Newbie Here

[Koala]

Hi all. First post here. I have some questions as someone just starting out on this. By background I'm not a gambler, I have kids in college and 2 years ago was the first time I ever stepped into a casino. As a computer programmer I've kind of fallen in love with the analytics of Blackjack, I enjoy the challenge/math more than the gambling part of it. So the challenge of counting is right up my alley.

I've decided that I want to play more often and to play well so I've decided to learn counting and apply it. I've learned the basic chart and been successful enough that I pretty consistently at least break even and recently read "The Blackjack Blueprint", which leaves me with some questions on getting started.

Questions:
Looking at counts I'm looking for something not too complicated and I'm leaning toward the "knock out" count, but before I invest time in a particular one I'd like any thoughts from people who do this as to what's a good start.

I'm looking at Casino Verite for practice and I think this is where the programmer resides. What is a good/safe download/purchase link and what version should I be looking at?
Any other advice to someone starting this out would be great too. I'm not really looking to be a pro or a high stakes guy, the $5-$25 minimum bet tables is about where I'm at right now.

Thanks in advance!

[Dog Hand]

Koala,

Welcome to the board!

The only place to purchase legitimate Casino Verite products is QFIT.COM, the website for Norm Wattenberger, who is both the author of that outstanding suite of products and the owner/moderator of this website. Other websites that claim to sell CV products are scams.

Norm has also made available a book he wrote called "Modern Blackjack", which you can read at this URL:

https://qfit.com/book/index.htm

(The link is also available on this website at the Resources tab.)

In this book he describes a simplified version of Knockout BJ that he calls REKO, for Ridiculously Easy KO. REKO is well-suited to the typical 6 to 8 deck shoe games.

Hope this helps!

Dog Hand

[VonDox]

I purchased CV data and the CV Black Jack... Your situation sounds very similar to mine.. same motivations to get into blackjack years ago. I will share with you what I did when it comes to counting. I learned Hi-Lo first then I branched out to RED-7 counting for 6-8 deck shoes. I use Hi-Lo for double and 4-deck shoes. My suggestion would be to start with Hi-Lo and then you can opt to look at easier counting strategies. I use RED-7 because it's an imbalanced system and I don't need to worry about discard deck estimation and there are 11 index plays you need memorize. For a 6 deck shoe you start off at a -12 count and once your count hits 0 that's your pivot point to start your bet ramp upwards. Whichever system you do learn, master it.. Be able to carry on a convesation with the dealer and other players and still keep a count and you know you are there.

[Lester]

It's been proven: learn the CAC2 count; it's available on this site. It's the best system. Save yourself the misery of relearning the count later after another count has been burned into your brain.

[moo321]

KO is fine. Even Red 7 works fine. Hi Lo is an industry standard, and might be better if you ever play on a team. There are some level II counts that are a little more powerful, like Zen or RPC, but they're a little harder to keep the count.


As long as you're not picking something crazy, the count doesn't matter much. Your ability to accurately keep the count and play basic strategy with perfect accuracy are, by far, the most important factors. Most people who try to count can't do both of those things.