Blackjack Card Counting Spanish 21 with AceMT

Among the 60 or so card counting systems listed in the Encyclopedia of Blackjack, it appears only two systems, Hi-Lo and AceMT, can be used to count Spanish 21 as well.

If you Google "Spanish 21 card counting books", you may see the images of Katrina Walker's "The Pro's Guide to Spanish 21 and Australian Pontoon" and Moraine Mono's "AceMT for Blackjack and Spanish 21". Katrina Walker's book is on Hi-Lo, while Moraine Mono's book is on AceMT.

What does "AceMT" stand for? In short, it is an abbreviation of Ace, Monarchy (the face card or Monkey as frequently heard in casinos) and Ten. Since a Spanish deck has no 10s, AceMT signifies that the counting system will count 16 high cards (4 aces and 12 face cards) per deck of a Spanish 21 shoe and ignore the rest.

Simple enough? We shall see.

 

AceMT sure sounds simple enough, but how does AceMT stacks up against Hi-Lo in performance?

Good question. For Blackjack, these are the exact BC+PE+IC figures provided by the Encyclopedia of Blackjack: AceMT's BC+PE+IC is 2.22 while Hi-Lo's BC+PE+IC is 2.24. The difference is less than 1%.

If you are amazed by the above numerical comparison for blackjack, and are also interested in the BC+PE+IC numbers for Spanish 21, too bad there are no published numbers in existence today -- neither for AceMT, nor for Hi-Lo, but there are indications that Hi-Lo's performance in Spanish 21 could be much worse than Hi-Lo's own performance in blackjack.

 

Why Count both the Highs and the Lows?

When the remaining shoe, be it a blackjack shoe or a Spanish 21 shoe, has one extra high card, a non-high card must be missing, isn’t it true? If yes, why still count both the highs and the lows? Please pick or add to the reasons/wild-guesses noted below:

1. It takes two to tango; yin and yang are both needed.
2. Hi-Lo is simple enough, no need to cut corners.
3. Don’t know if there is a simpler system, yet still deliver.
4. Change is too difficult, even if Hi-Lo is bad for today’s games.
5. Hi-Lo must be good, or online casinos won’t offer free instructions.
6. Hi-Lo’s deviation indices are more available.
7. My team mates know nothing but Hi-Lo.
8. I’m a teacher at a Hi-Lo academy/boot-camp. No Hi-Lo, no job.
9. Other

 

Card counting Spanish 21 with AceMT sure is simpler than card counting with Hi-Lo. How much simpler?

I would say at least (9-4)/9 = 5/9 or 56% simpler since instead of counting 9 cards per suit with Hi-Lo, you only count 4 cards per suit if you use AceMT. Also, high cards -- Ace, K, Q and J -- are easy to recognize, and hard to miss. Additionally, with AceMT, there's also no need to constantly on the watch to adjust the running counts up and down. While card counting, you can even relax and lay back just like an ordinary Spanish 21 player. The chance for errors is also much reduced.

AceMT indeed is a hassle free card counting method as some Spanish 21 card counters have called it.

 

AceMT is not only simpler than Hi-Lo for card counting Spanish, it is also more accurate. Consider these facts:

In H17 Spanish 21, the effect of removal (EOR) of the three middle cards 7, 8 and 9 are 0.04, -0.21 and -0,17, respectively. The combined EOR of the three middle cards is 0.04-0.21-0.17= -0.34, which is too big to be ignored totally. But Hi-Lo assigns 0, 0, and 0 to the three middle cards -- be it in blackjack or Spanish 21.

In comparison, AceMT's total EOR error is -0.09 only. Since 0.34/0.09 = 3.78, Hi-Lo's EOR error is almost four times that of AceMT's.

 

It should be noted that the person promoting his "system" or count in several different threads here, has been banned at several blackjack forums, including Norm's BJTF and WoV, for the same promotion of a scam system and book.

At Amazon he is selling the book with the same name as his count or system, along with selling a number of other items, completely unrelated to blackjack. Nothing says successful advantage player quite like an online seller of self published books and other products. Do you also sell Amway on the side?

 

Thanks for following me for so long -- 3 years and counting?

If I am not mistaken, I was also banned by a blackjack forum hosted by the adherents/sycophants/worshippers of Illustrious/Idiotic 18 deviation indices. But you failed to name that forum. Any reason for that failure?

Were you ashamed of everything that was said in that forum? Ashamed of the individuals or sock puppets associated with that forum?

Check it out. I was banned right after I chimed in a thread on 7-7 vs. 8 in 2021. Attached was a screenshot of the thread of that (defuncted?) forum. Thanks again.

 

For the record, as shown in the screenshot below, in 2021, Moraine wrote in a thread on 7-7 vs. 8 of a blackjack forum:

"First. IGNORANCE IS A BLISS. HALF- BAKE IS DANGEROUS. Either use Basic Strategy only or know at least 80 indices for career protection. Illustrious 18 is 18 Illustrious indecent exposures if you use only those 18 indices. Second, I only asked you and others all methods of getting perfect IC. Whether you liked it or not, WHO CARES? YOU ARE STILL AVOIDING THE QUESTION. If you don't know a thing, just say so OR YOU MAY KEEP ON RANTING. HAVE A GOOD DAY."​

Soon afterward, the following messages showed up:

"This is one of the most pathetic threads to ever hit the BJ forums."

"I'm going to try to get it, and asshole moraine, deleted. Don"

"Thread remains. Moraine is gone. Don"​

 

Why do you insist on repeating the same very wrong statements over and over for years? They are no less wrong today than they were 3 years ago and will be just as wrong each time you repeat them in the future.

Look there are two big "tells" of a card counter. One is the bet spread itself. Not a whole lot you can do about that as basically you have to get more money out in advantageous counts. (although there are some things)

The second is strategy change plays. Each time a player plays the same hand differently at different times, it is a tell of a card counter. If they are running an evaluation, it will pop out like it a sore thumb.

I will go over one play for you. Splitting tens vs dealer 5 or 6. Standing most of the time but splitting in high counts.....HUGE, HUGE TELL. Whatever small gain, you see from that play in simulations, disappears 1000x over when you are backed off, banned or otherwise counter-measured because you made that play.

And EVERY other strategy change play is the same. Everything from 16 vs 10, (a hand that occurs frequently), to taking and not taking insurance and the rest of your 80 plays. EVERY SINGLE ONE of these plays is a tell. They may add a few cents at the moment, but will shorten the total amount of time you are able to play. Why is that so hard to understand?

If you are only playing on a computer, or possibly playing very low limits of $5 where they just don't care, fine, but playing for any REAL money in the REAL world and every strategy change play you add, reduces your total play time (longevity). You are doing something that adds a few cents at a long term cost of many, many dollars....thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

THIS is it for me. You will repeat your nonsense again and again, but I will not respond. And you will continue to be wrong.

 

The math involving blackjack is settled. There is nothing new. And that includes index plays. That was all discovered decades ago using computers. So you are trying to find something that is already settled. You are trying to reinvent the wheel

What card counting is about NOW and has been for 20 years, is figuring out ways to be able to keep being allowed to play. Figuring out ways to NOT rock the boat and play within casino tolerance and comfort levels. You keep talking about the opposite of that.

You apparently think you have come up with these great new things. And what you have discovered is the wheel or sliced bread.

 

The subject topic of the thread is "Card Counting Spanish 21 with AceMT." I wouldn't stray far from the subject topic here, but would simply say that the math of blackjack might have been settled, but the art hasn't. That's why you use your "Card Counter's Basic Strategy" while many others think 18 deviations -- no more, no less -- shall be it for card counting blackjack.

If you want to hear more about my view (or bulls**t, if you prefer to call it) on Illustrious or Idiotic 18, I would be glad to have an opportunity to unload it onto you under another thread. The thread of "Illustrious 18, Stupid Is As Stupid Does" may be a more appropriate place if you re-post your message there.

Back to the main topic, fortunately, as of today, Spanish 21 still has the reputation of being uncountable, since all of the well-known blackjack card counting methods -- Hi-Lo included -- are practically useless or extremely difficult to execute when applied to Spanish 21.

As a result, knowledgeable counters using AceMT would have an easier time at Spanish 21 tables than at blackjack tables in almost all casinos. You can try it out too.

 

NOTHING about what I claim been proven to be lies or untrue.

You saying something is untrue does not make it so. And you stalking me on every forum repeating and repeating that does NOT make it so.

You have proven nothing except that you are a very good troll.

This is a gambling forum. People come here to discuss and learn about gambling. I share my experiences.

Just knock it off and act like a normal person.

 

The appearance of AceMT on the scene has "rocked the boat." and put many purveyors of Hi-Lo boot camps, text books, computer programs, forums, etc., on high alert. After all, their investments in the business of selling Hi-Lo paraphernalia may become worthless when the new generation of counters found out AceMT.

This is the proof. The Following SHAMELESS MESSAGES were penned by a Blackjack Forum Emperor Wearing His New Clothes when Moraine chimed in on how to play 7-7 vs. 8 in May of 2021:

"This is one of the most pathetic threads to ever hit the BJ forums."

"I'm going to try to get it, and asshole moraine, deleted. Don"

"Thread remains. Moraine is gone. Don"

 

What is all that noise? Enough distractions!!! Back to the basic of Card Counting Spanish 21 with AceMT.

The rise of 1 AceMT true count means a reduction of approximately 0.77% of house advantage. Since the house advantage is only about 0.4% in S17 Spanish 21. The following bet progression as shown in the table is suggested.

 

Hah, Just found a 2021 thread titled: "Believe It or Not, AceMT by Counting the High . . . " of a Las Vegas-based blackjack forum.

In the discussion of single-deck blackjack game, Moraine asked: "Other than 3:2, what are the other rules? NO MATTER WHAT, they can still get you with SLEIGH OF HAND, if the rules are too good to be true. Remember "Dealing Second"?"

The Administrator of the Forum thundered: "That's a pretty staggering claim. Put up, or shut up! Evidence or retraction. If you have any belief in your favoured card counting system, then it's either good enough to thrash a crooked dealer, or it's accepting that casino games are not crooked. . . . If you want to say that any or many casino games are crooked, then bring evidence, or drop it."

Wow! A card counting system must be "either good enough to thrash a crooked dealer, or it's accepting that casino games are not crooked" ???

Why, why, why that Las Vegas-based put the blame of cheatings on "crooked dealer", not on crooked casino?

ANSWER: THERE IS NO LAW PROHIBITING A WHORE HOUSE TO HOST A BEAUTY PAGEANT, AND THERE IS NO LAW PROHIBITING A CASINO-LEANING ENTITY TO HOST A BLACKJACK FORUM.

 

Trust But Verify, Before Betting Your Ranch: An Easy AceMT Method for Detecting Casino Cheatings

An 8-deck Spanish 21 shoe with 25% cutoff, if card cards come out at an even pace, there should be 96 exposed high cards at the end of the shoe, 80 at 5 decks, 64 at half shoe, and 48 at 3 decks, etc, etc.
But if your count of the number of high cards exposed is consistently below the ordinarily expected number of the exposed high cards, the shoes might have been stacked against you from the get-go. Your computed high true counts could be illusionary phantom high counts only. The more you bet, the more you lose.

From Casino With Love: "Hah, Hah, Hah!!! Call it the casino's revenge against card counters!!!"

 

Spanish 21 is always a real friend to card counters while Blackjack is only a one-time friend . . .
Reasons abound, but this is Moraine's top pick: Moraine can split A-A in Spanish 21, again and again, and hit, draw and double down whenever he feels like it after the splits and draws.
Can Moraine ask for anything else when betting his max?

Oh, yeah, since the AceMT count is high, there must plenty of Monkeys in the shoe . Forget about the double down after the splits. To make things simple, please just deal me 4 monkeys after 4 Aces in a row.

 

Spanish 21 Favors Counters Where It Counts Most
At high AceMT counts, the chance of your getting the blackjack while the dealer also getting blackjack is high. If it is in Spanish 21, your go-for-broke bet is paid 3-to-2, but if it is regular blackjack, you are paid a HUGE ZERO. Mamma Mia!

 

Hit The Book: The Only Way to Learn Card Counting Spanish 21
The other day, someone asked me how to get started with card counting Spanish 21, I said: "Use the old fashion way, hit the book."
Here I want to add: "Forget about boot camps or computer programs -- They don't worth a dime for counting Spanish 21."

 

QUESTION: What books?

ANSWER: Moraine just searched the internet and found only two printed books -- one on using Hi-Lo by Katrina Walker, the other on using AceMT by Moraine Mono -- THAT'S ME, Hah.

You must read at least one book, but preferably both in order to decide which counting method you may like when playing Spanish 21. Both contain COMPLETELY NEW INFORMATION THAT YOU COULDN'T FIND ANYWHERE ELSE, not the the recycled information that you may expect in many blackjack books on the market nowadays.