"The Color of Blackjack" improvements to KO

KenSmith

KenSmith

Administrator
Staff member
I was asked by a friend a few weeks ago to take a look at his new book "The Color of Blackjack" (Archive copy). What started as a basic review turned into a lot more, because I felt I had to extensively test his system to see if his claims were accurate.

Simming his system was moderately complicated, but I was pleased to find that CVData has features that were up to the challenge. In particular, I ended up using the Multi-Betting Strategy feature, and the "MRI" feature to hone in on what was going on under the hood of his system.

First, a little about the book's author...

I've known Daniel Dravot for quite a few years now. He's a successful and experienced pro player. He's been on the road playing blackjack all over the country for many years and gambling has long been his sole source of income.

What I did not know (until I received a review copy of his book) was that he uses KO as his count system. That was surprising to me. Even though I have long recommended KO to new players, I always thought there was a small performance penalty to pay for the simplicity and convenience of KO. Other recent posts on this board have espoused the idea that KO may outperform Hi-Lo when you compare them "apples to apples". (That's a tricky thing to do by the way!) When I learned Daniel was a KO user, that was a shock.

Daniel's book describes his addition to KO which is a workable way to gain some of the advantage you could have with TKO (True-Counted KO).

So, what did I find in the sims I ran?
(COB is my abbreviation for Color of Blackjack, not his.)
In 6D (66% pen), COB adds 13.5% to KO's earning rate.
In 6D (75% pen), COB adds 4.4% to KO's earning rate.
In 6D (83% pen), COB adds 2.4% to KO's earning rate.

In the better games the improvements are relatively modest. In the poorest games, the improvement is more noticeable. To me, the primary effect is that KO becomes playable in more venues.

My opinion of the book: I think it yields value to anyone considering KO. Even if you choose not to use the system formally, your understanding of the game will be better for your exposure to Daniel's ideas. His information is accurate and well-presented. There's also a useful chapter called "What Pros Know" that covers in just a few pages some excellent advice on avoiding back-offs, and how to best schedule your plays.

The book is self-published and available through his website at http://www.thecolorofblackjack.com

If you are interested, I recommend starting here:
http://www.thecolorofblackjack.com/cardcounting.html (Archive copy)

Or, the book sales page is here:
https://www.createspace.com/3355446

The book sells for $25.
 
Automatic Monkey

Automatic Monkey

Banned
KenSmith said:
...
Daniel's book describes his addition to KO which is a workable way to gain some of the advantage you could have with TKO (True-Counted KO).

So, what did I find in the sims I ran?
(COB is my abbreviation for Color of Blackjack, not his.)
In 6D (66% pen), COB adds 13.5% to KO's earning rate.
In 6D (75% pen), COB adds 4.4% to KO's earning rate.
In 6D (83% pen), COB adds 2.4% to KO's earning rate.

In the better games the improvements are relatively modest. In the poorest games, the improvement is more noticeable. To me, the primary effect is that KO becomes playable in more venues...
Click to expand...
By earning rate do you mean something like SCORE where you are norming for standard deviation? If so it would be very surprising, especially being the effect is strongest in games with bad pen. Usually RC-based systems have their problems in deeply dealt games because 1) their accuracy is greatest right in the middle of the shoe and 2) in the beginning of the shoe there is rarely an advantage situation using any count.

If this system can indeed add 13.5% in SCORE to KO when KO is used properly, it would be something very revolutionary that could likely be applied to any counting system. I'd love to see what it could do for UBZ.
 
B

Brock Windsor

Well-Known Member
Automatic Monkey said:
If this system can indeed add 13.5% in SCORE to KO when KO is used properly, it would be something very revolutionary that could likely be applied to any counting system. I'd love to see what it could do for UBZ.
Click to expand...
Have not read the book but my guess would be that it is not that revolutionary and would add very little to UBZ. Since the greatest gain it adds to KO is coming in the games with the worst pen it is probably just true counting to identify opportunities near TC 2 as opposed to the KO pivot of TC 4. UBZ already identifies the advantage at TC 2 (pivot point) so the improvement would be much less dramatic. The only other gain from true counting an unbalanced count would be slight improvements in PE and to more accurately size your bet in high counts (where you are probably at your max regardless).
BW
 
KenSmith

KenSmith

Administrator
Staff member
Automatic Monkey said:
By earning rate do you mean something like SCORE where you are norming for standard deviation?
Click to expand...
The numbers above are for the $/hr earning rate. I'll post the SCORE improvement later, but to do so I have to shut down Linux and restart in Windows to get the files. No time for that this morning as I have to leave in a minute. It'll have to wait until this evening. More comments then.
 
S

SystemsTrader

Well-Known Member
Automatic Monkey said:
If so it would be very surprising, especially being the effect is strongest in games with bad pen. Usually RC-based systems have their problems in deeply dealt games because 1) their accuracy is greatest right in the middle of the shoe and 2) in the beginning of the shoe there is rarely an advantage situation using any count.

If this system can indeed add 13.5% in SCORE to KO when KO is used properly, it would be something very revolutionary that could likely be applied to any counting system. I'd love to see what it could do for UBZ.
Click to expand...
No its not really surprising since TKO is simply improving on KO's flaws. Many times early in the shoe when Hi-Lo has a +2 count the KO player is still betting minimums because she thinks she has a disadvantage. So TKO isn't getting some revolutionary advantage over other systems its just closed the gaps by using new information to recognize advantage situations . By closing those gaps both early and late in the shoe TKO actually becomes the most powerful level 1 system out there now because it also takes into consideration the EOR for the seven.
 
KenSmith

KenSmith

Administrator
Staff member
Here are the SCORE improvements, which I should have included in my original post.

These numbers use only a 1-10 spread, because I wanted to be able to use the exact bet ramp from the KO book to compare.

Code: 
Game              KO SCORE   COB SCORE   Improvement
6D 83% 1-10       15.48          16.69          7.8%
6D 75% 1-10        9.08           9.65          6.3%
6D 66% 1-10        4.61           5.37         16.5%
 
A

ace157

Well-Known Member
mayb i'm missing something, but what is the addition to KO? I mean what has been changed or done differently? I'm not trying to "steal" specifics, just a general idea of the changes made.
 
KenSmith

KenSmith

Administrator
Staff member
The method is a simplified approach of approximating true-count for KO. The benefit comes from identifying earlier opportunities to raise your bet, and also identifies some occasions when KO would have you overbetting in bad situations. This description plus some graphics available at his site will likely lead you to some understanding of what he is doing.

It's not a groundbreaking discovery, or anything dramatically different. It is instead a practical approach that really just formalizes what good players already instinctively know.
 
A

ace157

Well-Known Member
KenSmith said:
The method is a simplified approach of approximating true-count for KO. The benefit comes from identifying earlier opportunities to raise your bet, and also identifies some occasions when KO would have you overbetting in bad situations. This description plus some graphics available at his site will likely lead you to some understanding of what he is doing.

It's not a groundbreaking discovery, or anything dramatically different. It is instead a practical approach that really just formalizes what good players already instinctively know.
Click to expand...
thanks, i'll have a look at it for sure
 
KenSmith

KenSmith

Administrator
Staff member
Doh! Thanks zg.

Color KO is a similar concept but there are also some differences. Dravot's system focuses more on bet ramp than on play variation, while Nimka's Color KO system is primarily a grouping of strategy variation indexes. Nimka leaves the bet variation to the user, recommending that the user create a betting strategy by using simulations.

Dravot's book does that legwork for the user, and presents the work in a way that makes the concept clear at a glance.
 
S

SystemsTrader

Well-Known Member
KenSmith said:
Dravot's book does that legwork for the user, and presents the work in a way that makes the concept clear at a glance.
Click to expand...
Ken since you know the author can you ask him to post here, maybe introduce himself and clear up any questions? It looks to me like he's the first to write a book about the TKO system which was finally needed.
 
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KenSmith

KenSmith

Administrator
Staff member
Will do. He hasn't been a message board presence before, but he could certainly add useful information to the discussion.
 
D

Dravot21

New Member
Dravot's Response

TKO (true-counted KO) came into existence as a concept nanoseconds after the publication of the KO book. In fact on page 166, TKO is alluded to in the second and third paragraphs. It has been the topic of discussions and postings on various sites. I have never contributed to those but I have read some of the threads. The extra power of TKO was always a given.

Very, very few players use TKO. Why? I believe the answer is that there is no one-stop shopping for the knowledge to use it and still have the ease of KO. It has been a free-for-all out there--every man for himself.

The extra power was so seductive that I kept working on ways to use TKO. “The Color of Blackjack” explains my discovery of a very easy way to gain that extra power and still keep the ease of KO. The methodology is an elegantly simple and unique contribution to the body of knowledge surrounding TKO. It makes TKO a viable playing option for all. Why play KO and leave money on the table?

“The Color of Blackjack” completely explains my playing strategy as used for many years. I even have a special tweak to the insurance decision. Hard to sim but Ken’s numbers would be even better if that concept were in the simulation. The book is a look into the mind of a pro player.

My idea will stand the test of time. What is the easiest and most powerful card counting system? The answer is TKO as taught in “The Color of Blackjack.” This is not idle talk. I have the playing track record of extracting cash from casinos to back it up.
 
A

ace157

Well-Known Member
Dravot21 said:
TKO (true-counted KO) came into existence as a concept nanoseconds after the publication of the KO book. In fact on page 166, TKO is alluded to in the second and third paragraphs. It has been the topic of discussions and postings on various sites. I have never contributed to those but I have read some of the threads. The extra power of TKO was always a given.

Very, very few players use TKO. Why? I believe the answer is that there is no one-stop shopping for the knowledge to use it and still have the ease of KO. It has been a free-for-all out there--every man for himself.

The extra power was so seductive that I kept working on ways to use TKO. “The Color of Blackjack” explains my discovery of a very easy way to gain that extra power and still keep the ease of KO. The methodology is an elegantly simple and unique contribution to the body of knowledge surrounding TKO. It makes TKO a viable playing option for all. Why play KO and leave money on the table?

“The Color of Blackjack” completely explains my playing strategy as used for many years. I even have a special tweak to the insurance decision. Hard to sim but Ken’s numbers would be even better if that concept were in the simulation. The book is a look into the mind of a pro player.

My idea will stand the test of time. What is the easiest and most powerful card counting system? The answer is TKO as taught in “The Color of Blackjack.” This is not idle talk. I have the playing track record of extracting cash from casinos to back it up.
Click to expand...
yes i concur. I started w/ KO, and then piddled with TKO, but sooner or later i made the commitment where i thought a greater increase in difficulty was worth the minimal increase in power. Nonetheless, im still trying to iron out a few things whilst choosing a system, but TKO is a keeper for sure.
 
M

Mixolydian87

Active Member
The Color of Blackjack is simply the best assortment of information, with beautifully crafted graphs and figures brilliantly constructed for ease of memorization ever made bar none!
You want to count? You think its hard? To bad, it is! You want a book that will make it easy, you found it.

I have bought many books and have eventually settled on the KO system for its strength and ease, and out of the many books I have come across that have aroused me with their theories and agendas, this is the one book that cuts out the fat and tells you how to make some money, which will keep you from pulling your hair out.

Don't get me wrong books like Knock out black jack are still great but I now consider them supplements to Dravot's book. Those books only explain concepts with no game play,Dravot teaches you to break the bank.

I only play 6 deck shoes so I learned his graphs ice cold, as well as betting ramps. For beginners he even has a unique way of teaching basic the basic strategy chart which you can memorize in 10 minutes.

BUY IT! It's a little money now, for a lot of money later. :p (Believe me, I know.)
 
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Finn Dog

Finn Dog

Well-Known Member
Mixolydian87 said:
The Color of Blackjack is simply the best assortment of information, with beautifully crafted graphs and figures brilliantly constructed for ease of memorization ever made bar none!
You want to count? You think its hard? To bad, it is! You want a book that will make it easy, you found it.

I have bought many books and have eventually settled on the KO system for its strength and ease, and out of the many books I have come across that have aroused me with their theories and agendas, this is the one book that cuts out the fat and tells you how to make some money, which will keep you from pulling your hair out.

Don't get me wrong books like Knock out black jack are still great but I now consider them supplements to the actually technique of the game. Those books only explain concepts with no game play,Dravot teaches you to break the bank.

I only play 6 deck shoes so I learned his graphs ice cold, as well as betting ramps. For beginners he even has a unique way of teaching basic the basic strategy chart which you can memorize in 10 minutes.
Click to expand...
Concur, a "must have" for any KO player.
 
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