uston APC users that side counts Aces would probably disagree. You are right HI-OPT II is the best level 2 card counting system. But it doesn't mean a level 3 card counting system cannot top it.