Hi-Lo Blackjack System

The Architect of the Hi-Lo Blackjack System

The High-Low blackjack system was published by Stanford Wong, whose real name is actually John Ferguson, in a book called "Professional Blackjack" that he authored in 1975. Ferguson was a university professor who advocated a professional approach to playing blackjack for profit, hence the book's name, and he presented the High-Low as a strong one-level count that could be the next step up for intermediate players. Note, the blackjack betting system was spelt High-Low on Stanford Wong`s book, but many use the spelling "Hi-Lo".

Stanford Wong acknowledged that the genesis of the blackjack system came from Harvey Dubner back in 1963, but he supplied some refinements to it, and performed many independent calculations, as computers were becoming a great boon to any and all blackjack systems developers.

The Hi-Lo Blackjack System

The card values of the Hi-Lo blackjack system were not hard to remember: 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were all counted as +1; Aces and ten-value cards (10, J, Q, K) were all counted as -1, and 7, 8 and 9 were neutral and not to be counted. A running count was kept, and a true count conversion was required. Wong referred to it as the "count per deck," which obviously used fractional parts of the deck in the case of a single deck game.

Insurance is a very important playing decision for the player to make, and in the Hi-Lo blackjack system, the count per deck at which insurance would be taken by the player was +1.4 for a single deck game, +2.3 for two decks, +2.8 for four decks and 3 for six-deck games.

One of the most challenging factors about Stanford Wong's Hi-Lo blackjack system is that it includes an awful lot of blackjack strategy indices. These cover almost all the blackjack games available for all venues that were around at the time ( Las Vegas Strip Blackjack, Downtown Blackjack, Northern Nevada Blackjack, Atlantic City Blackjack, etc) and any number of decks that would customarily be played. Players are well-advised to concentrate on one type of blackjack game, so as not to be overwhelmed. There are twenty pages in the back of Wong's book that are devoted to blackjack strategy variations depending on the rules of the game played.

Hi-Lo Vs. Other Blackjack Betting Systems

The Hi-Lo system is an introductory professional-level count, with a degree of power that is roughly comparable to the Hi-Opt I or the Uston Advanced Plus-Minus. It has a .97 betting efficiency figure, which is excellent for a one-level count.

Due to its relative simplicity from the standpoint of card values, it is one of the more preferred blackjack systems for a lot of blackjack players, although some players do not want to be involved with an excessive amount of strategy variations. That's not the end of the world, because bet variation on each and every hand is far more important than strategy variation.

Wong has enhancements that can be used. He suggests that a ten-count for insurance purposes can be used in addition to the Ace side count, which would add .2 bets per hour to what Wong says is 1.5 bets-per-hour win rate that can be achieved with proper execution of the High-Low.

Proper execution means just that, however. Wong stresses that there is no room for error, or for improvisation. "If you know what to do but refuse to do it, you are a gambler for certain," he wrote. Truer words were never spoken.