Whenever the line is above 100%, KO Blackjack has the advantage and below, HiLo Blackjack has the advantage. In summary, from a penetration of 41 cards to 124 cards (3.63/6 to 5.21/6) KO performance varies from 99.5% to 102% of HiLo.
It has taken some time for old-timers like myself to understand justhow powerful the Knock-Out Blackjack Strategy is in comparison to TrueCounted Blackjack strategies. Since Peter Griffin's time, we have alwaysbelieved that unbalanced card counting strategies cannot match the powerof True Counted card counting. The common comparison is between the HiLoand KO strategies. It turns out that KO and Hilo when compared using SCOREmethodology are essentially equal.
- The blue line displays the advantages using no indexes — playing Blackjack Basic Strategy. In all cases, the trend is higher advantage at higher counts and the more indexes the higher the advantage. But the effect of using more indexes is different at different counts.
- We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us.
Now it has been pointed out that the SCORE card counting strategy comparisonmethodology requires optimal bet ramps and that optimal bet ramps varyby penetration. That is, you should have a different betting scheduledepending on the total penetration in a game. In theory, this should bemore of a problem with unbalanced strategies as they are known to be weakerat very low and high penetrations. Let us look at this effect in KO. Inthe below chart, the SCOREs are displayed for every penetration from 26cards cutoff to 132 cards cutoff. Two sets of SCOREs are displayed: KOSCORE (optimal bet ramp varying by penetration) versus KO with a fixedbetting ramp. The green line provides the SCOREs for KO (S17, DAS, 6D,1-15.) For the red line, I calculated the optimal betting ramp for 4.75/6penetration and then used that fixed betting ramp for all penetrations.As you can see, at 4.75/6 (65 cards) the two lines kiss. The farther youget from that point, the farther the two lines diverge as the bettingramp is farther from optimal.
This means that if you select one betting ramp for all penetrations;you will not be betting optimally at other penetrations and this willhurt your performance.
For the second chart, I used exactly the same process for HiLo. Hereyou see the same effect; but it is less dramatic than in the KO chart.This is because a balanced Blackjack strategy, by its nature, is a bitbetter at maintaining near optimal performance with a fixed betting schedule.But, it is not perfect.
OK, Let's put the data together. In the third chart, I plotted KO fixedspread with HiLo fixed spread. This chart shows KO and HiLo performingabout the same at the typical penetrations (KO wins very slightly) andHiLo beating KO at high and low penetrations. Of course card countersshouldn't play very poor penetrations and unfortunately no one will letyou play deep penetrations.
Now I picked 4.75/6 as my center point. This provides KO with 99% to100.7% of HiLo performance from 44 to 90 cards cut off. You could picka different center point if you tend to play different penetrations. Mypoint is that you do not need to memorize 100 different betting ramps.One or two is fine. If you want the best possible performance, generatea table of ideal betting ramps for every penetration and carry it withyou.
Link to the Raw Data behind this chart – Chart 3
- The blue line displays the advantages using no indexes — playing Blackjack Basic Strategy. In all cases, the trend is higher advantage at higher counts and the more indexes the higher the advantage. But the effect of using more indexes is different at different counts.
- We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us.
Now it has been pointed out that the SCORE card counting strategy comparisonmethodology requires optimal bet ramps and that optimal bet ramps varyby penetration. That is, you should have a different betting scheduledepending on the total penetration in a game. In theory, this should bemore of a problem with unbalanced strategies as they are known to be weakerat very low and high penetrations. Let us look at this effect in KO. Inthe below chart, the SCOREs are displayed for every penetration from 26cards cutoff to 132 cards cutoff. Two sets of SCOREs are displayed: KOSCORE (optimal bet ramp varying by penetration) versus KO with a fixedbetting ramp. The green line provides the SCOREs for KO (S17, DAS, 6D,1-15.) For the red line, I calculated the optimal betting ramp for 4.75/6penetration and then used that fixed betting ramp for all penetrations.As you can see, at 4.75/6 (65 cards) the two lines kiss. The farther youget from that point, the farther the two lines diverge as the bettingramp is farther from optimal.
This means that if you select one betting ramp for all penetrations;you will not be betting optimally at other penetrations and this willhurt your performance.
For the second chart, I used exactly the same process for HiLo. Hereyou see the same effect; but it is less dramatic than in the KO chart.This is because a balanced Blackjack strategy, by its nature, is a bitbetter at maintaining near optimal performance with a fixed betting schedule.But, it is not perfect.
OK, Let's put the data together. In the third chart, I plotted KO fixedspread with HiLo fixed spread. This chart shows KO and HiLo performingabout the same at the typical penetrations (KO wins very slightly) andHiLo beating KO at high and low penetrations. Of course card countersshouldn't play very poor penetrations and unfortunately no one will letyou play deep penetrations.
Now I picked 4.75/6 as my center point. This provides KO with 99% to100.7% of HiLo performance from 44 to 90 cards cut off. You could picka different center point if you tend to play different penetrations. Mypoint is that you do not need to memorize 100 different betting ramps.One or two is fine. If you want the best possible performance, generatea table of ideal betting ramps for every penetration and carry it withyou.
Link to the Raw Data behind this chart – Chart 3
Now you could select two center points using two betting ramps to greatlybroaden the range of penetrations at which KO and HiLo compare favorably.So let's take the next step. 365 betting football tips. I created one betting ramp optimized at 97card penetration and another at 58 cards. The idea is to use one for 4.5deck penetration and above and one for below 4.5/6. To be absolutely fair,I did this for both KO and HiLo. Now, I calculated the c-SCOREs for everypenetration for KO and HiLo using this scheme and plotted them below:
Now to more clearly see the difference in performance between KO and HiLo,I created a percentage chart. Whenever the line is above 100%, KO Blackjackhas the advantage and below, HiLo Blackjack has the advantage.
In summary, from a penetration of 41 cards to 124 cards (3.63/6 to 5.21/6)KO performance varies from 99.5% to 102% of HiLo. I believe this is allreasonable penetrations using one set of indexes and two betting rampsfor both KO and HiLo at all penetrations. The conclusion is that the KOand HiLo card counting strategies are essentially equal in performancewithout the requirement for memorization of numerous betting ramps.
Blackjack Strategy Card Pdf
Link to Raw Data for – Both Charts
