As the deck is depleted from high cards, the edge of the player significantly drops and the odds shift in favor of the house. When the deck is rich in high cards, the chances of receiving a blackjack with extra payouts are higher. This knowledge enables competent players to vary their bet size in proportion to their advantage. Card counters keep track of the ratio of low to high cards that remain to be dealt. We would like to say a few words about how card counting works before we proceed to explain the mechanics of the Hi-Lo system. The book was reprinted in 1966 which makes the Hi-Lo one of the oldest card counting systems in the blackjack universe.
The refined version made its way to the pages of the second edition of Edward Thorp’s bestseller Beat the Dealer.
The system quickly attracted the attention of computer programmer Julian Braun who refined it. The Hi-Lo system was devised by a man called Harvey Dubner as early as 1963.
