Upgrading from Hi-Lo to Halves

[JBourne]

I am using my time away from the casino to upgrade my count. I decided the most reasonable path without starting over was to move from Hi-Lo to halves since most of the indices are the same. I can get the benefit of the more accurate level 3 count and just focus on achieving accuracy + speed as soon as possible. I already use half-decks for remaining deck estimates, but counting with fractions is fairly slow and dividing fractions by fractions is even worse. As a result, I am using the method described in the book Dynamic Blackjack where I am counting with integers (-2,-1,0,1,2,3) and then dividing by the number half-decks remaining.

After trying it for a few hours I realize I have to go much slower (50%) to ensure I get the count correct. I am hoping that will clean-up with a few weeks of drills and practice. The TC calculations seem to be no more difficult. Even though my running count numbers are twice as large, I am always dividing integers by integers which is a bit more instinctive.

I am also considering that I can switch back to Hi-Lo at a moment's notice if I need to. I am sure that fast dealers will make it harder for a while.

Does anyone have any observations or advice about moving to halves?

[DSchles]

Does anyone have any observations or advice about moving to halves?

Do it just the way you're doing it. Same as RPC. Double the tags, divide by half decks. Result? Same indices as Hi-Lo. Just keep practicing. It will become second nature.

Don

[BJGenius007]

I am using my time away from the casino to upgrade my count. I decided the most reasonable path without starting over was to move from Hi-Lo to halves since most of the indices are the same. I can get the benefit of the more accurate level 3 count and just focus on achieving accuracy + speed as soon as possible. I already use half-decks for remaining deck estimates, but counting with fractions is fairly slow and dividing fractions by fractions is even worse. As a result, I am using the method described in the book Dynamic Blackjack where I am counting with integers (-2,-1,0,1,2,3) and then dividing by the number half-decks remaining.

After trying it for a few hours I realize I have to go much slower (50%) to ensure I get the count correct. I am hoping that will clean-up with a few weeks of drills and practice. The TC calculations seem to be no more difficult. Even though my running count numbers are twice as large, I am always dividing integers by integers which is a bit more instinctive.

I am also considering that I can switch back to Hi-Lo at a moment's notice if I need to. I am sure that fast dealers will make it harder for a while.

Does anyone have any observations or advice about moving to halves?

This post is to you and those Hi-Lo players who want to upgrade. I am about to retire from playing Blackjack. So I will release my secret system to the public the first time. There will be software to train you and a book for people who want to learn a system from reading a book.

My system is called AccuZen. It has five levels. Level 1 AccuZen is just the vanilla Zen that is commonly used with one exception. The resolution of AccuZen is half deck. So the initial divisor is 16 for 8D game. The intial divisor is 12 for 6D game. The intial divisor is 4 for 2D game. People who upgrade from Hi-Lo will use almost identical indexes similar to their old Hi-Lo system. People who upgrade from Zen will have their indexes doubled in value compared to their old system Zen.

Advancing from one level higher involves learning more indexes or an algorithm. People who stop at level 2, level 3 or level 4 because the requirement is beyond their capacity. But at level 5, you will count everything. Not to be screwed by variance. You can also see the clumping if it exists. Level 5 requires the players to maintain three counts: Zen main count, 8/9 side count and ace side count.

For people who want to use AccuZen as your counting system, your first step is to use Zen with half deck resolution. Halves is too hard to master. If you try AccuZen, you can stop at level 2, level 3 or level 4 and each level shows improvement over the lower level. And the lowest level of AccuZen is Zen.

[Eye of the Eagle]

This post is to you and those Hi-Lo players who want to upgrade. I am about to retire from playing Blackjack. So I will release my secret system to the public the first time. There will be software to train you and a book for people who want to learn a system from reading a book.

My system is called AccuZen. It has five levels. Level 1 AccuZen is just the vanilla Zen that is commonly used with one exception. The resolution of AccuZen is half deck. So the initial divisor is 16 for 8D game. The intial divisor is 12 for 6D game. The intial divisor is 4 for 2D game. People who upgrade from Hi-Lo will use almost identical indexes similar to their old Hi-Lo system. People who upgrade from Zen will have their indexes doubled in value compared to their old system Zen.

Advancing from one level higher involves learning more indexes or an algorithm. People who stop at level 2, level 3 or level 4 because the requirement is beyond their capacity. But at level 5, you will count everything. Not to be screwed by variance. You can also see the clumping if it exists. Level 5 requires the players to maintain three counts: Zen main count, 8/9 side count and ace side count.

For people who want to use AccuZen as your counting system, your first step is to use Zen with half deck resolution. Halves is too hard to master. If you try AccuZen, you can stop at level 2, level 3 or level 4 and each level shows improvement over the lower level. And the lowest level of AccuZen is Zen.

Does the ACCUZEN counting system correlate with the theory of card clumping or is that in a separate section? I can't wait to read it. When will it be out? Can we get a discount?

[ZeeBabar]

You seem to have decided to use the time off to confuse the hell out of yourself, get fatigued in a quarter of the time. Stay with HiLo, practice, read, read, read (books, archives here and in BJ21.

[BJGenius007]

Does the ACCUZEN counting system correlate with the theory of card clumping or is that in a separate section? I can't wait to read it. When will it be out? Can we get a discount?

At level 5, you maintain three separate counts: main Zen count which covers 2-7 against 10,A. Side count Ace. Another side count covers 8 and 9. You cover every card in the deck, unlike every other counting system which ignore 8 and 9. The player can clearly see on some nights, ace side count and 8/9 side count deviate from their normal position by a lot. Almost statistically impossible. Especially compared to hand shuffled game. Side count fluctuates but the highest frequency should be at position 0. But at some nights, they will stay at super negative or super positive either ace side count or 8/9 side count or both, and when main count stay between -2 and +2 all night, it is more suspicious that the shuffler create the sequence that hurt counters. So far, all counting systems assume and hope 8 and 9 are non-factor and won't deviate from normal distribution too much, at least in most of the time. My system helps detect shuffler trying clumping aces, eights and nines to make counting worse than playing Basic Strategy or playing blindly. The drawback is that you have to find a slower dealer if you want to maintain three counts. But you won't be cheated by casinos or at least have the confidence that the casinos cannot cheat you for a long time.

[Dog Hand]

<snip>You cover every card in the deck, unlike every other counting system which ignore 8 and 9.<snip>

BJGenius007,

Small quibble: Bryce Carlson's Omega II system counts the 9 as -1.

Hope this helps!

Dog Hand

[21forme]

If anyone is interested. I have a better system. It's called the Spinal Tap count. It goes up to level 11.

[UNCBear4SJ]

Small quibble: Bryce Carlson's Omega II system counts the 9 as -1.

Thank you. I was going to point that out, too.

[JBourne]

Eleven common counts (including Halves) use tag values for 9 and Uston APC uses tag values for 8 and 9.
https://www.qfit.com/card-counting.htm




When you look at the charts that Norm created to compare the different counts it is clear that Halves is an excellent choice for improving SCORE regardless of the number of decks. Additionally, it is better than Zen in all cases.
https://www.qfit.com/book/ModernBlackjackPage188.htm
https://www.qfit.com/book/z6201chart.gif
https://www.qfit.com/book/z6202chart.gif
https://www.qfit.com/book/z6206chart.gif
https://www.qfit.com/book/z6208chart.gif

[DSchles]

Clearly, the only knock on counting the 9 as -1 is the harm it does to IC. But Halves is what it is. Just look at the BJA3 p. 172 comparisons to Hi-Lo. All the improvements are in the 12-14% range. Well worth the switch!

Don

[Secretariat]

BJ Genius! I don't know if it's possible to Sim AccuZen at level 5 but do you have a score or an advantage approximation for 2DS17, 2DH17 and 6DS17 at 75% pen in all three games.
RSA and Surrender allowed at the 6D but not at the 2-decks games.
Thanks.

[JBourne]

Well, it took me a few weeks, but now I have my time to count a deck consistently under 30 seconds.

I'm now turning my attention to fine tuning my memorized indices. I am using the system exactly as described in Dynamic Blackjack by Maverick Sharp, but the author calls it DMPro. Some of the indices are different than Wong published in Professional Blackjack. Am I correct to assume that these are the best indices to use considering they were generated with CV much more recently than Wong's original work? Norm, is the DMPro strategy available to download for CVCX? I don't see it in there already.

Release the Kraken!
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