LeftNut is right, that you'll get a lot more answers over at http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bb/ However, I'll give you a short one here anyway. Yes, unbalanced counting systems work fine on the shoe games of the strip. In fact, my advice for anyone learning to count these days is to use the simple but powerful KO count. It's documented in the book Knock-Out Blackjack.
Interesting Ken. I never knew that this book had any merit at all. On amazon it's getting pretty good reviews. The average reader is giving it 4 1/2 to 5 stars. Thanks for the advice.
Ko KO's strength is its ease of use. You don't make costly errors, and you can play longer before getting tired (and making even more errors). What you lose in power versus other count systems you can make up for in lack of errors.
I really became a K-O fan when well-run sims showed that it performs equally with Hi-Lo. I had always assumed that the simplicity of K-O came at a price (albeit a low one). Not true. There's no penalty at all in six and eight deck games. Impressive.
