dj56 said:
I am getting pretty good at counting I've been using the KISS III count and I can count 1 deck in 47-49sec. What should I do to keep advancing my skills?
I think 47-49 is too slow, should be at least around 30sec for quick dealers and 40sec for slow dealers. When I started and have been practicing intensively for 4 months, I was able to reach up to 16 seconds, but after hitting the casinos, I found out 40 is probably enough for most of the games, using cancellation.
But I think the best way to practice it is buying a 4 or 6 deck shoe, simulate the dealer playing 2 or 3 hands to yourself, it is much more effective because it's quite different from counting a single deck.
A tip about quick counting is, specially for high counts over +21, don't say "t-wen-ty-one" instead read as "two-one", for zero don't say "ze-ro" just say "o". For minus counts, don't say "minus one" just say "mi-one", etc. It really does help to speed it up. If you have trouble with negative numbers, then 0 will be 100, so if the running count is -3, you say 97, if it's -10, it's 90, if it's positive count like +5 just say "five" instead of "hundred and five" this also speeds it up for negative counts, for example for running count -21 instead of saying "mi-two-one" just say "se-nine" for 79 where "se" stands for "seven", it's much quicker, hope it makes sense.
Of course, you have to count in your mind only, not using your mouth...