Your opening bids at the one-level will naturally depend on the system you play. This includes the range for your 1NT opening, whether you play 4-card or 5-card majors and whether your one-openings in a minor are natural or semi-artificial. One-level openings are not generally conventional and if they are, the requirements and limitations will be stipulated by your chosen system. At the two-level and higher, you may generally choose methods independently of your system requirements for the one-level. Thus, almost regardless of the system you use, you may combine it with Strong Twos, Weak Twos, Benjamin Twos,

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Multi-Twos or others. Natural strong twos are not conventional but other popular methods at the two-level and higher will be examined. WEAK TWOS Weak twos are generally played only in the majors. When weak twos first bounced into popularity, a weak 2D opening was also used. However, as the 2D opening can be harnessed for far more useful purposes, almost no top pair uses a weak 2D opening today. Requirements for opening 2H / 2S in first or second seat : A strong 6-card suit 6-10 HCP 7-8 losers No void and not two singletons No four cards in the other major Any of these hands would be suitable: AQJ876 6 432 984 87 KQ9852 A72 63 9 AKQ863 952 632 QJ9863 64 KJ K32 Minimum suit strength : 3 HCP and two honours is a sound minimum, but many players accept 2 HCP plus two honours in the suit, so that Q-10-x-x-x-x suit is the minimum acceptable. Responding to a weak two Raises are pre-emptive.

Change of suit is forcing and denies support for opener's major. Any bid of game is to play. 2NT is used as a strong enquiry. 4C or 4D can be used as a splinter slam try. This shows 3-card or better support for opener's suit and sets opener's suit as trumps. It also promises a singleton or void in the suit bid and five winners or better. If opener has wasted values (king or queen) in the short suit, opener should sign off in the trump suit. With no king or queen in the short suit, opener should cue bid or with no ace, bid 4NT. The 2NT Strong Enquiry This may be played in various ways. Some use it to ask for a singleton (opener bids the suit in which a singleton is held or bids 3-Major with a minimum and no singleton and 3NT with a maximum and no singleton). Others use 2NT to ask for an outside feature (ace or king or Q-J-x outside opener's major). Opener bids the suit in which a suitable feature is held. With no such feature, opener bids 3-Major if minimum and 3NT if maximum. However, the most popular and most effective use of the 2NT response is the Ogust Convention. The 2NT reply asks opener to indicate whether the hand is maximum or minimum and how many top honours are held in the major suit.

Opener rebids : 3C =Minimum + only one top honour 3D =Minimum + two top honours 3H =Maximum + only one top honour 3S =Maximum + two top honours 3NT=A-K-Q-x-x-x or better in the major The memory guide for this convention is : Majors are maximum, minors are minimum The honours are shown in sequence : 1-2, 1-2-3. Top honour = ace, king or queen. The jack does not count as a top honour. Responder's strategy Singleton or void in opener's suit : Pass below 16 HCP. With 16+ points, bid a strong suit (new suit forcing) or use 2NT if you need to know whether opener is minimum or maximum. For example with a 16-18 point 4-4-4-1, bid 2NT and sign off in opener's major opposite a minimum but try 3NT opposite a maximum. With support for opener's major A maximum weak two has about 6 tricks (AKQxxx for example) and a minimum weak two has about 5 tricks. With support for opener and no more than three tricks, pass. With a very weak hand, you might raise pre-emptively or with superb support but a hopeless hand, you might make a psychic bid. For example, if partner opens 2S and you hold SK8642 H53 D8 C Q8532, you know that the opponents have enough for at least a game, perhaps a slam, and at least eight cards in each red suit. If RHO passes, you could hardly bid less than 4 S, but there is scope for deception. You might try 2NT, a subtle psyche, suggesting you have far more strength than you hold.

Less subtle would be 4NT, asking for aces, and signing off in 5 S, of course, no matter what partner replies. If you can buy the hand in 5S doubled, you will probably still show a profit. Another attractive psyche would be 3H , new suit forcing. Again you revert to spades over partner's next action. With 3½-4 tricks, you are worth an invitation to game. Bid 2NT and sign off in 3-Major opposite a minimum or 4-Major opposite a maximum. With 4½-5½ tricks, bid game. You use the sequence 2-Major : 4-Major pre-emptively and also on good hands which are short of slam potential. If the opponents intervene, you pass if the raise was pre-emptive and double if you have the strong hand.

With 6 tricks, there is potential for slam if partner has a maximum (6 tricks). Bid 2NT if you need to know whether opener is maximum or minimum or use a 4C or 4D splinter bid if you want partner to discount the king and queen in that suit. Counting your tricks : In opener's major, count the ace, king or queen as one trick. In outside suits, count the tricks only in the first two cards in each suit (quick tricks) : A-K = 2, A-Q = 1½, A-x = 1, K-Q = 1, K-x = ½ but also count A-K-Q or better as the actual number of winners held. With three-card or better support, count a singleton as one trick and a void as two tricks. If you do respond 2NT, then after opener's reply : A bid of 3-Major is to play (even after a maximum reply). A bid of any game is to play. For example, suppose you hold SQ-x-x HA-x-x DA-x-x CA-x-x-x. Partner opens 2 S, you bid 2NT and partner replies 3 D(minimum points, but two top honours in spades). You can count nine tricks, so bid 3NT. A new suit is a cue bid with opener's suit set as trumps. Happy bridging!

So what is the Opt I Blackjack card counting system? It is basically another card counting strategy without using aces as a plus card. It is that simple! Let me elaborate.

The Hi-Opt I professional card counting strategy uses additional rules in card counting to increase the accuracy of card count. Sometimes it is also known as the Einstein Card Count.

There are some players who think that this method increases only a small percentage for the player's advantage and is not enough to justify using it. Some will think this is a far more superior counting method. I leave it to you to decide.

The Hi-Opt I count is based on addition and subtraction from the number One, using simple mathematics.

Let us break down the rules -

1) All the 2's are equal to the value of 0. They do not change the card count.

2) All the small cards from 3's, 4's, 5's and 6's are counted as a plus 1 when they are played out.

3) All the 7's, 8's and 9's carry the value of 0.

4) All the 10's, J's, Q's and K's carry the value of minus 1.

5) All the Aces do not change the card count with a value of 0.

This method of counting allows you to beat the dealer by keeping a side count on the aces. This smart feature is certainly advantageous for the player in any blackjack games.

If you understand a single deck of cards, every ace card played removes a quarter or 25% winning natural 21 of the deck cards played. In real life, this is not so. So to determine whether the deck shoe is packed with aces or not is a real possibility to gain an extra hand against the house!

Let's continue with point 6:

After 25% of the deck has been dealt and there are no aces, add a plus one to the count.

If two aces had been dealt, minus one from the count.

The most tricky part is determining the true division or true count as you need to divide the decks for betting purposes and keeping track of the true count.

Whether you learned the Hi-Opt I count or any other strategies, you will still need the ultimate blackjack strategy to come out a winner all the time. I can bet that if you leave the casinos today with a ten thousand dollar note and laughing to yourself, the chances are, the next day you will go to the casino and lose that money in a split second!

So what must you do to lose this emotion of greed and revenge?

1) You must know what you decide to gamble.

2) You must be ready to lose that money.

3) You must make a plan of exit when you start to lose, like 3 consecutive losses and you quit. Or lose $500 and you quit and make sure that $500 is the house's money!

4) Enforce discipline into your soul before you head out to the casinos. Or else all the rules and strategies you employed will just go to waste!

5) Remind yourself that this is all just business and nothing personal.

6) Smile to yourself when you leave the casinos even when you had lost your initial cash.

7) Always bring a small fixed sum (in relation to your salary) to play in the casinos every time, regardless whether your previous win was big or small or whether your last visit to the casino was a total lost.

Even a grand master of card counting is only as good as his understanding of his own emotions and soul!

Bless be to you in all your blackjack endeavours!