This is the first in a four part series about Daniel Dravot, a professional gambler, who makes a living playing blackjack. His bestselling book and instructional DVD have helped countless blackjack players improve their game.
Suite 101 caught up with Dravot between casinos to chat a little game strategy, and discover a little more about this card counting expert, who has been called The Tesla of Blackjack.
The Man Who Would Be King, The Color of Blackjack, The Definitive Blackjack Course.
Dravot's non de plume is based on the rogue adventurer from Rudyard Kipling's adventure classic The Man Who Would be King. And like his lovable trouble-making namesake, Daniel Dravot has plenty of adventures traveling the casino circuit across The States, always playing to win.
To help others improve their odds and game strategy, Dravot developed a revolutionary card playing method based on Knock Out Blackjack, called True Knock Out Blackjack. Now any player can have a basic knowledge and insight into the cards shown on the table, and the cards remaining in the deck. It's all there in Dravot's bestselling book The Color of Blackjack, and complimentary DVD Card Counting: The Definitive Blackjack Course.
Knock Out Blackjack versus True KnockOut Blackjack
In layman's term what does KO mean in Blackjack?
Daniel Dravot: “KO is a system of counting cards which is like languages – French, German, English. There's about four or five major methods of counting cards. And KO is called Knock Out Blackjack."
So you then revolutionized that method through True Counting. What is True KO?
Daniel Dravot: “True counting is a way of analyzing the value of the KO count with the depth that you are into with the deck or decks. All the other systems require the player to do a division in his head which complicates it. I have developed a technique with KO where you can get the advantage of a true count without having to do the division which makes it much easier to use and it gives the player much more power. That is the little technique I have used that has brought true counting into KO which was never really possible before. It makes this true count of KO the most powerful way to play today's games.”
Card Tagging and a Running Count
This method of play is based on card tagging correct?
Daniel Dravot: “Card tagging is assigning a value to each card and the value of the card is either a plus 1 or minus 1 or 0. That is the way you count the cards. As the cards come out, each card has a tag and you add and subtract and that gives you what is called the Running Count. Then for most systems you have to take that running count and do a division to get what is called a True Count.
But with the KO system that I have developed, or TKO which was really out there anyway, I just developed a technique where it is easier to understand. All I did was lift a little veil of mystery off the TKO and made it more accessible to the average player.”
So when the running count increases, that's the time to increase your bet.
Daniel Dravot: “The running count is higher as the number of cards are dealt out into the decks which means a lot of little cards have left the deck. And the big cards are remaining and that gives the player the advantage.”
In Part Two of this four part series, Dravot discusses the "hot deck" versus the "cold one", and how to get the house edge!
For more info on Daniel Dravot go to The Color of Blackjack
Coral Andrews - Coral Andrews is an independent media professional who has been writing in Canada for over 30 years.
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