The Hi-Opt II (Hi Opt 2) blackjack card counting system, the more advanced of the high optimum card counting systems, is a card counting strategy that is designed for use by much more advanced blackjack players . This system is actually far more complicated than the Hi-Opt I strategy and should only be used by seasoned professionals.
The actual extra player advantage that you get from using the Hi-Opt II card counting system, as opposed to simpler card counting systems, is very small. We don't recommend trying to learn the Hi-Opt II system until you have completely mastered the Hi-Opt I system and truly feel that you want the small extra edge that this system provides.
The Hi-Opt II count is fairly complicated and takes an extremely amazing amount of focus at the table . This system is based on counting, but incorporates more than just the values of 0 or 1. With Hi-Opt II, certain cards have a value of 2 . If you are easily distracted at the blackjack tables, don't even attempt to use this system.
The most complicated element of the Hi-Opt II system is that the cards have a larger range of values which make it harder to keep track of each card value and harder to keep an accurate count during an actual blackjack game. Memorize this chart inside and out to avoid confusing the values with those of other counting systems.
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
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6
|
7
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8
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9
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10
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J
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Q
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K
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A
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+1
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+1
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+2
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+2
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+1
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+1
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0
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0
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-2
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-2
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-2
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-2
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0
|
As you can see, there are seperate groups of card values. All 2's, 3's, 6's, and 7's in the deck carry a value of +1 when they are played. All 4's and 5's in the deck carry a value of +2 when they are played and all 8's and 9's carry a neutral value of 0. All of the 16 higher cards, with the exception of the Aces, carry a value of -2.
The Hi-Opt II system shows that Aces have a neutral 0 count, but this isn't entirely true. Aces aren't actually counted in your count but there are several variations and changes to your basic strategy you'll need to make, depending on how many aces have been played. Instead of keeping track of aces in the card count, people often use external things such as chips, fingers, or feet, to track aces. We will not be covering the different ace varations in this section.
The Hi-Opt II card counting method is considered to be a balanced card counting system because if you count through an entire deck of 52 playing cards, you should end up with a count of 0, otherwise something isn't right.
More Card Counting Systems:
See also: