The Strategy of Blackjack KO Card Counting

The basic principle of all the balanced card-counting systems is the fact that if you count down the entire deck, you would end up with the count 0. The unbalanced card-counting systems are not like that. The most widely used unbalanced card-counting system is the Blackjack KO Count (Knockout card count).

The main idea of the knockout card-counting system is that when you end up counting the entire deck of cards you WILL NOT end up with a 0. The strategy of the KO count can be found in the book Knock-Out Blackjack, by Olaf Vancura and Ken Fuchs. The only thing which differs the KO count from the Hi-Lo count is the fact that sevens receive a different value, a value of +1.

The value of the cards during the Blackjack KO Count

 All the small cards (2♣ , 3♦, 4♠, 5♥ and 6♦ AND 7♦) count as +1
8♣ and 9♠ count as 0.
All the tens (10♥, J♠, Q♦, K♣) and an A♦ count as -1.

Thus, by using the Blackjack KO Count system you will end up with a count of a positive 4, because in each deck there are four 7s. This is created to avoid the necessity of the true count conversion.

The authors of the Blackjack KO Count strategy claim that for the majority of Blackjack card counters it is difficult to be jumping from true and running counts, especially if the casino is crowded and noisy (as they are practically all the time).

The Blackjack KO Count is designed to make it a bit easier for the card counters. Although this system may seem to be less accurate as compared to the Hi-Lo count, however the difference in accuracy is very small, and you can sacrifice it if you are a beginner or just want to find some easy way to learn card-counting.

The Blackjack KO Counting system is great for those, who are having problems mastering the true and running counts, however it is wise to consider all the game options and your skills when choosing a particular card-counting system.