My "home casinos" are entirely SD games. I have been reading that Hi Opt 1 is better suited for SD games than Hi Lo. Should I discontinue Hi Lo and run Hi Opt 1 with Ace Count in SD games? And if so, then are playing indices different from Hi Lo?
My "home casinos" are entirely SD games. I have been reading that Hi Opt 1 is better suited for SD games than Hi Lo. Should I discontinue Hi Lo and run Hi Opt 1 with Ace Count in SD games? And if so, then are playing indices different from Hi Lo?
HiOpt1 was designed for SD. It's easy, but it was designed to be easy so you could incorporate side counts. These side counts will impact both betting and playing.Originally Posted by LugiaLvl138
Yes, the indices are different than HiLo.
I don't know if you should switch. Keeping a good running count, doing quarter deck estimation, keeping several side counts...it might be too much. I am of the OPINION that you should use the best count (for whatever situation) that you can perform flawlessly.
Hi Lugia
i have been playing Hi-Opt 1 for over thirty years, mostly SD in Northern Nevada. It works very well, but if you have already mastered Hi-lo it is probably not worth changing and learning the new indices. If you want to improve your count, I would suggest either halves or Hi Opt II. Halves because it uses essentially the same index numbers as Hi-Lo (and thus easy to learn), Hi Opt II as it is probably the most powerful count for single deck (and not much harder to learn than Hi-Opt1). I still use Hi Opt 1, because I find that being totally familiar with your system, and thus able to joke, drink, flirt, and converse naturally is far more important than a few extra pennies per hand by using the strongest count. A strong count is only good if you are able to play. Playing naturally with a well practiced and comfortable system is the most important to me. Of course others will disagree, but in the end, you need to decide what is best for you.
Do you play exclusively SD? Or do you play some shoe games?
In general, the best count is the one you have mastered. All other counts may come close (assuming you play your system perfectly like a computer.)
The benefit of an unreckoned-ace system is the fact that the Ace, or all practical purposes, has a "split personality": it can behave as a 'big' card or a 'little' card. That is, it can either be a 1 or 11. So, for things like betting, the Ace is a 'big' card as it will help us with natural 21's and larger soft hand. For playing it can be either. Take doubling both hard 10 and 11 vs dealer Ace. We want a surplus of Aces for the Hard 10 but a deficit of Aces for a Hard 11. That is, for doubling 10 vs A, the Ace acts like a big card (11). For doubling 11 vs A, like a little card (1).
Side counting enables one to take into account the given value a specific rank provides compared to that of the give system. What I am trying to say is that an Ace does not act like a -1 card all the time for each hand. It may act like a +2, +4, -3, or 0 value card. This is where side counting and multi-parameter adjustments come in handy.
However; this comes with some caveats like: difficulty in use, extra memorization, and poor deck estimation as a result of 1/4 deck resolutions rather than full deck. There may be an increase in your error rate and may in fact reduce your rate or return relative to that if you didn't use such information. So, if you do decide to side count: practice makes perfect and make sure you know what you're doing!
HOI was build to be used for side counting SD games. If you want to simply use an ASC, I would recommend HOII. However, if you are switching between SD/DD games and shoe games, I would recommend Zen. You can still keep an ASC with Zen for SD/DD games and ignore the ASC for shoe games. If you are sticking mostly with shoe games, High-Low is fine. I would recommend either Zen, Halves, RPC for all shoe games.
My $0.02
Indexes are different for sure, plus the whole nature of the beast.
Man I haven't had a chance to play 3:2 single deck since I was a ploppy one summer years ago. What are the Wendover games like? What kind of spread do you get away with?
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