Spanish 21 book

[QFIT]

Katarina Walker's book on SP21 is now available at http://www.lulu.com/content/1239961. This is the definitive text on the subject.

[SPX]

Originally Posted by QFIT

Katarina Walker's book on SP21 is now available at http://www.lulu.com/content/1239961. This is the definitive text on the subject.

"Spanish 21, and its Australian counterpart, Pontoon, is even more beatable than Blackjack."

That's a very interesting statement.

[moo321]

Originally Posted by SPX

"Spanish 21, and its Australian counterpart, Pontoon, is even more beatable than Blackjack."

That's a very interesting statement.

Highly unlikely, given similar conditions to regular blackjack. Given the ability to spread 1-30 because the pit doesn't think you can beat Spanish 21, maybe.

[shadroch]

I think that depends on where you are playing. SP21 in AC has a lower house edge than the 8 deck BJ games being offered.
This book has been well talked of and much anticipated.

[moo321]

Originally Posted by shadroch

I think that depends on where you are playing. SP21 in AC has a lower house edge than the 8 deck BJ games being offered.
This book has been well talked of and much anticipated.

A change in the beginning house edge of .2% doesn't really matter that much, compared to the spread and total edge you can get. With the tens removed, I would guess that counting is significantly affected. I'd like to see some computer sims before I'm ready to concede that Spanish 21 is as easily beatable as other blackjack games.

[Mr. T]

First of all can somebody tell me where I can find the BS chart for the Australian Pontoon.

[BJinNJ]

The indices for seven variants of Australian Pontoon are in this book,
as well as for the common US versions.

I'm about 1/2 done reading this book. It's very thorough, well written
and has all the documentation you want/need. Precise explanations
of her claims that Sp21 is at least as beatable as BJ, in many rule sets.
She even has the BS and Hi/Lo indices, although, because of the various
multi-card payouts, higher % ace presence, etc. the BS changes some,
and the indices are more important.

Her style/thoroughness reminds me of A. Snyder's writing in Blackbelt.

FWIW

BJinNJ

[Katarina Walker]

If you play the Spanish 21 games with low house edges (and they are all over the northeast, Canada, and the Pacific northwest)
e.g. S17 Spanish 21 (6-deck house edge 0.37%) or H17 with redoubling Spanish 21 (6-deck house edge 0.42%), you make a lot more money than if you play Blackjack. Why?
1. Even in the H17 game, the Ace EOR is -0.73. It's even higher in the S17 game. The Ace is so much more valuable than in Blackjack because naturals ALWAYS get paid 3:2, and you can split Aces to 4 hands, and draw and double down on them.
2. To top it off, this Ace of heightened value occurs more frequently than in Blackjack (1/12 instead of 1/13).
3. Indices are much more powerful than in Blackjack, where there is little scope for play variation. (e.g., for stiff hands, which are the most common, what can you do as the count goes up: vary your play between hitting 12 vs 2,3 and standing? Wow. Powerful stuff (not). In Spanish 21, the indices win rate is 2.15 times the BS win rate, on average. There is HUGE scope for play variation as the count goes up.
4. For each increment of +1 in the Hi-Lo true count, the increase in the natural proportion (i.e. the gradient) is 17% higher in Spanish 21 than Blackjack, because of the Ace-richness.
5. For each increment of +1 in the Hi-Lo true count, the SP21 advantage increases by an average of 0.65% (when using all indices). Isn't BJ around 0.5%? And Aces are 1/4 of the money cards rather than 1/5.
6. SP21 penetration is up to 90% in some venues. On average, SP21 pen is much better than BJ pen. You would all know that win rate (90% pen) is around 6 times the win rate at 65% pen, not even including the extra shuffle time.
7. Dealers regularly give early surrender because they have no idea what they are doing.
8. I don't use one, but a 2-level count would be even better. The KatCount, 1 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 -1 -2 (from 2 through Ace) has a correlation coefficient (between EORS) of 0.983. Significantly higher than the corr coeff for the Revere Point Count for Blackjack (which is 0.976).
9. There is hardly any heat, so you can bet optimally. You get table conditions that haven't been seen in Blackjack for 40 years.
10. You can double down on any number of cards. As the count increases, we all know that we win more doubles. In SP21, we get even more winning doubles than in Blackjack, as the count goes up.

A quote from Anthony Curtis:
"As is often the case in gambling, cursory investigation, erroneous assumptions, and limited information can lead to missed
opportunities. Such has been the case with Spanish 21."

[sagefr0g]

have to wonder if this is a case for one of those unmentionable AP secrets where the 'Kat is out of the bag' so to speak.......

[jack,jackson]

Originally Posted by Katarina Walker

If you play the Spanish 21 games with low house edges (and they are all over the northeast, Canada, and the Pacific northwest)
e.g. S17 Spanish 21 (6-deck house edge 0.37%) or H17 with redoubling Spanish 21 (6-deck house edge 0.42%), you make a lot more money than if you play Blackjack. Why?
1. Even in the H17 game, the Ace EOR is -0.73. It's even higher in the S17 game. The Ace is so much more valuable than in Blackjack because naturals ALWAYS get paid 3:2, and you can split Aces to 4 hands, and draw and double down on them.
2. To top it off, this Ace of heightened value occurs more frequently than in Blackjack (1/12 instead of 1/13).
3. Indices are much more powerful than in Blackjack, where there is little scope for play variation. (e.g., for stiff hands, which are the most common, what can you do as the count goes up: vary your play between hitting 12 vs 2,3 and standing? Wow. Powerful stuff (not). In Spanish 21, the indices win rate is 2.15 times the BS win rate, on average. There is HUGE scope for play variation as the count goes up.
4. For each increment of +1 in the Hi-Lo true count, the increase in the natural proportion (i.e. the gradient) is 17% higher in Spanish 21 than Blackjack, because of the Ace-richness.
5. For each increment of +1 in the Hi-Lo true count, the SP21 advantage increases by an average of 0.65% (when using all indices). Isn't BJ around 0.5%? And Aces are 1/4 of the money cards rather than 1/5.
6. SP21 penetration is up to 90% in some venues. On average, SP21 pen is much better than BJ pen. You would all know that win rate (90% pen) is around 6 times the win rate at 65% pen, not even including the extra shuffle time.
7. Dealers regularly give early surrender because they have no idea what they are doing.
8. I don't use one, but a 2-level count would be even better. The KatCount, 1 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 -1 -2 (from 2 through Ace) has a correlation coefficient (between EORS) of 0.983. Significantly higher than the corr coeff for the Revere Point Count for Blackjack (which is 0.976).
9. There is hardly any heat, so you can bet optimally. You get table conditions that haven't been seen in Blackjack for 40 years.
10. You can double down on any number of cards. As the count increases, we all know that we win more doubles. In SP21, we get even more winning doubles than in Blackjack, as the count goes up.

A quote from Anthony Curtis:
"As is often the case in gambling, cursory investigation, erroneous assumptions, and limited information can lead to missed
opportunities. Such has been the case with Spanish 21."

Wow, Good analysis.

Is your un-balanced system of +8 vs -6 correct? If so, is it geared this way with the thought of S21 in mind? Looks like it, since the ace has twice the value of tens.

I would be curious to see how this count would fare in S21 (2223210-1-2-3)

Do you use a S21 blackjack analyzer?