Blackjack: KO Card Count

For many players looking to start counting cards as a part of a advanced blackjack strategy, the first one they choose to pick up is the KO (knockout) blackjack strategy for counting cards; this is the simplest method available, as the cards and values to remember are in a neat order, which makes remembering which card is worth what much easier in the long run.

The values for each card in the KO count are as follows

Two through Seven= +1

Eight and Nine= 0

Ten through Ace= -1

While the count that you get from this method isn’t quite as accurate (and therefore not as profitable) as the more advanced methods, this still gives you a general idea of where the count is and in turn allows you to shift your wagers up and down according to the given count. As a general rule, a count of +20 or better in this method means the deck is rich with aces and ten valued cards, meaning your odds of hitting 20 or blackjack increase, thus pressing your edge against the dealer. This where you’ll want to make your big bets; think 10-20 units at your particular table.

When the count is -20 or worse, the dealer has a huge edge over you in the short term, even if you're playing at the top casinos in terms of house edge; this is where you’d want to limit your bets to a single unit, or even leave the table entirely, depending on how bad the count is and how much time is left on the shoe you have. Also, you may want to try out counting at home so you don’t mess up while at the casino and skew your count. Casinos are noisy, bright and distracting places; being able to remember that a nine equals zero with everything going on around you is difficult, so practice can help make this task less daunting.