Knock-Out Blackjack: The Easiest Card-Counting System Ever Devised Paperback – September 1, 1998

I have racked my brain trying to decide if I want to learn the K-O count or the High-Low. I figure, why waste my time learning one system if I will eventually move on to another, more advanced system? Just start with the High-Low from the beginning!But I have finally made my decision, and I feel this advice might help others trying to make the same decision. Is the K-O good enough to learn, or should you look elsewhere? Well, I'm no expert, but I have come to the conclusion, after reading much about counting systems, that it really makes no difference which system you use. The difference in expectation is very small, not to mention the potential for error in the more complicated systems like Omega II or APC. Even in a simpler level-1 count like High-Low, there remains that god-awful true count conversion (more room for error and delay). Of course, if you really want to play professional blackjack, you might want to eventually (or even right from the beginning) move to a balanced count system. But I have decided that while I want to play blackjack with an advantage, I never want the game to become a chore. I don't want to hate playing it. Therefore, it is not necessary for the recreational/casual player to learn anything more than an unbalanced count. Even if it's not the K-O system, you shouldn't worry about learning an advanced balanced count. The K-O system performs on par with all other similar systems, so the decision between which to learn is up to you (there is the Red 7 count and the Black Ace count, for example).Now, as far as this particular book goes, I think it is fantastically written and presented. I read another review that says the book is poorly organized, but I honestly don't understand where that person is coming from. The book presents the K-O in steps, and by the end you will understand it. (My only complaint is that there are a few incarnations of the K-O count, eventually all coming together to form the K-O Preferred system, and it is not always easy to know what exactly is involved with each incarnation.) It may be necessary to re-read it, but if you plan to seriously learn to count cards, then you should expect to read it several times anyway. Another complaint I saw was that the authors do not explain why they assign the values that they do to particular cards. But this is also simply not true. Vancura and Fuchs give you a chart that shows the player/dealer expectation when certain cards are removed from the pack, and it is on the basis of this information that they assign +1 to 2-7 and -1 to 10, J, Q, K, A.Anyway, if you are interested in learning a simple but powerful count that will perform well for recreational play, you definitely should read this book. It is wonderful. But not only that, the K-O is also considered a "professional" level count, so it cannot be written-off as a system not to take seriously. There is work to be done to learn it efficiently. And as Stanford Wong said in "Blackjack Secrets" (I believe it was that book), as long as you know a count that keeps track of low cards compared to high cards, then you are using a good system and do not need to move up to one that is supposedly more "powerful". (Of course, he wrote this before the K-O count was created, but I would still include it in his assessment). Besides, these systems that are "more powerful" are only theoretically so, and I think a lot can be said for the fact that because K-O is so simple, it may work more efficiently than even more advanced count systems.

First, let me say I am not particularly interested in gambling. My interest is in developing financial trading systems, but many of the gurus of finance are reportedly enamoured with blackjack and gaming theory. I picked up this book, suggested by Amazon, to gain insight into how the system was developed and the statistics involved. I have tried to read through card counting books in the past but found them far too complicated for my limited brain. I was extremely impressed with not only the Knock Out Blackjack system but in how the authors take us through an explanation of the game, the traditional strategy, and other card counting methods in a very clear and concise way. The K-O Blackjack system is very simple to learn and implement. There book contains plenty of examples and an extensive Appendix section in the back to ensure that all the points are grasped completely by readers. The K-O system is all about identifying the times when the player does or does not have a statistical advantage; loading up on bets when there is a higher probability of success and lowering betting or exiting a game when the odds are not in the player's favor. I was riveted to this excellent book and immediately saw ways to incorporate its principles of how to identify favorable conditions and its money-management strategies to my own investment models. But aside from my alternative interest, the K-O Blackjack system is surely the easiest system for anyone interested in learning a great card counting system to use to put the odds back in their favor in the casinos.

When I first bought this book on paperback and read it when it first came out honestly I didn't give it much thought cause I thought this KO count with the compromised indexes and unbalanced nature was way too simple and I didn't think it would be very powerful but recently I have actually switched to this count from Hi-Lo not cause Hi-Lo was too difficult but because I was just tired of constantly thinking about what the exact true count was for betting, playing and insurance decisions plus all the matrix numbers are all on 3 or 4 different points with this KO count instead of all over with most counts, 1 deviation point would be the IRC which is the initial running count for handheld games, you ignore that point for shoe games cause those deviations don't matter that much in shoes, another point is at the key count where you the player start to have an advantage usually, the 3rd at the Insurance number and the last at the pivot point which is just 1 more point above the insurance number and most your deviations are there so all your playing decisions are made and deviated at just those points so it's much easier than having to constantly figure out what the exact true count is in the middle of the hand to determine if you should deviate or not with a lot more index numbers and also at the end of every hand you don't have to figure out the true count for that either when you place your next bet out before every round cause your bet spread is all based on the running count also and a it's fixed regardless of where you are in the shoe or deck, I do feel the bet spreads in this book for shoe games in particular aren't wide enough cause I like to use either a 1-15 spread or even a 1-20 spread and this book recommends a 1-10 spread only for shoe games which is a little out dated I believe, some other older books only recommend a 1-8 spread for shoes which is really not enough cause if you can get away with spreading more than that on shoe games then do it cause your advantage and expected win is already basically cut in half of what handheld games are especially single decks cause in shoes your advantage comes up a lot less often sadly, your advantage and hourly expectation will be much better spreading more but this system with it's simplicity is honestly genius, I heard someone wrote a book about this count before this book even came out in the U.K and called it the "All 7's Count" but this book is more complete even though it came out after that book using the same tag values and unbalanced idea, some people say this count is even more powerful than Hi-Lo but most say it's a little weaker cause unbalanced strategies usually are slightly weaker but once you feel comfortable adding the 7's also it's pretty easy compared to Hi-Lo and you don't have to worry about true count conversions anymore cause for me personally I was simply burned out on balanced systems and wanted to either start using this KO count or the Red 7 which I tried before briefly but the Red 7 bet spreads were so extremely conservative in Arnold Snyder's book and they didn't make any sense even though that is a great book also with a great author that I chose not to use that count and I picked this one to try and use instead because of the confusions with that count but this book is amazing and this count is worthy of trying, if you are a serious blackjack player or you're thinking about being a serious blackjack player and are willing to take all the risks and invest a lot of time and effort into this journey with no guarantee of success but a thrill ride then this book should definitely be in your library, I will say that I do believe the Hi-Lo Count is still more accurate and powerful even though you add the 7's with KO which is good, they should be cards that you plus cause they are good when they are out of the deck for the player but I believe balanced counts are stronger regardless of what a lot of people might say, KO is more convenient where you don't have to worry about the true count, you just bet and play based on the running count which is great obviously but I have had better success using Hi-Lo still but I have only used KO probably less than 10x in actual live casino play but I do believe next to Hi-Lo this would be not only the most widely used count but also the count I would recommend to aspiring counters but I still believe Hi-Lo is more powerful and accurate even if some simulations like in this book say otherwise but it's still a great book and count and definitely worth looking into and owning if you're a big fan of Blackjack!