Currently we use Hi Low as our prefered counting system, but after reading Knockout Blackjack I am looking at teaching new players KO because the success rate would be much higher. Most people who can keep perfect running count come unstuck with true count conversion.
With this in mind I did some analysis of Hi Low compared with KO. (We play 8 deck shoes played down to 1 deck).
The betting ramp as proposed in the book starts at -6, which when compared to Hi Low would minimise any action at true counts of +2 until five decks to go, This is Ok, as not much action happens before this anyway. Higher true counts above +2 are very in frequent before 5 to go. The problem is after 2.5 decks to go. At 2.5 decks to go -6 in KO is TC 0 in Hi Low Therefore past 2.5 decks to go if you followed the proposed betting ramp you would find yourself betting large amounts in negative true counts! It is quite common that we will get action at 1 deck to go. At running count of 0 in KO you would have 6 unit bet with a approx -.53% advantage. Even worse if you were still ramping from -6.
There is no discussion on this in the book, which I find amazing, or have I got it wrong?
Does anyone have any ideas or an alternative betting model?
Any comments would be much appreciated