|
|
Reaching
the point where we have the advantage represents the realization
of a big part of our goal. However, we can do considerably
better with just a little additional effort. The remainder
of this book is for players who want to go farther, possibly
to the expert level, and maybe even to professional status.
In this chapter, we'll incorporate a playing strategy that
tells us when it's proper to play our hand in a manner other
than by basic strategy, and in Chapter 7, we'll refine our
betting technique relative to what the Knock-Out count is
able to tell us. The eventual combining of these improved
playing and betting strategies will create what we call
the "KnockOut Preferred" system. For convenience,
however, we'll refer to any version of the K-O strategy
with enhancements beyond K-O Rookie as K-O Preferred.
The Knock-Out Preferred system presented here conforms to
our objective of providing the greatest gain in power for
the least increase in difficulty. And to allow maximum flexibility,
we present the Preferred version in a form that lets you
choose exactly which strategic plays you want to memorize,
which means you can decide which level of complexity to
adopt.
The Preferred Strategy version of the K-O system employs
a "reduced and rounded" strategy matrix, which
retains nearly 95°Io of the possible theoretical gain
(over basic strategy alone) from using the "Full"
Knock-Out System. (The Full K-O system is discussed in Appendix
4). The matrix is "reduced" in the sense that
we use only the 18 strategic plays that provide the most
gain for the player. Balanced-count aficionados may note
the similarity in concept with Don Schlesinger's "Illustrious
18."" The matrix is "rounded" in that
entries are not described by a range of integer values.
Indeed, regardless of the number of decks being dealt, there
are only three possible matrix values to remember in the
K-O Preferred system.
One quick reminder. Recall that one of the K-O count's important
references is called the pivot point. We discussed the pivot
briefly in Chapter 3, and will discuss it in more detail
(in connection with improved betting strategies) in Chapter
7. For now, though, you need only be aware that it exists,
since it will be referenced in the strategy matrix. This
should not present much difficulty, since the pivot point
is always +4.
The K-O Preferred strategy matrix is presented on page 8_5.
But first, we’ll learn a single strategy play that you can
add to your arsenal immediately. It's the proper play of
insurance.
|
