Recenty in a game on a real board there was a situation where I really wanted to tenuki, but a large group was at stake, so I had to read if it could be captured. And indeed, after reading 5 stones deep I saw a semeai coming and counted 5 liberties on both sides with the opponent to move next. So better no tenuki now. I played a defending move and made a picture with my phone from that part of the board.
After the game we re-created the situation and it turned out that the sequence I read was indeed the most relevant line and after having the stones on the board I again counted 5 liberties for each side.
Boy was I proud. Granted, 5 moves isn’t that deep, but it wasn’t just 5 moves, it was 5 moves until the start of a semeai. Great achivement for a mere mortal kyu who doesn’t count reading to his strengths.
At this point my opponent/friend gently pointed out to me that his stones in fact had only 4 liberties and I consequently I could have tenukied.
So it’s seems my go reading skills have improved that much, that I can mis-count liberties equally well with or without the stones laid out on the board.