Hi-Lo count, why is the 6 +1 and 7= 0.

Hi,

I was reading about the Hi-Lo count and I was wondering why, for instance, the 6 his value is +1 not 0.
Does anyone have a mathmatical explanation for this or a link to a similar thread/ website?

Thank you

Because Hi-Lo is a balanced count optimized for simplicity.

Simplicity means: you only want as few different count values as possible. The simplest ones are 0, +1 and -1.
Balanced means: The sum over all values must be zero.

There are only a few of such simplistic counting systems.
One is +1 for 2,3,4,5,6 and -1 for T,J,Q,K,A, and is called Hi-Lo.

A different simple balanced counting system could be +1 for 2,3,4,5,6,7 and -1 for 9,T,J,Q,K,A. But it is very likely that it will perform worse than Hi-Lo.

Because it is a balanced count. Something has to be zero and, just for one reason, an 8 isn't as bad a card to catch on a double down as a 6 is. 8's also break more dealer stiffs than a 6 would.

See Wikipedia about card counting and effect of removal. The value assigned to each card should be approximately proportional to the effect of removal of that card.

You can see from Wizard of Odds that the effect of removal of 7 is almost as large as that of 6, but to keep the counting system simple, 6 is assigned +1 and 7 is assigned 0.

See the Wikipedia article for other counting systems that assign +1 to 7 and +2 to 6.

Quote: MangoJ

Because Hi-Lo is a balanced count optimized for simplicity.

A different simple balanced counting system could be +1 for 2,3,4,5,6,7 and -1 for 9,T,J,Q,K,A. But it is very likely that it will perform worse than Hi-Lo.

It is... as soon as both the 9 and Ace are ascribed a non-zero value the Insurance bet goes into the porcelain funnel.

If one has concerns aboout wagering on Insurance, this count is very accurate, and works well in pitch games.

Thanks everyone for responding. I get it now.