--- title: 'Which Card Counting System Is Best for You?' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=2kVC84No3Ig' video_id: '2kVC84No3Ig' date: 2026-07-22 duration_sec: 719 channel: 'JackAce' --- # Which Card Counting System Is Best for You? > Source: [Which Card Counting System Is Best for You?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=2kVC84No3Ig) ## Summary This video explores over 20 blackjack card counting systems, explaining how card counting works and guiding viewers to choose the best system for their skill level. The host emphasizes that mastering basic strategy is essential before attempting any counting system, and recommends starting with simpler systems like KO or Hi-Lo before advancing to more complex ones. ### Key Points - **Blackjack's Small House Edge** [00:02] — Blackjack has an extremely small house edge of about 0.5% when using basic strategy, making it the best game in the casino for players. - **Advantage Fluctuates with Card Removal** [01:13] — The advantage shifts as cards are removed: a deck rich in tens and aces helps the player, while a deck rich in low cards helps the dealer. - **Why Tens and Aces Favor the Player** [01:41] — Players get 1.5x payout on blackjack, while dealers only win the original bet. High cards also enable more doubles and splits. - **Key Characteristics of Counting Systems** [03:33] — Systems vary by card values (balanced vs unbalanced), basic strategy deviations, and side counts. Complexity generally increases potential win rate. - **Running Count vs True Count** [04:16] — Running count must be normalized by dividing by decks remaining to get the true count, which indicates actual advantage. Unbalanced systems avoid this calculation. - **Most Advantage Comes from Betting, Not Deviations** [05:40] — The majority of profit comes from betting more when the count is high, not from making unusual plays like hitting 17. - **Hi-Lo System Overview** [07:12] — Hi-Lo is the most popular balanced single-level system: 2-6 = +1, 10-A = -1. Requires true count conversion. Featured in the film 21. - **KO System Overview** [08:07] — KO is an unbalanced system: 2-7 = +1, 10-A = -1. No true count needed; start count is adjusted for deck number. Simpler than Hi-Lo. - **Advanced Systems: Hi-Opt 1 and Hi-Opt 2** [10:09] — These systems include a side count of aces for more accuracy but are only recommended after mastering Hi-Lo. ### Conclusion The best card counting system depends on your skill level: beginners should start with KO or Rico, then progress to Hi-Lo, and finally to advanced systems like Hi-Opt 1 or 2. Mastering basic strategy is a prerequisite for any counting system. ## Transcript legitimately beaten do you know that Blackjack is the only game where a smart the house and the way you beat Blackjack is by counting cards but of the 20 plus different counting systems which one do you choose I'll show you how to pick the best blackjack card counting system today on Jack Ace through over 20 different card counting systems to help you pick the one that's right for you if you're not familiar with Blackjack card counting here's a blackjack has an extremely small Advantage for the casino if a player memorizes blackjack basic strategy the house will only win around half of one percent of the money wagered so for every 100 you bet the house will only make 50 cents from you on average that's less than half of the House's Advantage compared to the next best game Baccarat and that's smaller than one tenth of the roulette so even if you don't know how the smallest house edges in the casino but Blackjack is somewhat of a unique Shuffle after every hand but the advantage to the game kind of bounces the house as certain cards are removed and that's because when you remove certain cards it can help the player a lot and when you remove other cards it can help the dealer a lot why don't you give me half the money you were gonna we'll go out back I'll kick you in the nuts and we'll call it a day when the undoubt stack of cards is rich in tens and Aces that helps the player and when the undealt stack of cards is rich in low cards that helps the dealer there's a massive imbalance in payment when the players dealt both a 10 and an the players Delta 21 they will get one and a half times their bet if the dealer gets the same two cards he'll only win the player's original bet so if you know that four cards remain and three of them are tens and one of them is an ace you have a 50 Edge over the house with a hundred dollar bet the player will win 150 dollars two out of four times he'll take insurance for an overall push one out of four times and he'll only lose his original hundred dollars one out of four times that means for every hundred dollars he bets in this situation he'll and as we saw earlier when the dealer has an ace showing the player has the option of taking insurance which can essentially turn a losing hand into a push when the dealer has a 10 in the hole and a card counter is very likely many tens remaining to be dealt and the player will also have more opportunities to double down and split and stand with stiff hands when he's sure that the next card will bust him and on the flip side a high percentage of low cards will benefit the dealer this is because the dealer is a lot less likely to bust by going over 21 when there are mostly low cards left card County doesn't have to involve memorizing every single card that has memorizing every single card that has been dealt needed that to clean I can't take it's lasting there's lots of it lots and lots of them hold on here hold on here for a second queen queen most card counting systems are concerned with keeping track of the balance of remaining High cards to low cards every characteristics the card's values whether it's balanced versus unbalanced the basic strategy deviations and whether it includes side counts typically the more complex the system the higher the potential win rate for almost all card counting systems you maintain a running total based on the cards that have been seen low cards like positive value assigned to them high cards like tanzan aces are negative so potential advantage to the player because it means that a lot of low cards have been dealt and that a high imbalance of high cards remain to be dealt simple systems will assign plus one and -1 only more complicated systems may have fractional values or values that can range from -4 to plus four and depend on how quickly you can add and subtract these values as the cards are dealt but having a running count of plus six have a large advantage or not having a running count of plus six with one deck remaining to be dealt is a lot different than having a running count of plus six to be a way to normalize the running count into something more meaningful in the vast majority of systems the count is balanced this means that if you count through a complete 52 card deck you'll start and end with a count of zero so to convert your running count into What's called the true Count you have to divide decks remaining to be dealt so with a balanced system having a running count about equivalent to having a run account of one with one deck remaining but in have become more popular these are typically systems that have a positive value when you count through a complete 52 card deck so these systems compensate with a negative number when there's more than one deck this number is usually a decks in the shoe and the great thing about unbalanced systems is that you you don't need to calculate a true Count you just wait until your running count passes a certain threshold and you will know to bet high and deviate from basic strategy for certain decisions and that brings us to deviations contrary to what many people believe the majority of your advantage while card County isn't made from making goofy plays like hitting a hard 17. plays like hitting a hard 17. hit me you have 17 sir I like to live dangerously most of your advantage is made by bending High when always increase your win rate by learning a handful of situations when it's valuable to deviate from basic strategy depending on the complexity of learning deviations you want to go you can stretch your win rate to the max by learning beyond the illustrious 18 deviations and Fab Four surrender deviations and Fab Four surrender situations for your accounting system and some really complex systems include deviations for side counts this means tracking specific cards in addition to bundling High cards and low Cards into their respective groups and probably the most common side count is the Ace side neutral when it comes to making deviations to basic strategy when you your ability to make accurate play deviations most of the benefit you get by bundling Aces with tens has to do with bet sizing for example if the deck is extremely rich in Aces most deviations to stand on a 16 versus a dealer 10 will be clouded and you will often make a statistically incorrect rich in Aces it can really water down the accuracy of your insurance deviation as well so using side counts is an extremely Advanced tactic for truly really not for the faint of heart make sure you're able to count other systems perfectly before attempting to learn account that relies on side counts so by far the most popular card counting system is the high low system its accounting system demonstrated in the film 21. 10 is minus one counts plus 15. eight still plus fifteen eight still plus fifteen nine plus fifteen five counting it's a balanced single level system with no side counts twos through sixes are valued at plus one when they're dealt and tens and aces are valued at -1 when they're dealt and since this is a balanced count you have dividing by the number of undelt decks this is the system I learned in the early 90s and it's tried and true and best of all if you want to install a it's most likely going to use this system and the best resource for learning the Hilo system is probably the book professional Blackjack by Stanford the next system I would recommend is the KO system the KO system is short for The Knockout system and it's also the initials of the original authors Ken Fuchs and Olaf vancura by far this is the simplest system to use and if you want to take the Simplicity of ko to the next level you can learn Rico or the ridiculously easy version of the KO system Rico is just a slightly watered down version of ko and only loses about one percent of Effectiveness compared to KO on qfit.com they rate these two systems as 7.5 and 8 in terms of Simplicity which are the two highest ratings in that category this is an unbalanced single level system with no side counts the KO system values twos through sevens as plus one and like high low tens and aces are minus one running through a 52 card deck will result in a count of plus four so for this system minus four times the number of decks being used so for a double deck gain you start with a running count of four minus four times two which is minus four and for a six deck to start with a running count of four minus four times six which is minus 20. even though there are more resources for learning high low I would suggest learning KO or Rico first it doesn't take long to learn this system and it's a great indicator of whether you'll be able to handle a more learning about KO and Rico is through the book knock out Blackjack by Fuchs and vancura KO and Rico are my recommendations for blackjack players who have already mastered basic strategy and I really want to emphasize that you need to 100 memorize basic strategy before attempting to learn any Blackjack card counting system if you can Master Ko you can move on to high low which should really improve your win rate and if you can master high low and I mean Master you can move on to something next level and when I say master I mean you can carry on full-on conversations with adjusting your bets and making deviations with ease so for those of you ready for the next level you can move on to a non-ace wrecking system where you maintain a side count of Aces for this the high opt1 and high Op 2 systems will work the high opt one is a balanced one level system with a side count of Aces and the high Op 2 is a balanced two level system with a side count of Aces systems in the world's greatest Blackjack book by Lance humble and Carl Cooper but again these systems are only going to have a small effect on your overall win rate which can be easily erased by just a few mistakes so it's thousand percent sure you're not making any mistakes in high low beginners is the KO system and if you can master that or if you're pretty confident in your abilities you can jump straight to high low and if you want of the high opt systems but trying to master any of these is worthless if you haven't memorized basic strategy you can go to my site jackass.com to access free resources that can help teach you basic strategy including audio flashcards on SoundCloud video flash cards here on YouTube and even an Alexa skill on the Amazon Echo Alexa open Jack A's flash cards to jackasses blackjack basic strategy flash cards and you can even watch my video on how to learn blackjack in your sleep if you enjoyed this remember to like And subscribe always gamble responsibly never play six to five Blackjack and peace out donkeys foreign [Music]