Automatic Monkey said:
If you're playing a game where your BR is large relative to the table max (like in CO with the $100 max) using a count like Archer/Insurance or Fry/JSTAT for everything isn't a bad way to attack it. You end up going to table max with any significant advantage, so your biggest single decision isn't "How much should I bet?" but "Should I take insurance?" The playing indices you get work just fine for the other play decisions too.
"The only unbalanced card counting system that I've ever seen that advised an ace side-count was the original Jacques Noir ten-count, from "Casino Holiday," published in 1968. The same counting system was later published by Stanley Roberts (in 1971), but was only sold mail order at a very high price (I think $100), so it never saw the shelves of bookstores. Then in 1973, John Archer published this unbalanced ten-count again.
This was primarily a single-deck system in which all tens were counted as -2 and all non-tens were counted as +1. It made a lot of sense with this counting system to side-count the aces, as the count had a poor betting correlation since aces were counted along with the low cards.
Until I published the Red Seven Count in 1983, all of the unbalanced counting systems in print were variations on this same unbalanced ten-count system. Since the Red Seven Count, all of the unbalanced counting systems I know of have counted the aces "correectly" (for betting purposes), along with the tens. So, none of these unbalanced counting systems have provided ace-side-counting advice.
Is there a value to side-counting aces in a card counting system (whether balanced or unbalanced) when the aces are counted as high cards along with the tens?
In the original editions of Professional Blackjack, Stanford Wong provided advice and strategy charts for both his Hi-Lo Count and Halves Count with ace side-counts. By side-counting aces with the Hi-Lo, players could subtract the count of the aces from the overall count, and get a count that balanced only the tens against the low cards, increasing the playing and insurance efficiencies of the Hi-Lo. Wong no longer provides this ace-counting advice in Professional Blackjack. Why?
There is very little value to the strategic gains in shoe games, and the single-deck games remaining today--where the strategic gains are more significant--are rarely good opportunities for card counters. The view of most experts and pros today is that you should just use a simple card counting system that counts the aces along with the tens, in order to get the highest betting efficiency, and let go of the insignificant gains from the increased playing efficiency that might be obtained by side-counting the aces.
I'd be interested in knowing if any players today are still using the old ace-side-counting methods with the Hi-Lo or Halves Counts. I tend to doubt that any players are side-counting aces with the modern (post-Red7) unbalanced counting systems." Arnold Snyder
http://www.blackjackforumonline.com/w-agora/view.php?site=bjf&bn=bjf_forum&key=1152116442
