Rating: 
Summary: KO and Best Blackjack Are Tops
Review: Reviewer Fanqs is wrong in his assessment of this book. It is excellent. In my opinion this and Best Blackjack by Frank Scoblete are the very best books for new and intermediate players to read. It is not overrated. It is not like every other book.
Rating:
Summary: Easy and powerful system
Review: Some posters have stated that this book is poorly written; a few charts is all you need. I agree that this book is not overly entertaining. If you want entertainment and edge of your seat suspense go somewhere else. If you want to learn to count using one of the easiest systems I have seen, then this book is for you. I am familiar with Omega II and Hi Opt which are very powerful (and complex) systems. KO is not quite as powerful as Hi Opt and Omega in FLAWLESS play. For most players though, achieving flawless play will be much easier with KO. That fact alone makes up for the slight power deficit comparison. This is a solid, easy to learn system that will give the player an edge over the house. I strongly recommend this book for players looking to take their play to the next level.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Blackjack book
Review: The best beginners blackjack book around. I found it not only presented a very workable system, but it explained it clearly and easily. The first chapters do an excellent job of explaining the "history" of blackjack, and the next chapters gradually add to the complexity of the count. My only complaint is that the "full" system with all the indices is not explained better. Otherwise, does an excellent job of explaining a very good system for counting cards that a beginner can handle and that many experts use.
Rating:
Summary: Great book. It really works.
Review: The book is easy to understand and teaches you exactly (not more nor less) what you need to do in order to become a winner. I bought this book a week before I went to Vegas, and hey, with the K-O system I went back home with almost 10,000$. I just followed the instructions from this great book.
Rating:
Summary: Great book.
Review: The first time I used K-O, I made $342 in less than 1.5 hours (8 deck shoe game, $15-75 bet spread). Now, you can argue whether or not K-O is as powerful as other card counting systems, but I think there are 2 undisputable facts: K-O is easier to learn than other systems and K-O is definitely easier to use. With the disclaimer that I already know the Hi-Low system, I learned the mechanics of the K-O system in less than a day and I went to a casino and tried K-O without any practice beforehand. Because cards are dealt up in shoe games, the play is faster than in hand held (single and double deck) games which are dealt face down. With card counting systems that require frequent mental calculations there is the propensity for being pressured for time and the possibility of losing the count unless the player is very proficient. A system may be more powerful and have a greater expectation than K-O, but that does no good if the player loses the count and has to flat bet for the rest of the shoe. K-O does away with much of the mental gymnastics required by other systems. There is less time pressure to keep up with the dealer and less concentration needed. Mental fatigue becomes a nonfactor and there is the additional benefit of a player's cover being enhanced since he doesn't have to spend all his time concentrating on the cards. I enjoyed using K-O. For me, it is now the weapon of choice against shoe games.
Rating:
Summary: The bottom line is that K-O works
Review: The first time I used K-O, I made $342 in less than 1.5 hours (8 deck shoe game, $15-75 bet spread). Now, you can argue whether or not K-O is as powerful as other card counting systems, but I think there are 2 undisputable facts: K-O is easier to learn than other systems and K-O is definitely easier to use. With the disclaimer that I already know the Hi-Low system, I learned the mechanics of the K-O system in less than a day and I went to a casino and tried K-O without any practice beforehand. Because cards are dealt up in shoe games, the play is faster than in hand held (single and double deck) games which are dealt face down. With card counting systems that require frequent mental calculations there is the propensity for being pressured for time and the possibility of losing the count unless the player is very proficient. A system may be more powerful and have a greater expectation than K-O, but that does no good if the player loses the count and has to flat bet for the rest of the shoe. K-O does away with much of the mental gymnastics required by other systems. There is less time pressure to keep up with the dealer and less concentration needed. Mental fatigue becomes a nonfactor and there is the additional benefit of a player's cover being enhanced since he doesn't have to spend all his time concentrating on the cards. I enjoyed using K-O. For me, it is now the weapon of choice against shoe games.
Rating:
Summary: best beginers bj book on the market!!!!!!
Review: The perfect book for begining card counters. All you need to know to start beating the casinos at their own game. Great book!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Authors have overstated the power of the method
Review: The problem with the book is that concentrates on a very weak method of card counting. Card counting is becoming difficult (or even impossible with continuous shuffler machines everywhere now), you need every edge you can get. The KO system presented in this book depends on a set of simulation data I'm sure the authors believe is valid, but shows serious evidence of sample bias. Recent work done on optimal betting theory, which allows a fair comparison of blackjack systems, shows that the KO method is extremely weak. The claim that KO can, for example, seriously challenge the dominance of Bryce Carlson's complex and powerful AOII system is just ridiculous. This may be a good system for players who care little about winning, but then not counting may be a good option for these players also. There is no free lunch. Just look at some of the independent studies archived in the rec.gambling.blackjack archives to see how weak KO really is. The count system aside this book is a fairly tedious rehash of information you can find in virtually every other book.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the price
Review: The system present by Fuchs and Vancura is very easy to learn and also very strong. If you are struggling with the 'true count' conversion than this system could be for you. The book is very easy to read, and contrary to other reviews, the book is not written badly! One of the reviewers remarked that they don't explain where the values come from and warns against 'getting into' a system to quickly. I totally agree that you must do your homework, but if you don't have the ability to run the necessary simulations yourself, just check out Don Schlinger's 'Blackjack Attack' where he analyzes the KO system for you (the proof is in the simulations)! The bottom line is this book is easy to read, the system is easy to learn and can hold it's own when matched up against other systems. If you find the true count a true pain, I highly recommend this book, it is definitely well worth your money
Rating:
Summary: Method is too simple to be effective
Review: There are serious problems with this book. The first is that the co-author Olaf Vancura now works for Mikohn gaming, a company which specializes in developing products for the casinos, some of which are specifically designed to foil the card counting strategy Vancura recommends. Patently Vancura has little faith in his own method if he chooses to make money that way rather than at the tables. The KO system is very simple and this has made it very popular with players. The authors make a good case for stating that the % edge for using a professional level system rather than KO is small, say a few tenths of a percentage point. That is true-but what they don't tell you is that the gains from the use of a higher level system tend to increase like compound interest in a bank account, and this can make the difference between winning tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of $'s over time. The claim that K-O is superior to its nearest commercial rival, the hi-lo system, is frankly stupid and supported by data that massages statistics in a way many politicians would be proud of. You might think is just my opinion-and to some extent you'd be right. Then again, if you get a copy of Karel Janeck's SBA simulation software or Norm Wattenbergers CVSim you will see just how poorly KO performs against other count systems. I would recommend Wong's "Professional Blackjack" for those interested in pure counting, also John May's "Get The Edge At Blackjack" and James Grosjean's "Beyond Counting" for professional gambling methods with real money-making power.
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