Agree with zg
Glad you enjoyed the earlier posts, BJFool. ZG is right. There is very little strategy gain from multiparameter systems in 6-deck shoes. I think Gwynn's simulation results confirm this, though I haven't seen his actual studies, only seen references to them. That's not to say that PE is unimportant in shoes. T-Hopper has done very interesting work on the benefits of high PE for overall risk-return performance measures (if you haven't already, you might like to check out his page and posts at BJ Review Net). He has also developed various multiparameter systems and is the real expert on this stuff.
As it happens, for single-deck I did write a very long (and boring ;-)) post which is archived at bj21.com in the counting section entitled "Selective Side Counting with HOII (Long)". This post uses Griffin's methods to approximate the gains from using various side counts with Hi Opt II. The side counts considered were (6), (7), (8), (9), (67), and (678). With flat betting, the (678) ranked highest, then (67), then (7), (8), (6), and (9). The flat-bet gains from sidecounting the (8) and (6) were very close, and I think studies have shown (again I've only seen references to these) that the (6) outperforms the (8) in simulations. I do know that slightly more of the (6) gains come from positive index plays, so bet-spread effects would bolster its results. The reason the (6) and (7) are relatively worthwhile to side count, even though they are included in the primary count, is that sometimes they act as big cards (so that the side-adjustment involves a correction not only of magnitude but of sign), and for important single-deck plays such as 14 v T, the tag of +1 is way too low. Incidentally, the reference in the post's title to 'selective' side counting simply referred to the idea of deciding what cards to side count once a round or two had already been dealt. If 6s seem to be coming out normally, but all 8s have appeared, or no 7s, you would focus on the 7s and 8s, but ignore the 6s, etc.
As I said, the above relates to single deck. There might be some worth to multiparameter systems in double-deck games too, but I haven't examined the issue.
With shoes, if you are absolutely determined to side count for non-betting purposes, no matter how small the gains, perhaps your friend could do the insurance count (unbalanced ten), and you could keep a simple 5-6 differential for 16 v T. These are the two most important plays, because they come up so often. Adding 2 times the 5-6 differential to Hi Opt II gives (0 1 1 2 4 -1 1 0 0 -2), which is very good for 16 v T. Again, though, this is more worthwhile in single-deck games.
Given your willingness to work hard in the shoe game, even for small gains, I hope you'll forgive this gratuitous piece of advice:
Why not work hard for BIG gains? ;-)
With lots of practice, techniques such as shuffle tracking and sequencing really are feasible. These methods open up a lot of possibilities. The edges can be very large, and the approaches applicable to many games.
