Blackjack Investment

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Most valuable index numbers: Illustrious 18 and Fab 4

When coming to the freshly shuffled shoe, basic strategy is the best choice for players to play the first hand off the top. However, if you are counting cards, you can detect the changed situations where basic strategy is not appropriate with the fluctuation of true count. Then, how do we adjust the basic strategy? Here, the term of 'index numbers' in the card counting systems is introduced to indicate when a particular play is mathematically correct.


Assume that you are dealt 12 against a dealer 2. Basic strategy says to hit this hand. However, if you know the remaining deck is packed with tens, sometimes you are better off standing. If you are using the common Hi-Lo count, you should stand with 12v2 if the true count is +3 or higher. If the true count is +2 or less, you should stick with basic strategy and hit. The "+3" number here is called an index number, and these index numbers can be derived for each decision. They are specific to a particular counting system of course, and can also vary depending on the rules of the game.

Actually, there is a specific indices in the strategy table for each play, some of which are rarely used or they make little profit difference between the two choices to meet your expectation on the hand, so it is wise for player to select some most frequently applied index numbers in the playing process rather than have to remember full list of the numbers. If you are the advocate of the popular Hi-Lo counting system, the best recommendation is to use the index numbers from the Illustrious 18 which is suggested by Don Schlesinger delivering most of the possible gain from strategy deviation for a card counter. The Illustrious 18 is a group of 18 index numbers selected as the most profitable ones that a player should know and utilize. I-18 delivers around 80% of the value of knowing every last one of the index numbers. You can also review more detailed information about the I18 appears in Schlesinger's book Blackjack Attack. Below are respectively the lists of illustrious 18 indices and its revised version.

One exception where I believe other indexes are also valuable is the very one: Surrender. You should learn these 4, right along with the first step of Insurance and 16 vs T and the original I18. The Fab 4 surrender indices brought to you by Don Schlesinger who also coined the I18:
14 vs 10
15 vs 10
15 vs 9
15 vs Ace
Of course, if you wanna find out full list of indexes, Wong's book ‘Professional Blackjack’ are recommended which includes all the index numbers mentioned as well as surrender indexes in it. They are quite useful. But keep in mind, the Illustrious 18 was based solely off the Hi-Lo system. So if one is using another counting system like unbalanced, or even a level 2 balanced, the index numbers will be totally different.

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  2. The card counting systems is introduced to indicate when a particular play is mathematically correct. Casinomonster.ca

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