Rice and Beans with that?
February 6, 2009
Dear Mark: I read
your column every week but have not seen any
comparison between blackjack and Spanish 21. I
know that the number 10 card is removed from the
Spanish 21 deck, giving you less of a chance to
get a two card 21, but it also gives you less of
a chance to bust when you take a hit with 16 or
less. Also, Spanish 21 has more payoffs than
Blackjack giving you a better chance to
win. When playing basic strategies for both
Blackjack and Spanish 21, which game has the
better odds for the player? Frank S.
You mentioned in your question one of two
notable variants when comparing Spanish 21 to
the regular blackjack game. With Spanish 21, all
the 10s (not the Jacks, Queens, and Kings) are
removed from the deck. Also, the player gets
paid for a hand total of 21, or the standard
three-to-two payoff for a blackjack, even if the
dealer's hand is a natural blackjack.
Additional player-friendly rules are; doubling
down on two or more cards, pair-splitting and
double downs up to four times after splits,
bonus payoffs for different combination 21s, and
although I have never actually popped my peepers
on this one, a super bonus that pays out $1,000
for a suited 7-7-7 when the dealer's up card is
a seven.
So, Frank, even without those 10s in the deck,
does Spanish 21 with perfect basic strategy,
offer better odds for the player than does
blackjack, utilizing the same?
Almost. By employing Spanish 21 basic
strategy-which obviously differs from normal
blackjack strategy-you force the house edge down
to 0.8%, which is only slightly higher than the
0.5% you can achieve using perfect basic
strategy at blackjack. Of course, if you deviate
from it, the casino edge can go up to three
percent, about the same as in seat-of-the-pants
blackjack.
Dear Mark: I run a charity poker room
and have a blackjack table. In charity poker
rooms the charity wins all ties. I have a couple
of players who I think are counting cards on a
6-deck shoe. They seem to win every time. Is
this possible? Are they counting cards? Are not
the odds still in favor of the charity. Any
advice or knowledge you can give me would be
great. DSC
Because charity games are deliberately designed
to feed a buck or two into the community coffer,
the charity blackjack game wins ties at
blackjack. Players should consider pushes the
cost of philanthropic entertainment to support
worthy causes. A charity blackjack game that
keeps ties has an advantage of 8.8% over the
player.
No card counter can beat an 8.8% edge, so, the
probable answers here are a) they are NOT
cheating, they have just been lucky, or b)
dealer collusion, that rouge dealer on the
inside. If it's always the same dealer, pitching
cards to the same players, mystery solved, or c)
charlatan players who have decided to bring
their own cards to the party or who mark the
current ones on the game.
Suspicious play warrants decks being pulled off
the game and inspected. An expert, not you,
should look for bends, crimps, bumps, scratches,
inks, pigments, the latest in shade
technologies, etc. From here forward, anytime
you swap out decks, make sure the cards are new,
and of a different color. Castrate the used
decks by having holes punched through the
middle, corners cut off, or large black spots
applied.
You also have an assortment of countermeasures
that casinos utilize to offset a counter's
advantage. One such that you are using to impede
skilled blackjack players is a six-deck shoe.
For giggles, bump it to eight. You can also
shuffle at will to thwart bet variance, and you
can instruct the dealers to move the cut card
closer to the top of the shoe against assumed
counters.
Granted, the last thing a charitable
organization needs are card counters on the game
emptying the tray, but with your built-in 8.8%
edge, and counters maxing out with a 1.5%
advantage, less outright cheating, I'm coming
full circle and stating that my inclination is
that it's a fluky streak by the players in
question.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: "No
dog can go as fast as the money you bet on him."
--Bud Flanagan
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