The Illustrious 18 for Hi-Lo

These the 18 most profitable strategy variations, in order of importance, for a shoe game w/ AC rules assuming a 12:1 bet spread for Hi-Lo

The "Illustrious 18" was originally developed by Don Schlesinger. I recommend his book "Blackjack Attack" to anyone who is serious about beating shoe games or is interested in the mathematics of blackjack.
HAND AGAINST ACTION TC = or >
any A insure 3
16 10 s 0
15 10 s 4
10,10 5 split 5
10,10 6 split 4
10 10 d 4
12 3 s 2
12 2 s 3
11 A d 1
9 2 d 1
10 A d 4
9 7 d 3
16 9 s 5
HAND AGAINST ACTION TC < or =
13 2 h -1
12 4 h 0
12 5 h -2
12 6 h -1
13 3 h -2
I have a couple comments about the Illustrious 18:
  • The 18 listed are based on a 1-12 bet spread. For this kind of spread, The decisions at high counts are MUCH more important than the decisions at low counts, since high counts are when you have the real money out. If you're playing with a much smaller bet spread, you may be better off spending your time memorizing the most common variations (i.e. the ones at low + and - counts). I don't have any hard numbers to back this up, and if anyone does i'd like to see them!
  • The 18 as published is specifically for the Hi-Lo count. However consensus on rec.gambling.blackjack is that the relative importance of the variations is the same for other counts (although the index numbers will change)
  • I'm not positive about the indices for splitting 10,10. in another reference i saw the index for 10,10 vs 6 was 5 and the index for 10,10 against 5 was 4. I'd appreciate it if someone who knows for sure lets me know which one is right. In "real life" most people don't make these plays anyway because of the heat they generate.


maintained (more or less) by
Jay Mortensen

Back to Jay's Blackjack page