HI-OPT II Blackjack Card Counting System

The Architect of the HI-OPT II Blackjack Card Counting System


The Hi-Opt II is a computer generated blackjack counting system that was spearheaded by Lance Humble. Humble's Hi-Opt II counting system sounds like it was an expansion upon the work that had been done to develop Hi-Opt I and there is some truth to that as Humble enlisted the help of Julian Braun in compiling some of the computer programs that were necessary to make the tests of the blackjack system. That was also Lance Humble's objective to take what he had done with Hi-Opt I and bring it to a new level.

The Blackjack HI-OPT II Card Counting System

While Hi-Opt I was designed as a system that could be used by the intermediate player and produce a profit, Hi-Opt II was engineered as something that could be used by those who wished to be at more of a professional level. The card values are different for this blackjack system and they make this system one that is a "multi-parameter" count because the values of the cards go beyond +1 or -1.

The idea behind multi-parameter systems is that the count values that are assigned to the cards more accurately reflect what those cards really mean to the player. For example, let's go through the card values for Hi-Opt II and the difference between those and the Hi-Opt I.

In Hi-Opt I, the values (+1 for 3 through 6, -1 for all ten-value cards) is basically an interpretation of the idea that the removal of high cards is bad for the player, while the removal of low cards is good for the player, and that the 2 and Ace are relatively neutral in terms of their value to the player. It is a simple count, reflecting simple theory.

The Hi-Opt II seeks to take this to another level entirely. Here, the 4 and 5, which are the best cards for the dealer are counted as +2 because the dealer can make a lot of hands with these cards, with the 3 and 6 at +1 because the removal of these cards are more advantageous to the player.

Hi-Opt II also assigns the value of +1 to the 2 and the 7, and this is obviously a by-product of more sensitivity of the precise value of cards to the player, as would be expected by a count that was moving more toward a professional level. The tens and face cards are all counted as -2, which was appropriate in a multi-parameter system, and once again the Ace was neutral. The Ace side count was a part of it, as was the conversion to a "true count" - the count per deck, which offers a "truer" view of what the count really is.

HI-OPT II Count Vs. Other Blackjack Betting Systems

Obviously the multi-parameter blackjack systems are going to be more difficult to use than the single-parameter systems, because the card combinations (count pairs, combinations of cards, etc and not single cards only) are naturally a little more difficult. So the strength of the system has to be able to prove worth the trouble. Hi-Opt II had a very strong playing efficiency quotient, which at .671 made it at least as good as anything that had come out before 1980. However, the betting correlation, which is actually more important because it operates on every hand, was .91 which still lagged behind other winning blackjack systems, including the Braun Plus-Minus which was a single-level count. It may not have been perfect, but it was stronger than Hi-Opt I, and it offered Humble the opportunity to do one thing in particular - sell it for more money than the Hi-Opt I!