For HL player who refuses to switch to KO use 5m9c as a side count to HL

[bjanalyst]

In a previous recent post, I showed that KO with AA89mTc and 5m7c is an immensely powerful count system that handily beat the HO2 w ASC for both LS and no LS and tied Tarzan for no LS.

It should be noted that Gronbog said in an 08-02-2020 post “At the time, sims were run for some 6 deck games and the results were delivered to Tarzan. It's up to him whether these results will ever be published and in what form.”

So, Tarzan’s count was run for the LS game, but Tarzan chose not to publish it. I published the results of every single simulation that Gronbog ran for me as I have nothing to hide and every single time the CC increased the SCORE increased. Makes you wonder why Tarzan did not post LS. Perhaps his system, besides being immensely complicated, is not versatile enough to handle various games. If I am given the EoR, my system can handle any game or side bet.

At any rate, back to HL w 5m9c which will NOT beat HO2 w ASC or even come close.

My goal here was never to beat HO2 w ASC. My goal here is to help the HL player, who will not switch to another system, keep the HL and improve it with a simple adjustment. So these HL players would never switch to another count system, especially not the complicated level two HO2 where an entire new set of indices also needs to be memorized, so that comparison of HL w 5m9c to HO2 w ASC is meaningless here. I will just improve the HL with a single adjustment which I predict below would tie the complicated level three Wong’s Halves.

5m9c = Five minus Nine count = fives played minus nines played. The fives have a tag of +1 and the nines have a tag of -1.

I have found that most players use the HL and refuse to learn or switch to anything else. So, for these players I recommend adding 5m9c as a simple level one side count to the HL, with both counts kept mentally.

You can use chips for 5m9c side count but some players are hesitant to use chips thinking it may draw casino heat. One stack of chips is easy to hide and makes it look like you are just playing with your chips. I have never had any problem with using chips for my two side counts with the KO, AA89mTc and 5m9c. No one in the casino every bothered or questioned me. But the 5m9c is simple enough to keep mentally with the HL as you are just keeping two integers in your head if using chips is a concern for you. Easy to learn with practice and since 5m9c recognizes only two ranks, it is not updated that often.

So an extra edge while keeping the HL can be obtained by keeping a simple level one side count, 5m9c.

5m9c can be easily keep in your head with the HL count - you are just keeping two integers in your head.

Update HL count as soon as the cards hit the table. After all cards are on the table but before players make their playing decision, scan for fives and nines seen and calculated 5m9s (s = seen) and add to 5m9c from previous round to get updated 5m9c. Then update 5m9c and HL as players continue to play out their hands.

With a little practice keeping the 5m9c with the HL is extremely easy to do

So, there is no way that HL with 5m9c will come close to the HO2 w ASC, but it will improve the HL, especially for betting, with extraordinarily little work.

And near the end of the shoe, accurate betting is very important. Also, the strategy changes using 5m9c are few and quite easy to remember.

So first let us look at the extra power you get by adding 5m9c to HL. WACC = weighted average CC and BCC = betting CC for the S17, DAS, LS game.

HL...................WACC = 73.7%, BCC = 96.5%
Wong’s Halves.. WACC = 75.8%, BCC = 99.3%
HL w 5m9c.......WACC = 77.6%, BCC = 98.4%
HO2 w ASC.......WACC = 85.8%, BCC = 97.9%

So, HL w 5m9c has a greater BCC than HO2 w ASC but falls far behind HO2 w ASC in WACC and so will not come close to HO2 w ASC. The purpose of the 5m9c is for a simple improvement to HL, not to beat HO2 w ASC.

HL w 5m9c increases HL BCC of 96.5% by 1.9% to get BCC = 98.4% but still falls short of Wong’s Halves BCC = 99.3% by 0.9%. However, HL w 5m9c WACC = 77.6% which beats Wong’s Halves WACC = 75.8% by a substantial 1.8%. But since betting efficiency is more important than playing efficiency for the shoe game, my prediction is that HL w 5m9c will perform approximately equal to Wong’s Halves.

So, you get the power of Wong’s Halves while keeping the HL which will still be used for most playing strategy changes by simplify adding a 5m9c side count. So both the primary and side count are simple level one counts – no need to switch to a higher level system.

It should be noted that 5m9c helps the HL with EVERY late surrender decision. For EVERY late surrender decision, simply add 5m9c to HL and use this (HL + 5m9c) as if it were the HL with the HL surrender indices. So for example, surrender hard 13 v T if HL >= 8*dr (dr = decks remaining) becomes surrender hard 13 v T if (HL + 5m9c) >= 8*dr. No new indices need to be learned.

So here are the most important and simplified changes to the HL by adding the 5m9c.

1. brc = betting running count = HL + (1/2)*(5m9c)
2. Use HL + 5m9c with HL indices in place of HL for these strategy changes:
   
   1. Standing on hard 16 v 8, 9, T.
   2. Standing on hard 15 v T
   3. Doubling hard 9 v 7
   4. ALL surrender decisions.
   
   
3. Stand on hard 16 v 7 if 5m9c >= 2.5*dr, If tc(HL) >= 4 then stand on hard 16 v 7 if 5m7c >= 2*dr where dr = decks remaining
4. All other playing strategy decisions use the stand-alone HL and HL indices.

And that is it. You now have a HL w 5m9c system that is on par with Wong’s Halves without keeping a higher-level count system. You get to keep the HL and all of the HL indices so there is very little extra to learn other than the few strategy changes I mentioned above where you use (HL + 5m9c) in place of HL and use HL indices for the strategy changes.