New book, The Color of Blackjack, focuses on KO count

The Color of Blackjack focuses on the KO counting system. It is 68 pages, and features many full-color charts.

Ken Smith, longtime professional blackjack player and author, says:

I've known Daniel Dravot for quite a few years now. He's a successful and experienced pro player. He's been on the road playing blackjack all over the country for many years and gambling has long been his sole source of income. What I did not know was that he uses KO as his count system. That was surprising to me. Even though I have long recommended KO to new players, I always thought there was a small performance penalty to pay for the simplicity and convenience of KO. The Color of Blackjack describes his addition to KO which is a workable way to gain some of the advantage you could have with TKO (True-Counted KO).

So, what did I find in the sims I ran?

In 6D (66% pen), The Color of Blackjack adds 13.5% to KO's earning rate.

In 6D (75% pen), The Color of Blackjack adds 4.4% to KO's earning rate.

In 6D (83% pen), The Color of Blackjack adds 2.4% to KO's earning rate.

In the better games the improvements are relatively modest. In the poorest games, the improvement is more noticeable. To me, the primary effect is that KO becomes playable in more venues. My opinion of the book: It yields value to anyone considering KO. Even if you choose not to use the system formally, your understanding of the game will be better for your exposure to Daniel's ideas. His information is accurate and well-presented. There's also a useful chapter called "What Pros Know" that covers in just a few pages some excellent advice on avoiding back-offs, and how to best schedule your plays.

George C, longtime professional blackjack player and author, says:

I�ve known Daniel Dravot for quite some time. He not only talks the talk but walks the walk. He�s made a nice haul over the last few years and it�s outlined in the book.

The Color of Blackjack book is an enticing and simplified methodology that squeezes every last drop from the KO count. A beginner shouldn�t have any problems optimizing his or her play by taking the original KO count and using the color coded �cool, hot and warm� concepts shown in The Color of Blackjack.

You�ll be playing at a skillful level just after reading and applying the concepts that Daniel shows in the first four chapters of the book. I simulated Daniel�s betting and playing methodology using both the original KO and his simplifications. The improvement in SCORE was almost 4%. This is a simplification of an already simple system that works well.

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The price is $24.95 plus shipping (plus sales tax if sent to a Nevada address). Green Chip members receive a ten percent discount. The book is in stock for immediate shipment.

I was given a chance to preview this book.

This book presents a practical technique for true-counting KO.

I see no reason not to adopt it, particularly if you are already a KO user wanting to improve its performance.

Because of the volitility of the TC, I personally used to use KO only for single and double-deck games. I had used HiLo for 6 deck games because I felt it easier to determine wong-in and out points. With the technique presented in this book, this is no longer an issue. And, since it outperforms HiLo, what argument is left against it? (One could argue that you could use a similar technique with HiLo; however, that would not improve its performance and it would still be more complex.)

I've not had the opportunity yet to try it out in a real casino, but I have been satisfied with its ease while practicing on the computer.

Note: the book's main goal is to present the true count technique. It does not contain a lot of number crunching.

Wish list: I have seen SCORE numbers for 6 deck play all. I would like to see numbers for wong-in and wong-out scenarios.

I think it might not be as easy as it sounds for most people. I mean in Hi-Lo you just divide the running count by number of decks, but using this TKO technique, you have to memorize extra indexes for the chart (not a big deal) for cold/hot numbers, and you have to guess the betting ramp and TC between the numbers (these extra steps for me requires more brain computing time and kinda confusing although it is very pretty on the graph). So I don't think it is easy at all, maybe that is just me.

For unbalanced counts, I have tried reKO, KO, KISS III, Red 7, UBZ2. For balanced counts, I tried Hi-Lo, Zen, Mentor, Revere Point Count. Personally, I think it is easier to use 2 level balanced counts than TKO, but again, that is just me.

Panama Rick,

Seems like everyone wants to add complications to this simple count (except for REKO). How much harder is this new method? Bjtocki below seems to think it is much too complicated. What is your opinion?

Neko

Using QFIT's scale where KO is 7.5 and HiLo is 6.0.

It is simpler than HiLo because there is only one index number and the true count conversion is easier because you need to worry only about one number at any given penetration.

It is harder than KO because of the TC conversion.

The betting ramp Bjtocki complains about is not that big an issue. For instance, if you spread 10 - 100, betting 10 at count 8 and 100 at count 16, you might estimate your bet to be 30 if the count is 10. But you wouldn't use math, you just make a guess. The closer to 16, the more you bet, the closer to 8, the less (I just made up these numbers without looking at the actual numbers presented in the book).

The book is not about worrying whether you have a 0.6% or 0.7% edge. It worries more about the practical aspects of playing blackjack in a casino environment.

Here is another complication to KO that has been around for a while, but never caught on. You may find it interesting, if not practical.

Cobbson

ALI KOs SONNY LISTON - 1965

Agree! If you want TC, just go with Hi Lo, its more simple and intuitive. I doubt anybody using KO for its simplicity can master TKO at all, you will be prone to more errors in the play. Try to master KO Full instead.

Check it out at

http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bb/showthread.php?t=13242

Why on earth would anyone mess with KO Full? If you're only playing shoes, just use REKO. It's about as good. If you want to play DD and use KO, you'll need to step up your game from REKO. But to do this, use the I-18 or C-22 indices as posted by Dr. Org. They're readily available on Green Chip.

I do agree that TKO is of marginal utility. You might pick up a little extra advantage early in the shoe every tenth shoe or so. Somewhat more valuable, I think, is that you will prevented from overbetting late in the shoe. But all you have to know here are a few easily memorized numbers correlating the KO count to the true count when 2 or 1.5 decks are remaining. Bootlegger posted some charts on Green Chip.

Ace8