hi-low vs wong's halfs

I have been playing BJ full-time now for about 18 months. Since I play almost exlusively shoes games in AC, I have always used the hi-low count. Although I've had pretty good sucess, I've recently been thinking of trying a level 2 or 3 count to improve my win rate. I've been looking at Wong's halfs. I think I could master this fairly quickly. Does anyone use this count regularly? Is it worth learning a new count for the extra advantage?

JM wrote:

I have been playing BJ full-time now for about 18 months. Since I play almost exlusively shoes games in AC, I have always used the hi-low count. Although I've had pretty good sucess, I've recently been thinking of trying a level 2 or 3 count to improve my win rate. I've been looking at Wong's halfs. I think I could master this fairly quickly. Does anyone use this count regularly? Is it worth learning a new count for the extra advantage?

I have to say that it is difficult for me to imagine someone playing �full-time� for 18 months against AC shoe games. Unless you are not doing it for income, because you have another source. In your post about your troubles at one AC store, you mentioned a Max Bet of $100, in an 8-deck game. So maybe you are not doing this as your primary source of income.

Depending on the game and the approach you take, a more advanced count like Halves may get you an additional 10-15% of SCORE. This has to be balanced against the down-time required to learn the new count.

Presumably you need to take some time off for training. Also, your performance in your first few sessions with new count will be worse because of errors, fatigue, etc.

If upgrading to the new count costs you a month�s worth of EV, then it will take in the ballpark of a year of additional playing to make that up. If learning the newer count takes more time, then obviously your break-even point will be moved further out.

If you want to upgrade to Halves, you could do it stages. First count the 2 and the 7 as 0.5 each. This is basically the Revere count, and it is a fine count in its own right. If you get proficient at that, you can move up further by changing the tags for the 5 and the 9.

I played part time in AC, I used to use Hi-Low like you, I changed to Wong's half 4 months ago, I didn't see any obvious improvement. The reason why I change is that I feel Wong's half is mathmaically more accurate: 9 is between 8 and 10, 0(in Hi-Low) doesn't represent the true valueof it, 0.5 does; 7 is between 6 and 8, 0.5 represent the true value of it instead of 0(in Hi-Low).The improvement of advanced counting system is easily cancelled by other factors: control of your temper, judgement of your luck and money management etc. But, if it is not so difficult to learn Wong's half as you said, I suggest that change.