Questions About Ko

im thinking of switching from hi-lo to ko, and am almost certain i will, but i am confused about some things.. you know how with hi-lo the count of 0 is neutral, and +1 tc is the point at which you have the advantage? well with ko, your irc is -4*decks+4, so that you always end up at +4 when you count down a deck right? well then how come the key count (point where you have the advantage) is -4 for 6 decks? how can the key count ever be below +4 if that is where you will end up after counting down the decks? thats like saying that something below 0 in hi-lo is where your advantage starts..

i will add more questions as i think of them.. btw, i am in chapter 7 of the ko book, in case you were gonna tell me to go read the book

EDIT: i corrected the mistakes i made, and reworded/added some things above (i was tired, and thinking about a lot at once, so they were mistakes, not misbeliefs)
 
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EasyRhino

Well-Known Member
It's the key count that is the best approximation of when you have some sort of advantage. Meanwhile, the pivot is where the RC roughly equals a hi-lo true count, and that's equal +4.

Let's talk singe deck.

The IRC is 0, the key count is +2. The pivot is +4.

So, key count = marginal advantage, pivot point = serious advantage.
 

Split10

Member
Knock-Out System
Standard IRCs and Key Counts

Conditions
1 deck/ IRC 0/ Key Count+2
2 decks/ -4 / +1
6 decks / -20/ -4
8 decks /-28 / -6
 

aslan

Well-Known Member
Split10 said:
Knock-Out System
Standard IRCs and Key Counts

Conditions
1 deck/ IRC 0/ Key Count+2
2 decks/ -4 / +1
6 decks / -20/ -4
8 decks /-28 / -6
And because of the varying IRCs, +4 is always the pivot point and always corresponds to a TC of +4.
 

jack.jackson

Well-Known Member
SilentBob420BMFJ said:
im thinking of switching from hi-lo to ko, and am almost certain i will, but i am confused about some things.. you know how with hi-lo the count of 0 is neutral, and +1 tc is the point at which you have the advantage? well with ko, your irc is -4*decks+4, so that you always end up at +4 when you count down a deck right? well then how come the key count (point where you have the advantage) is -4 for 6 decks? how can the key count ever be below +4 if that is where you will end up after counting down the decks? thats like saying that something below 0 in hi-lo is where your advantage starts..

i will add more questions as i think of them.. btw, i am in chapter 7 of the ko book, in case you were gonna tell me to go read the book

EDIT: i corrected the mistakes i made, and reworded/added some things above (i was tired, and thinking about a lot at once, so they were mistakes, not misbeliefs)
Ever considered the Zen count? Its a very sweet count!
 

ChefJJ

Well-Known Member
Bob,

The key count can be a negative RC value and still present an advantage because the whole unbalanced counting system counts the 7's. So, you've got 4 extra value cards PER DECK. And that's what is being "overcome" as the decks (assuming multi-deck game) get played out. The difference that counting the 7's makes is like a gauge that is supposed to substitute for the RC/TC conversion.

That may or may not help answer your original question.

good luck
 
ChefJJ said:
Bob,

The key count can be a negative RC value and still present an advantage because the whole unbalanced counting system counts the 7's. So, you've got 4 extra value cards PER DECK. And that's what is being "overcome" as the decks (assuming multi-deck game) get played out. The difference that counting the 7's makes is like a gauge that is supposed to substitute for the RC/TC conversion.

That may or may not help answer your original question.

good luck
i thot about that, but that would mean it varies at different penetrations.. in 6 deck, if only 1 deck has been dealt, and your at -4, you dont just "now have the advantage" you have had the advantage way before that, probably at -10 or something, and the reverse would also be true; if you were still at -20 after 3 decks dealt, you are way in the negative..

is there a fuzzy true count conversion type of thing, where it would say something like "if less than 2 decks have been dealt, then X is your key count, and if more than 2 decks have been dealt then Y is your key count"?

i wonder what penetration they used to get the key count, and if they didnt use penetration, but rather used all 6 decks, then that means the key count is accurate at exactly 3 decks dealt, which would be stupid, because 3 decks dealt is way past the halfway point of a 6 deck shoe, in fact your pretty much at the 3/4 point.. also, i wonder if they took the key count at each quarter deck and averaged it out, or at each card, which is how they should do it, so if your dealing with 70% penetration, then you should make a key count for 1 card dealt all the way to the 218th card dealt, then add them all together and divide by 218, so you now have the average key count of 70% penetration, so the key count would be based on 109 cards dealt (35% dealt, aka the halfway point of the shoe).. am i wrong on any of this?

in time, i will probably calculate it myself, but i will use quarter decks for simplicity, since exactly one 7 should be dealt out per quarter deck, but im not 100% sure on how to go about this.. in case you cant tell, i hate to just read a book, and follow the system without questioning anything, not to say that ko doesnt work, i just want to know what their key count is based on, like what penetration, and if i can make my own more accurate key counts, perhaps key counts for when you have a slight slight disadvantage so i can play more hands, since i wong (did you know that in hi-lo, the frequency of the count of zero is higher than the frequencies of -1 and +1 added together?)..
 
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ChefJJ

Well-Known Member
SilentBob420BMFJ said:
i thot about that, but that would mean it varies at different penetrations.. in 6 deck, if only 1 deck has been dealt, and your at -4, you dont just "now have the advantage" you have had the advantage way before that, probably at -10 or something, and the reverse would also be true; if you were still at -20 after 3 decks dealt, you are way in the negative..

is there a fuzzy true count conversion type of thing, where it would say something like "if less than 2 decks have been dealt, then X is your key count, and if more than 2 decks have been dealt then Y is your key count"?
There is a zipped file out there that a very smart member did (sorry, can't remember who)..."TKO" maybe? It gave some good guidelines if you wanted to adjust the count to the advantage based on how deep in the shoe you were. So, if you want to work with all that at the casino, the hard work has been done already.

KO can tend to understate an advantage early in the shoe, and overstate it late.

good luck
 

aslan

Well-Known Member
ChefJJ said:
There is a zipped file out there that a very smart member did (sorry, can't remember who)..."TKO" maybe? It gave some good guidelines if you wanted to adjust the count to the advantage based on how deep in the shoe you were. So, if you want to work with all that at the casino, the hard work has been done already.

KO can tend to understate an advantage early in the shoe, and overstate it late.

good luck
Right! If memory serves me, at one deck gone(in 6 deck games), kc = -8, at two decks gone, kc = -6, and at 3 decks gone, kc = -4, so yes, depending on how many decks have been dealt, the key count drifts negative in the early part of the shoe, that is, you can begin ramping up at an earlier point count.

Here's one place you can download a spreadsheet for KO to TC conversions. This one has spreadsheets for 2, 6, and 8 deck games:

http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bb/showthread.php?t=6286
 
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