With a running count of +19, and 2 decks remaining, the true edge is 19/8, or almost a 2 1/2% raise from the starting advantage. If you have any trouble with fractions like these—for instance, if you do not know fairly quickly that 19/8 is about 2 1/2—then you should not use the Zen Count. I would suggest that you stick with the simple Red Seven, and play according to running count. In my opinion, the true edge method is the easiest way to adjust a running count to estimate your advantage precisely, but not all players are comfortable with the math.
In the first half of the shoe, you can just as accurately estimate the remaining decks to the nearest whole deck by always rounding up. For example, if your running count is +10, and 5 1/2 decks remain to be dealt, round up to 6 decks, and then make the fraction 11/24, which is easy and accurate enough for bet-sizing. It is clear that your advantage has risen slightly less than 1/2%. Technically, with 5 1/2 decks remaining, it would be more accurate to use the denominator 22, halfway between 5 and 6 decks remaining. The true edge is more precisely 11/22, or exactly a 1/2% raise. The real difference between 11/24 and 11/22, however, is so small that it is unlikely to have any effect on the bet size.
Deeper in the shoe, however, as the denominators get smaller, the effect of rounding the remaining decks up to the nearest full deck will have more of an effect. In the previous example, with a running count of +19 and 2 decks remaining, we came up with the fraction 19/8, or just under 2 1/2. If there was actually only one deck remaining (which we rounded up to 2), our actual fraction should have been 19/6, which is slightly better than 3%.
Again, this is more important when there are fewer than 4 decks remaining. By rounding up from 1 1/2 to 2 decks, you should tend to bet more conservatively, which is better than rounding down and overbetting. Some players may want to make a chart of denominators in half-deck increments, but I doubt that it's necessary. If you know that your 4-deck denominator is 16, and your 3-deck denominator is 12, it would probably not take more than an instant for you to come up with a denominator of 14 if you estimated that 3 1/2 decks remain in the shoe.
In single-deck games (or in any multiple-deck game that's played down into the last deck), the most accurate method of true edge adjustment is to break the deck into four distinct quarters. In the first quarter, your true edge is your running count divided by 4; in the second quarter, it's divided by 3; in the third quarter, divided by 2. And in the bottom quarter, your true edge is simply your running count, as a running count of +6 with a quarter deck or less remaining to be dealt would indicate a 6% raise in your advantage.
I think it is very practical to know your advantage quickly while you play, and the Zen true edge method is simply a count-per-quarter-deck adjustment, which will always provide you with your true edge when you use the make-a-fraction technique. You might also note that the Zen true edge playing strategy chart is much simpler than the old count-per-deck chart. In fact, it is very similar to the Hi-Lo Lite chart.
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The Zen Count is a balanced card-counting strategy for counters with above average skill. If you can use the Zen Count accurately, it will add about 0.1% to your advantage in shoe games, and about 0.2% in single-deck games, compared to what you would expect with the Hi-Lo Lite.
The recommended drills for learning how to count cards are the same for the Zen Count as for the Red Seven Count or the Hi-Lo Lite, so these exercises will not be repeated here.
The Zen Count Point Values
The point values of the Zen Count are:
A -1
X -2
9 0
8 0
7 +1
6 +2
5 +2
4 +2
3 +1
2 +1
As the cards are played, keep a running count of all cards seen. After a shuffle, the count starts again at 0. Like the Hi-Lo Lite, this is a balanced counting system, so if you count down a complete deck, starting at 0, your final count will also be 0. Because the point values are balanced, you also have to adjust your running count to the true edge. All Zen Count betting and playing strategy decisions must be made according to the true edge, not the running count.
Because the Zen Count has more complex point values than the Hi-Lo Lite, it is more accurate. With the Zen Count, you must estimate the true edge by dividing your running count by the number of remaining decks, multiplied by 4 (instead of 2). Otherwise, you use the same make-a-fraction method, in which the running count is the numerator, and the denominator is the number of remaining decks multiplied by 4. In order to do this quickly at the tables, you must memorize the following chart:
Decks Remaining Denominator
8 32
7 28
6 24
5 20
4 16
3 12
2 8
1 4
1/2 2
I think most players who remember their multiplication tables from third grade could reproduce this chart with no memory work whatsoever. It is important that you are able to immediately insert this denominator into your fraction so that your true edge does not require you to make calculations at the table. If your running count is +7 with 3 decks remaining to be dealt, you should immediately know that your true edge has risen by 7/12, or slightly more than 1/2%.
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