Card counting with REKO

Card Counting

Card counting is both easier and harder than most people think. It is easier because you don't actually memorize the cards or make complex mathematical calculations. You just keep a simple count. It is harder because it takes a great deal of practice, patience and discipline.

The basic principle behind counting is the fact that high cards, particularly aces and tens, are better for the player and low cards, particularly 4s, 5s and 6s, are good for the dealer. Aces and tens can give the player Blackjacks, and tens are better for doubles. Low cards are good for the dealer, because unlike the player, the dealer must hit stiff hands (12-16) and low cards are safer. So, a card counter uses a simple system to determine when the remaining cards are richer in high cards or low cards by tracking the cards that have been dealt. He can then bet more when he is more likely to get good cards.

Basic Strategy

Before you even think of counting, you must master Basic Strategy. BS is simply making the correct play on every hand. The correct play is laid out in simple tables and is well-known. Any book that tells you that BS is wrong and they have a better one is fraudulent. (Complete BS charts are included in the software and can be seen from the menu, Strategies then Playing Strategies Simple, click on Complete Basic Strategy in the basic strategies folder and click on Display Tables.) BS alone will not give you an advantage. But it will cut the house advantage to about 0.5%. That is, for every $100 bet, you will lose 50 cents. There is an in-depth Basic Strategy tutorial included in CV. From the main menu, click Strategies then Tutorial. There are also drills - from the main menu, select Tools then CVDrills. In particular, the Flashcard drill is useful for BS. For info on using the drills, see page 104.

Counting

On to counting. CV contains numerous card counting strategies ranging from very easy to ridiculously difficult. In general, more complex systems are better. But, over the years it has been discovered that the very complex systems really are not that much better and there are newer, simple systems that are highly effective. In fact, the MIT teams used Hi-Lo, one of the simpler systems. KO, described in the book Knock-Out Blackjack by Vancura and Fuchs, is a newer even simpler strategy that has the same power as Hi-Lo. KO is simpler because you do not need to keep track of the number of cards that have been dealt and adjust your count accordingly. This is called true counting. If you wish to learn HiLo, there is an in-depth tutorial included in CV. From the main menu, click Strategies then Tutorial. If you wish to use a simple variation of KO, read on.

The REKO Strategy

REKO (ridiculously easy KO) is a substantially simplified version of KO (Knock-Out). A quick description is provided here, and performance charts are provided at www.qfit.com/rekostrategy.htm. REKO has about 99% of the effectiveness of KO but is easier to learn. But, I still suggest that readers read the Knock-Out Blackjack book for a more in-depth understanding.

In card counting, we keep one count, called the running count. Every time we see a low or high card,, we add or subtract 1 from the running count. In KO the cards 2-7 are valued at +1, and the 10s and Aces are counted as -1. (8s and 9s are called neutral and are ignored.) So, if we see two fives, we add two to the count. If we see an ace and a ten, we subtract 2 from the count. The count goes up when bad cards have been dealt. This is good because it means there are fewer bad cards in the remaining cards. The higher the count, the higher your advantage. The higher your advantage, the more you bet. This is the heart of card counting.

The advantage occurs at different count according to the number of decks in the game. So, we start the count at a different number according to decks. This is called the Initial Running Count. Whenever the cards are shuffled, reset the running count as follows:

• Single Deck: -1
• Double Deck: -5
• Six Decks: -20
• Eight Decks: -27
  

To practice counting, use the Counting Drills. For info on using the drills, see page 104. You can also practice while playing the games in CV. You can set the Playing Strategy to REKO in CV. When you do this, the game and the drills will test you against this strategy. From the main menu, select Strategies, then Playing Strategies Simple. Open the QFIT folder and select REKO.

In a casinos, most people wait until the second card is dealt to each hand and count the cards in pairs. This is much faster and allows you to cancel out hands with one high and one low card. For example, a ten and a six would count as -1 and +1. By counting as a pair of cards, they count as 0 and no change the count is needed. After counting the first two cards in each hand in pairs, you then continue to count each card thereafter one at a time.

Betting

Clearly, you want to bet more when the remaining cards are more favorable. That is, you bet more when the count is higher. But, this must be done carefully to keep your risk low and to avoid being labeled a card counter by the casino. First you should settle on a bet spread. That is, the ratio between your maximum and minimum bet. For example, betting from $5 to $75 is a bet spread of 15. The more decks, the higher the bet spread must be to obtain an advantage. Also, the casino finds higher spreads less suspicious with more decks. In a single deck game, you may have a spread of 1-4 minimum bets. In an eight deck game, 1-20 or even 1-24. The bet is raised gradually according to the count. Below is a sample betting schedule for six decks:

That is, bet $5 with a count of -4 and below. $10 at a count of -3, etc. You will find more betting schedules at rekostrategy.htm.

Playing Indexes

Now that we have the count, we can also change our playing decisions to take into account the remaining high and low cards. We do this by altering Basic Strategy. If there are more high cards remaining, we are less likely to hit hands that might bust. But, we are more likely to double down since high cards are good for doubles and bad for the dealer when he has a bad card showing. With REKO, we play Basic Strategy with the following exceptions.
If the count is +2 or higher, we stand on the following hands: 16 vs Ten, 15 vs Ten, 12 vs 2, 12 vs 3, 12 vs 4. If the count is +2 or higher, we double the following hands: 11 vs ace, 10 vs ace, 9 vs 2, 9 vs 7, 8 vs 5, 8 vs 6, Ace 8 vs 5, Ace 8 vs 6.

Additional index info can be found at rekostrategy.htm. You can set the Playing Strategy to REKO in CV.

Summary

You have now read a description of the basics of card counting. However, there is much more to learn to become a proficient counter. A better understanding of risks, expectations, myths, avoiding casino "heat" and the advantages of different games are all important. The Books page will suggest many additional sources.