High Opt 2 Card Counting System

The complicated version of the High Optimum card counting systems, the Hi Opt 2 card counting system, is one of the most accurate card counting systems available. At the same time, it is intended only for the most experienced Blackjack players, because you need to do your calculations at a very high speed.

The advantage of this system over more simple card counting systems is real, but not that big in comparison to the advantage over the house already gained through more simple card counting systems such as Hi Lo Count and Hi Opt 1 count. Hi Opt 2 is a multilevel card counting system, because cards can have values of -2, -1, 0, +1 and +2. Although mathematically not so complicated, this system requires absolute concentration and focus and we only recommend this system to the most advanced players of Blackjack with plenty of prior card counting experience.

The Running Count in High Opt 2

Below you will find the Hi Opt 2 chart for keeping track of the running count. You will need to know these values by heart as you cannot afford to hesitate or make any errors in counting during the game.

The positive value cards can have different values: The cards 2, 3, 6 and 7 have a positive value of +1, while the middle-low cards 4 and 5 have a positive value of +2. All high cards with a value of 10 have the negative value of -2, while Aces are considered neutral with a value of +0. Counting all the cards in a deck results in a count of +0, so the Hi Opt 2 Blackjack card counting system is a balanced system.

Conversion to True Count

Yes, in the High Opt 2 card counting system you will also need to convert the Running Count into the True Count by dividing by the number of decks still left in the shoe. You can read more about this conversion in our general card counting section.

Keeping Count of the Aces

Aces are considered neutral with a value of +0, but most Hi Opt 2 players track them separately. This is called a side count. Knowing how many aces have been played already will help you alter the basic strategy charts so as to optimize your advantage over the house. Of course, with such a complicated card counting system as Hi Opt 2 already in use, it is difficult to keep track of this additional count. Therefore, many players opt to count the number of played Aces by other methods, such as moving chips, or moving their feet or fingers.