Poll on counting strategies

It would be interesting to know what counting strategies most people actually use. I'll be the first to start. I use KO

I started with Hi-Opt I and used it for about 3 months, then used Hi-Opt II for about 6 years before switching to Zen this year.

-Sonny-

KO... been toying with hi-lo, but not that seriously. someday will switch to level II, but not today

why don't you start a poll?

Great poll! Personally, I only use hi-lo, seems to be the jack of all trades in regards to accuracy and it does very well from SD to 6D. My mind cannot handle more than one type of system.

KO.

A question like this would be better served with a poll that tallies the results...

Coincidence - I also played Ho2 for 6-years before switching. Do you feel compromised in the least with the simpler ZEN? zg

Not at all. My play has become faster and more natural. I'm very happy with the switch.

-Sonny-

I use the hi low count

I use the easy hi low count counting 2,3,4,5,6 as plus 1 7,8,9 as 0 and 10,aces as minus 1. I move my bet up and down with these counts.

I roll my own!

http://www.blackjackinfo.com/Ben-Franklin-Count.pdf

What deck-level do you calibrate TC to? zg

I use half-decks for pitch games and full-decks for shoe games. My estimation skills aren't quite good enough for quarter-decks in shoe games yet, but I'm getting close.

-Sonny-

HI-LO with 1/4 deck TC.

Yes I too used HO2+A for a couple of years. Mathematically there is no question it is better than any other level 2 count, but not that much better. When I switched to RPC I got almost all of the power of H02+A, and using the freed-up brainspace to sequence even one ace or slug per shoe more than makes up the difference.

I also use a roll-your-own version of UBZ on SD and DD games, because deck estimation is difficult in those games for me (the dealer can easily screw me up just by the way he holds the deck) and because the added PE and IC of Zen is more valuable in those games.

i've never been a ploppy until now

never played a single game of blackjack as a ploppy.
played my first game using Hi/Lo. unfortunately i couldn't keep up with the dealer and well it was a csm table anyway
went back to the drawing board and schemed and plotted every which way i could figure from what i'd just recently learned about card counting. came up with a mish mash of hi/lo, red7 and ko all mixed together along with some original ideas about advantageous table layouts i'd likely see. that little experiment definately didn't work.
learned the ace/ten front count. that worked. then i hit some negative fluctuation.
back to the drawing board. settled down and really learned hi/lo and learned about bet sizing, bet ramps, risk of ruin, kelly betting, proportional betting, wonging in and out and loads of other stuff like that. that all worked pretty darned good.
then after almost two years i finally hit some significant negative fluctuation just when i was getting into a higher bet ramp and max bet.
back to the drawing board and i guess where i am now is well......
i guess i'm a ploppy. i decided that ploppies don't really have such a bad approach it's just that they don't have all the good knowledge to work from.
so i've decided to use my mind and what i'm calling fuzzy counting:
http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bb/showpost.php?p=34059&postcount=40

http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bb/showpost.php?p=34098&postcount=51

http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bb/showpost.php?p=34379&postcount=64

http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bb/showpost.php?p=34578&postcount=74

I use a self-made mixture of KO and Kiss2,with a good spinkling of comp counting thrown in as well.

That's cool and I have absolutely no problem u betting any darn way u want.

Especially since that's what I do lol.

But, for the life of me, I don't see why if u can count one round, you just don't count them all.

Especially, if as I think u said, u had 2 years of success doing Hi-Lo.

No, I mean what are your indices based on 1D or 1/2D? zg

Thats stated incorrectly. What are the indices based on? 1D? zg

Fuzzy counting is fine, many/most pros do it though not admit to it, so long as you know which side your fuzz is on. zg

Well if they miss a card or 2, who cares. Probably not much difference. Better than no count at all.

But counting round by round with some "feel" as to how the last 6 rounds went, not sure I get that.

Just a matter of degree I guess.

So u think many/most pros really don't know the exact RC? I find that shocking. It's such a simple thing. What the heck are they doing then? If they don't admit it, what makes u think most do it?

But I guess, like u say, betting the wrong number of units at TC+3 when it was really TC+4 or TC+2 occasionally probably doesn't matter much.

BJ is a very forgiving game after all.