Nobody mentioned practice!!!
Maybe I missed it, but nobody mentioned practice! Ofcourse you have to start with a book, but then you need 200+ hrs of practice --where you can test your skills... I'm a programmer (and a novice counter), so I wrote a program to deal me BJ from a shoe and keep a couple of counts running, but such practice programs can be found on the net... a program has the advantage of you being able to find out what the count *really* is, when you thought it was +spectacular... I win frequently in real casino play, but I still practice against my simulator frequently and when I'm not sharp and concentrating, I find about 1 shoe in 10 or 15 I can still be off by a handful of points! YIKES!! It keeps reminding me of the level of focus required by real play, regaurdless of my apparent casino demeanor.
Being a technical guy, I loved Mr. Wong's Professional Blackjack (HiLo system) -- my copy is always close, and full of postIt notes! Thanks Stanford! :) Thanks also Ian Anderson for opening my eyes to what can be done with this game if you have the right tools.