First Hi Lo Experience
Mine was positive. It was the first counting system I learned and when I sat down to play a Double Deck game at the Suncoast (with a $50 stake) I won $35 right away and quit. I am certain that Boyd Properties was relieved as it could have ended up with me holding the mortgage on that place if I had not quit!
Seriously, Hi Lo works across the spectrum of blackjack games, and it usually recommended as being the one count to learn if you can learn but only one...Indeed, most of the literature on Blackjack uses Hi-Lo as a basis for analysis or comparison to other systems/playing conditions. Hi-Lo is particularly strong with betting strategy, but only so-so for playing strategy, and thus most experts recommend its use in shoe games. Hi-Lo will give you a feeling of confidence when you first play. It took me a few more sessions to feel comfortable at the tables though.
I learned a few things on that first trip:
1) flat betting and playing basic strategy will let you stay in a game for hours with minimal loss, provided you hold down your bet (I was flat betting just seeing if I could keep up with the count. And I learned I could after overcoming one matter in particular--see next item).
2) casino conditions are different that those of your kitchen table. And excitement and distractions may/will cause you to lose the count. What distracted me most was the dealers fussing at me for touching my cards with two hands (I was in a face down double deck game). Of course that distraction made me lose the count everytime--dealers think you may use your extra hand to mark cards or switch them with cards you have hidden on your person. Otherwise, after and inital couple of rounds, I was able to keep the count. Later on I found a use for my free hand below the table--(no it wasn't that other American favorite indoor pastime--I used it to keep track of the running count...number of fingers extended was the count with palm up/down to signal positive/negative counts).
3) indeed, just like authors of posts at this site and others have written, most other players at the table do not know what they are doing and make plays that are against basic strategy or count conditional strategy variations...and while some of those plays work, most do not. Knowing Hi-Lo gave me a feeling that I was making plays that gave me my best chance of winning. As far as other players go, I listened to their advise and played dumb but stuck to my game, and is they were right I said I should have listened to them, and if I was right, I said I just had a lucky feeling. I did not offer advice nor act like I was anything other than what I was, a first time player.
4) but, Hi-Lo itself is just the beginning. Finding games with favorable conditions (rules, penetration, number of players, required minimums, and general atmosphere of the particular casino) is an equally important skill set needed for success at the tables. Here to I found there only surprise was that those factors were pretty much what I had read about here and elsewhere. Stanford Wongs "Professional Blackjack" and Don Schlessinger's "Blackjack Attack" were perhaps the most helpful in this area of the several books I read on the game.
I still use Hi-Lo for shoe games, but I learned AOII for single and double deck games (it wins faster as it is a more powerful counting system but more demanding, and I don't have confidence to use it through a 6 deck shoe--too much risk of error for me). I went to AOII because the book that teaches it was available ("Blackjack for Blood"), although I would advise anyone also to consider HI Opt II, which is a little more powerful but about the same level of difficulty--I could not find a book teaching that system.
Anyway, if you are still reading this you may want to know how the rest of my first trip/use of Hi-Lo turned out. I netted out a $95 winner in low stakes games ($5 minimums) playing 6 hours spread accross several different casino's and games (single deck to 8 deck).
Luck, both good and bad, came my way during those hours.
Good luck to you, I hope you enjoy your playing experience as much I as enjoyed mine.
