I just finished Blackjack Bluebook II by Fred Renzey (thanks for the hint Parker, and thanks to Bettie and RGE for getting it to me in less than a week!). Does anyone use his level-2 mentor count? I currently use Hi-Lo and have the Ill-18 memorized (mostly can't use the fab4 due to playing DD). I've been told that using a level-2 count would help in the DD games I prefer to play vs the Hi-lo count I currently use. Mr. Renzey's chart comparing playing and betting system efficiencies indicates that level-2 counts perform better than level-1 counts.

If you do use the mentor count, do you still TC to a single deck, or did you go back and begin to TC to two decks as he suggests? Obviously the indices would have to be tweaked for single deck TCing vs two deck.

Don, since the Ill-18 have been created to provide the maximum "bang for the buck" by limiting the indices to a smaller number, I assume that I could memorize just the same Ill-18 plays (proper mentor count indices, of course) in the mentor count and capture the majority of the playing efficiencies while initially ignoring the other indices provided?

I now have the full CV suite, and as soon as I get a registration number from Norm, I'll be off to the races to compare systems, etc... However, I want some "real world" input from players that have used this count system before I abandon something that comes easy to me. Thanks.