Don, I have one last confusion about using KO for backcounting..

Since there are no KO ODPs for when you are seated and playing, would you have to calculate the Hi-Lo equivalent of the current count in order to determine whether you should stay or leave? (Vancura & Fuchs furnish some rough departure points for when you are still backcounting, or when you are playing "white rabbit" style, but not for when you have reached the key count and have started to play.)

Or, if the key count is -4, would you want to depart around -8 or something like that (obviously the Hi-Lo equivalent of that count would always be different depending on the number of remaining decks)?

Also, I thought I read somewhere that KO tends to underestimate your advantage at the beginning of the shoe and overestimate it towards the end. Wouldn't that affect the KO departure points, since the system is apparently expecting you to be more tolerant towards the end of the shoe? (I know the opposite is true for Hi-Lo; is it possible that things are different with an unbalanced count?).

I understand what you were saying earlier about how the remaining cards are what they are; they're not going to change based on the counting that you're doing in your head, but clearly, Hi-Lo and KO account for those cards in different fashions. The Hi-Lo player will clearly be able to wong in earlier than the KO player (on average); if KO does overestimate your advantage towards the end of the shoe, it seems like it is expecting you to stay and play longer than the Hi-Lo player would.

??