The ultimate goal of many blackjack players is to eventually become a successful counter who makes lots of profits with the game. Of course, you would think that this entails knowing basic blackjack strategy inside and out, but many players like to skip this part of the process. However, the reality is that if you don't have basic strategy down pat, it's next to impossible to be a successful card counter.

Long story short, you need to study as much regular blackjack strategy as possible before moving on to the advanced concepts. The best way to do this is by looking over a strategy card from top to bottom until you fully understand it. Playing some free online blackjack games is always helpful while you're looking over a strategy card because you can put what you're learning into practice.

And being able to understand basic blackjack moves is of the utmost importance when you're trying to keep track of the count and how many shoes have been dealt. Taking all of this into account, this is a big reason why it's recommended that you learn the basics before moving on to blackjack card counting. 

In addition to learning basic strategy, it's important to have a sizable bankroll before getting started in counting. Even if you're only looking to make $25 an hour with card counting, you'll need to have at least $20,000 to play with. Even with this amount of money and lots of card counting skill, there's only about a 90% guarantee that you'll make profits.

So you really need to think long and hard about whether blackjack card counting is worth the effort. If the aforementioned things sound too hard, risky or expensive, you should just stick to basic blackjack strategy.