Go to Practice Card Counting

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The main Systems 101 screen is designed to give you a basic introduction to several of the more popular card counting systems in use today. You can view the card tags of the systems, several "get you started" basic strategy departure indices, and a recommendation as to where you can find more information - book, Web site, etc.

When the screen first loads, you will be offered a drop-down list from which to select a Card Counting System.

Counting Systems: Select from the several choices offered, e.g., hi-lo, K-O, AO2, etc.

The selected system's card tags will be displayed, along with some basic system attributes (balanced or not, level, how True Count is computed, etc) and a multi-tabbed chart will appear that gives you access to about 25 of the most important indices. All indices were custom generated, using Karel Janecek's Statistical Blackjack Analyzer software - another recommended "must have" (in addition to Don's book) if you want to delve more deeply into particular counting systems and/or games and/or conditions.

Illustrious 18 and Fab 4 Indices: Click the various Tabs to view several of the most important basic strategy departure indices for the System you selected. The Learn More Tab (see screen shot below) may contain a book recommendation and/or a relevant Web Link. You can click the Web Link, and it will launch your Web Browser. Indices are shown for 1, 2, 4, 6 & 8 deck games. Refer to Don Schlesinger's Blackjack Attack for a detailed accounting of how and why the Illustrious 18 and the Fab 4 were determined.

Important Note: All indices shown were computed based on True Counting the selected system. This is true for both balanced and unbalanced systems, and was done for ease, flexibility and consistency of display. The unbalanced systems true count-based indices were computed by setting the Initial Running Count (IRC) based on the standard formula: - pivot times #-of-decks-in-play. If you are one who True Counts unbalanced systems, that is almost certainly the way you do so. If you use an unbalanced system in Running Count mode, which is by far the usual method, do not be concerned, as BJRM has fully allowed for that, of course. Just read on.

Now, if you have selected an unbalanced card counting system (as in above screen shot), you will find that two additional items display on the screen: (1) an IRC-adjustment feature, and (2) several Show Best Running Count At This Penetration radio button choices. These two items are interrelated, and they immediately affect the values displayed in the Indices charts.

Show Best Running Count At This Penetration: These several radio button choices only appear when you have selected an unbalanced count system. Because of the nature of Running Count-based systems, the "best" running count at which you should make a basic strategy departure is sensitive to penetration, i.e. "where you currently are in the deck/shoe." For example, in a six deck game, the Running Count for doubling 9 vs. dealer 7 may be one value early in the shoe (+12, say), another value halfway through the shoe (+6, say), and yet another very near the cut card (+2, say).

What unbalanced system players usually do, if they are playing in Running Count only mode, is to "average" or "weight-average" those different values down to a single integer, to be used regardless of penetration level. To give you maximum freedom to compute that value for yourself, or to enable you to make use of several penetration-based indices for a given departure, the radio button selections in this section of the screen allow you to specify a certain deck penetration level, whereupon the Indices Chart values are instantly adjusted to reflect that optimum running count, at that exact penetration level.

For example, if you are looking at the 6dk column of the Indices Chart, and you have selected the 2 left radio button (indicating that two decks remain in the shoe), then the RC's listed in the 6 dk columns (4dk & 8dk, also) of the chart will show the optimum RC for that departure "when 2 decks of the 6 deck (or the 4 or 8 deck) shoe remain. Now, "two decks left" means: 4 decks are gone, for 6 dk; 2 decks are gone, for 4 deck; and 6 decks are gone, for 8 deck. The 2 and 1 deck columns are, in this case, showing the optimum RC before the very first card is dealt, as the 2 left setting means, for them, that all the cards still remain to be dealt. Make sure you understand this example, as it is the key to the workings and meaning of the whole Index display for unbalanced count systems.

Note that it is also in the nature of unbalanced systems that some departure indices will change little, if at all, based on penetration. They are the indices that are at, or very close to, what is termed the system's pivot point. It is beyond the scope of this Help file, however, to go into an explanation of Pivot. You can, perhaps, refer to the recommended literature, but for now just understand that at or very near the pivot, unbalanced systems, being played in running count only mode, are at their most accurate. When true counted, of course, they are always as accurate as their balanced counterparts.

The TC radio button choice returns things to True Count mode. IRCs: The five fields in this section of the screen, which appear only when you have selected an unbalanced Count System, are there to allow you to adjust the IRC, based on "decks-in-play," to the one you actually use - if different than the default. They work in conjunction with the Indices charts, and the Show Best Running Count At This Penetration screen section, to give you maximum flexibility in determining the indices you might wish to use for real life play.

Simply enter the IRC you wish to use (e.g. -20 for 6-deck KO), and click the Apply button. The associated values in the Indices Chart will immediately change to the appropriate values.

Note that if you have the Show Best Running Count At This Penetration set to TC, all the IRCs will be forced to -pivot * #-of-decks-in-play, regardless of what you have set them too. In other words, you must be in non-TC mode for the adjust IRC feature to work.

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