JSTAT, it is not a big deal that Don does not play Hi-lo, nor use the illustrious 18 for which he is so closely associated with. It is not a case of not walking the talk. Don has publicly stated a number of times that he plays RPC, and uses 160+ index plays, because that is what he learned oh so many years ago. He doesn’t think he can ‘un-learn’ them at this point and since he plays so infrequently now, it would not be worth the effort to do so.
He has stated that if he had it to do all over again, knowing what he now knows he would play hi-lo and just use the Ill 18. That really is not a case of not walking the talk. I have tried to draw him into some of the never-ending count debates to support my view on simplicity, but he usually refuses to be drawn in.
Now on your final comment “blackjack card counting is so last century”: I used to get offended when those of you who have moved on to bigger and better things (including King James) would put down card counting and card counters, but I am over that.

But just know that some of us like beating the casino’s with this good old fashion elementary method from the 20th century. This is the method that we choose. I have done some HCing and other techniques involving other games and I just prefer the simple CCing technique from last century. Of course, I put my own little slant on it with heavy exit strategies, and tracking multiple tables so I can directly jump to a better opportunity with only seconds of down time. This dramatically changes the true count frequencies in my favor and nearly doubles my advantage and win rates.
Furthermore the fact that ‘you all’ (<- southern term

) that have moved on, have the industry all riled up thinking about these bigger and better techniques is good for us ‘salamanders’. (<- King James term

). There is less focus on us and our small advantage. We are free to settle into the casino’s comfort zone and receive less heat and attention, as long as we don’t get too greedy. So I thank you for that.

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