New to the game

So I recently got serious about playing the game. I read "how to beat the dealer" by Edward O. Thorpe- back in the day and its had me hooked ever since but I havent really put much effort into it until now. I know basic strategy and am pretty thorough at counting down a deck. My question is how do you determine which system to invest your time in learning? I have read that if you plan on playing in games with more than two decks you should stick to something simple like the KO system. Is the unbalanced KO system worth the time and effort? Thank you for your responses.

Brownbomber

If you already know Hi-Lo, then I would suggest you stick with it. Here are a couple of books you should consider that are more up-to-date than Thorp's groundbreaking book. Professional Blackjack by Stanford Wong, which has all the indices you will need and Schlesinger's Blackjack Attack, which gives you the fine points of playing today's game.

Good luck to you.

In addition to the two books Boot mentioned, please get Blackbelt In Blackjack by Arnold Snyder. It's a more thorough primer than Wong's book, which I view as the outstanding reference work on hi-lo.

I don't have any financial ties to any of these authors or publishers. I got hooked on Beat The Dealer too!

ETF

"My question is how do you determine which system to invest your time in learning?"

To start, hilo if you're good at deck estimation, KO if not.
Start easy.

"I have read that if you plan on playing in games with more than two decks you should stick to something simple like the KO system. Is the unbalanced KO system worth the time and effort?"

KO takes the least time and effort to learn if you are serious. For non-serious kids, you have 10 count, Ace-5, magic beans count, random rainman, etc.