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Blackjack Blackjack or Spanish 21

Discussion in 'Blackjack Forum' started by Moraine, Jul 4, 2021.

  1. Moraine

    Moraine Active Member

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    In early 1960s, when card counting became known, blackjack used to a 1 or 2-deck pitch game only. Card counting was easy. To frustrate card counters, many casinos have abandoned1 or 2-deck pitch-game entirely, or altered the rules for 1 or 2-deck blackjack to make it almost card-counting-proof. Nowadays, if you are looking for blackjack with decent rules, most likely you can find it in tables with 6 or 8-deck shoes only.

    You may also find many newly created blackjack variants. Many variants have much higher house edge than blackjack. But there is an exception – Spanish 21. Spanish 21’s house edge is often a tad less than those of ordinary blackjack. Take the S17 8-deck games for example, the house edge in Spanish 21 is less than 0.4%, while it is 0.45% for blackjack.

    Also, since not many Spanish 21 players know how to count, and since many of the traditional card counting systems actually fail in Spanish 21, casino’s monitoring of Spanish 21 is often less intense. That said, it pays for card counters to learn to count both blackjack and Spanish 21.
     
  2. Moraine

    Moraine Active Member

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    Spanish 21 made its first appearance in 1990s -- long after the threat of card counting had become known to casinos. The designer of Sp 21 must have intended to defeat or frustrate card counters in order to make Sp 21 more appealing to its licensees -- the casinos -- and had succeeded in part at least. Sp 21 has rendered most of the traditional blackjack card counting systems completely useless or of only limited use even after modifications.

    Take Hi-Lo for instance. Hi-Lo is a "Balanced System" in blackjack, but becomes an "Unbalanced System" in Sp 21. Even with the modifications, Hi-Lo's performance in Sp 21 is still much inferior to Hi-Lo's performance in blackjack. The main reason: Hi-Lo's assigning 0 point value to each of the three middle cards (7, 8 and 9) is pretty far off from the real EOR (Effect of Removal) of the three cards in Sp 21.

    In Sp 21, while card 7 is still neutral, cards 8 and 9 are very much in players' favor -- each is almost as beneficial as one-half of a face card. (As a group, the combined EOR of cards 7, 8 and 9 should have been assigned a point value of 1, INSTEAD OF ZERO.)
     
  3. Moraine

    Moraine Active Member

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    The rules of blackjack are simple, but rule variations are many. Many north America casinos often implement their special rule variations at whim, and still call the game offered of whatever deck numbers as blackjack.

    As many experienced blackjack card counters have found, counting 1 or 2-deck pitch-game blackjack is easier than counting shoe-game blackjack. Also, many powerful counting systems good for 1 or 2-deck blackjack became too difficult to use when the deck numbers used grew to 4, 6 or 8.

    For Spanish 21, rules of the game are more complicated, but since the game is offered in North America only under a license by a private company which own the Special 21 patent, the rule variations in Spanish 21 are limited and rare. As to the number of decks used, Spanish 21 is normally played with 6 or 8-deck shoes only.

    That said, the key to successful Spanish 21 card counting is to find an easy, but effective counting system suitable for 6 or 8 deck Spanish 21 shoe games.
     
  4. Moraine

    Moraine Active Member

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    Feeling Any differently When playing Spanish 21?

    The other day, a high-profile female walked to a Spanish 21 table and declared she had never played Spanish 21 before, and would like to know the difference between playing Spanish 21 and regular blackjack. The dealer pointed to the rules printed on the felt and tried to explain the Spanish 21 rules to her, but the female said what she really liked to know was if she would be feeling any differently when playing Spanish 21? A player said that she could tell us all later if she had found any difference after having played Spanish 21.

    Soon, the female player got a hand of A-A vs. X. With help from other players, she split, drew, drew, doubled down, and then drew another Ace and split again. She was paid immediately when she drew a picture in her latest split of A-A. In total, she won 4 stacks of chips from her initial A-A hand. Ecstatic with the wins, the female player declared she loved Spanish 21 with all the extra actions never existed in blackjack.

    Mea culpa:sorry::sorry::sorry:, while all the excitements were going on, Moraine saw them then only as distractions to card counting. On reflection, the new female player might have touched upon why Moraine was attracted to Spanish 21 in the first place. :D:D:DForget about card counting or not, forget about winning or losing, Spanish 21 sure offers more actions – more hits, more splits, more double downs – and consequentially more hope, more risk, more thrill, and more, more . . . to every player.
     
  5. Moraine

    Moraine Active Member

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    More actions in Spanish 21 also means more decisions to make. Players and card counters alike must be more engaged. Often, your hit or stand decision depends not only on the true count, the sum-total of your hand and the dealer up-card, but also on the number of cards in your hand and their composition.

    One good thing about Spanish 21 is that you can always remain hopeful with almost any hands. Its bad hands (such as stiff hands versus dealer' Ace or X) are not as bad as those hands in blackjack, since the shortage of 10-valued cards in Spanish decks may just do you a favor if you are courageous enough to hit. Also the best hands in Spanish 21 (A-X natural, multiple-card 21 combinations) are better than the same hands in blackjack, since your win is guaranteed. And if you are alert enough, you may just find an opportunity to snatch a big win (6-7-8; 7-7-7; 5-card, 6-card or 7-card Charlies, or even the suited 7-7-7 vs. 7 Super Bonus) from the jaws of defeat. Sound Exciting? Yes, yes, yes!

    Question: What is the trade off?
    Answer: Must remain absolutely sober while card counting Spanish 21.





     

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