Quote Originally Posted by 21forme View Post
I disagree. When I started, I read and practiced with CVBJ for 6 months before venturing into the casino. Even so, I recall losing the count a few times when I first went live.

If you want to play a $5 game for an hour, by all means do so, but if your goal is to play a +EV game, learn what you need to know first.
I agree with 21forme. The odd progress assessment can be done with a casino visit but you don't even need to make a bet. You can just act like one player is you and play in your mind. Two things hurt new players. One is a lack of experience and the other is a lack of BR. Save your money and make mistakes with the software and just make a visit to the casino once every 6 weeks to see what you need to work on to be ready when you think you are ready to play. Depleting your BR with expenses and negative EV play isn't going to help you outrace ruin when you are ready to play.