What is the blackjack insurance bet?

This article focuses on the insurance bet in blackjack, specifically:

1. The purpose of the insurance bet
2. When and how to make the bet
3. The odds and payoffs
4. The facts on whether it is a good bet for players

The insurance bet in blackjack seems to confuse most players. They either don’t understand what the bet is all about or, worse, they always make the insurance bet when the dealer offers. This article takes the mystery out of this bet and offers advice on whether you should make it.

Table of Contents

What is the Blackjack Insurance Bet?

After being dealt your initial two cards and the dealer’s up-card is an Ace, the insurance bet comes into play. Before any player can decide on how to play his hand, the dealer will ask the players if they want to make the insurance bet.

Amount You Can Wager and the Payoff

When taking insurance bets, casino rules allow players to wager an amount equal to one-half (or less in some casinos) of the original wager on the hand.

For example, suppose you wager $10, the dealer deals the cards, and her up-card is an Ace. Before any player can act on his hand, the dealer asks players if anyone wants to wager on insurance.

The dealer loudly says “insurance” while pointing his finger on the felt and moving it from left to right in front of all players. Players wanting to make the insurance bet place a $5 chip in the insurance line. (see diagram)

If the dealer has a ten or picture card in the hole, which gives him a blackjack, the insurance wager is paid at 2 to 1 odds. Therefore, in the above example, the $5 insurance bet would win $10. 

Note: In the above example, even though you would win $10 for your insurance bet, your original $10 that you bet on your hand would automatically lose to a dealer’s blackjack.

In the case you also have a blackjack, then it’s a push, meaning you neither win nor lose. Since you won $10 on your insurance wager but lost $10 on the hand, your net is zero.

Why Do Casinos Offer the Insurance Bet?

This insurance side bet was introduced into the game of blackjack to give the perception to players that they can “protect” their hand against a dealer getting a blackjack. It seems logical, however there are a few facts that the casino doesn’t tell you about their insurance bet.

Simple Math of the Insurance Wager

If you were offered an opportunity to wager on a flip of a coin (heads or tails), winning even money if you guess correctly and losing your original bet if you guess wrong, would you play?

What about playing this coin-flip game? You lose your original bet if you guess wrong, and win 95 cents for every dollar you wagered if you guess right.

If you were forced to play one of these two games, which would you choose? I hope you chose game one above and not the second option for this reason: the odds that the outcome of a coin-flip will be either heads or tails are 50-50.

Likewise, the payoff has the same payoff odds, meaning half the time you win even money and half the time you will lose your original bet. So after thousands of coin-flips, you’ll be very close to even, and neither the coin flipper nor the player has an advantage.

However, game two isn’t an even game because you’re being paid less than even money on each winning coin flip – 95 cents instead of $1 per wager. The point of this example is this: a bet becomes disadvantageous to a player when the payoff odds are less than the true odds of winning.
 
With that thought in mind, let’s look at what the odds are of a blackjack dealer having a ten or picture in the hole. For simplicity, I’ll use a single deck of cards for the following example and assume the player bets $1 on insurance.

The ratio of non-tens to tens in a single deck of cards is 36 to 16. There are four tens, four jacks, four queens, and four kings or a total of 16 tens.

After the cards are dealt on the first round, let’s assume that the dealer is showing an ace and asks if you want to take insurance. If we ignore for the moment the composition of the two cards in your hand, then the ratio of non-tens to tens in the unplayed 51 cards is 35 to 16. This means:

• 35 times that we made a $1 insurance bet, we would lose a total of $35 (the times the dealer wouldn’t have a ten in the hole)
• 16 times, he’d have the ten in the hole and we would win – 16 x $2 = $32.

The net loss after making $51 of insurance bets is $3. (Lose $35 and win $32.) 

What About Insuring a Good Hand?

Some players reason that taking insurance on a 20 will help avoid losing money on a good hand should the dealer end up with blackjack. Also, even if the dealer doesn’t have blackjack, she’ll still have a tough time beating a 20. So blackjack insurance makes sense, this thinking goes.

However, the facts are this. Taking insurance when you hold a 20 is an even worse bet than taking insurance when you have a “bad” hand.

What About Taking Insurance if I have a Blackjack Hand?

That is a very good question since if the dealer has an ace up-card when you have a blackjack hand, the dealer will ask if you want “even money.” The latter takes some explanation, which I will do in my next article on “Blackjack Even Money.” Stay tuned and, in the meantime:

• No matter how you look at it, blackjack insurance is a bad bet for a basic strategy player because it has a negative expected value (EV). You’ll lose money in the long run. Avoid making this bet!

One additional note: There are instances when the insurance bet is profitable, specifically, when the remaining decks contain an abundance of ten-value cards. When this occurs, the dealer is more likely to have a ten in the hole.

Card counting is a tool that allows you to know when the abundance of tens occurs. Therefore, the insurance bet can be a profitable bet for card counters. For details on this, consult Chapter 10 in my Ultimate Blackjack Strategy Guide.
 

This article contains:

• Five common mistakes made by video poker players 
• Tips on how to prevent making these mistakes

I recently spent two weeks in Las Vegas and played video poker. Usually when I play, I don’t pay any attention to what adjacent players are doing. However, on this trip I did because I took frequent, short breaks while playing due to a sore hand.

What I observed the players doing nearly blew me away. I’m writing this article based on those observations so you won’t make these mistakes when playing video poker. This article is in reference to those players that were adjacent to me while I was playing video poker.

Table of Contents

Mistake #1 – Game Switching and Short Pay

Most of the players constantly switched from one video poker game to another, presumably to change their luck. The Random Number Generator software program that randomly generates the cards in a video poker machine does so irrespectively of the game you select to play.

You’re not going to get “better” cards when you switch games. Moreover, most players don’t realize that the playing strategy for one video poker game (Jacks or Better for example) is much different from another (such as Deuces Wild).

If you’re going to play video poker, you need to learn a playing strategy for one particular game and be able to implement its strategy accurately when playing.

Additionally, for any specific video poker game, you should only play “full pay” and not the “short pay” version.

Tip: You will know if a particular game is “full pay” by looking at the pay schedule on the machine’s video screen. You can find out what it should be for a particular game by checking the database on vpfree2.com. Click on “video poker” then “pay tables” in the dropdown menu.

The importance of playing a “full pay” version is this: it has the highest theoretical return of all the pay schedules for that game.

Mistake #2 – Not Using a Strategy Card

Not a single player used a strategy card when they played. This always amazes me when I see casino players risking their hard-earned money playing video poker without having a legal strategy card. Players can refer to it when they aren’t sure how to accurately play a particular hand.

Mistake #3 – Playing the Wrong Games

Most video poker machines have several different video poker games. There might be a choice between playing Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, and several different Deuces Wild games.

I know from experience that the game with the highest theoretical return on the machines that I was playing was a specific Deuces Wild game known as Not So Ugly Deuces Wild or NSUDW. The game came with a 99.73% theoretical return.

Yet, I never saw anyone playing that game. Instead, they were playing different video poker games on their machines that had a much lower theoretical return. 

Tip: There is a vocabulary used by skilled video poker players to denote full-pay games. For example, the full-pay version of Jacks or Better is known as 9/6 JOB (because it pays 9 coins for a full house and 6 coins for a flush per coin played).

However, you won’t see “9/6 Jacks or Better” on the screen of a video poker machine. Instead, it will only state “Jacks or Better,” and it’s up to the player to look at the pay schedule to know whether it’s full- or short-pay.

Therefore, you must know the pay schedule for a full-pay version of a video poker game you want to play, and which casinos offer it. This information is also available in the vpfree2.com database.

Mistake #4 – Not Maxing Out

I lost track of how many players I saw who were playing less than the maximum of five coins per hand. They were varying their bets between one and five coins, depending on whether they were winning or losing.

What the players didn’t know is that the high return for a full-pay game assumes you are betting the maximum of five coins per hand. If you bet fewer than five coins, your return decreases by roughly 1%.

For example, if you play 9/6 Jacks or Better perfectly, betting five coins per hand, the theoretical return is 99.54%. If you play the same game and bet fewer than five coins, your theoretical return is only 98.37%.

The reason the theoretical return decreases is that players get a bonus payout when hitting a royal flush when betting five coins. The payout for each winning hand is proportional to the number of coins played except for the royal flush.

For the latter, the payout in coins is 250-500-750-1,000 for 1 to 4 coins wagered respectively; however, when you wager the fifth coin, the payout increases to 4,000 coins.

Also, the particular casino I was playing at offered players 0.30% cashback based on their coin-in (total amount wagered). The NSU Deuces Wild game has a return of 99.73% but when factoring in the 0.30% cashback that the casino offers when using a player’s card, the overall return is slightly over 100% (99.73% + 0.30% = 100.03%).

Playing any other game on these machines will not get your overall return over 100%.

Tip: Even though percentage-wise, betting five coins is better than betting fewer than five coins, it’s a different scenario when looking at a player’s theoretical loss. If you play an average of 700 hands per hour on a dollar-denomination, 9/6 JOB game, your theoretical hourly loss is $16.10. (700 times $5 per hand times a house edge equal to 100% minus 99.54%).

If you play the same game, betting only one coin per hand, the theoretical hourly loss is only $3.22. So as a general rule, if the overall return on a game is less than 100% (including the benefits of the casino’s slot club), you’ll lose less money in the long run betting one coin versus five coins in the same denomination game.

Mistake #5 – Skipping the Players Club

I estimate about a dozen players didn’t have a player’s card inserted into their video poker machine. That’s a costly mistake especially when obtaining a player’s card is free.

When you insert your player’s card into a video poker machine, the casino tracks your coin in (the dollar amount of bets made) and how long you play. In turn, the casino rewards you with cashback, free play, bounce-back, and an assortment of comps.

Summary

Don’t make these mistakes when you play video poker:

• Switching between different games in the same session
• Not having a strategy card with you
• Not playing the full-pay version of a game
• Playing fewer than five coins if your overall return is over 100% (including the player’s club benefits),
• Not applying for and using a casino player’s card

WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF BLACKJACK CARD-COUNTING TEAMS?

This is the sixth, and last, article in a series on card counting. In the previous articles, I covered:

• How casinos catch card counters
• What casinos do if they catch you card counting
• How casinos can get away with tossing out card counters
• How you can get away with card counting
• How aggressive card counting works

This last article focuses on team play, which was popularized via the 2008 movie 21 that popularized the adventures of a team of students from MIT that won millions using this tactic. 

Table of Contents

History

Frank Schipani (the pseudonym for Al Francesco) is widely recognized in blackjack circles as the creator of the concept of forming a team of card counters to attack casinos.

In the 1960s, Francesco was successfully winning money by card counting, but then casinos started banning him from playing. That’s when he devised a new way for a card counter to beat the casinos undetected; namely, playing together on teams.

In the 1970s, his teams traveled to casinos all over the world and won millions. One of the famous members of his teams was Ken Uston, who subsequently exposed the teams’ methods in his book The Big Player.

Nevertheless, Francesco continued to train and bankroll teams for many years. Moreover, his team-play techniques have been used by countless numbers of other teams, including the MIT team.

Francesco is often referred to as the “Godfather of Blackjack,” and his peers recognized his accomplishments in 2002 when he was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

After the publication of Uston’s book, casinos became wise to the techniques of team play and Francesco’s team couldn’t play in Las Vegas for fear of being detected. The team eventually disbanded. However, even though Uston killed the “golden goose,” Francesco eventually forgave him.

How Team Card Counting Works

Blackjack teams use slightly different techniques but the most popular is as follows.

• Several skilled card counters get together and form a team. They each put up a share of the team bankroll (e.g., $10,000 each). 
• Card counters, known as “spotters,” are positioned at different tables and make minimum bets but keep the count.
• When the count becomes favorable, the spotter discreetly signals another team player (known as the “Big Player” or “BP”) to enter the game and fire away with big bets.
• When the count tanks, the spotter signals the BP to exit the game.
• The BP waits patiently until another spotter calls him into a game.

There are variations on the above technique but this gives you a general summary of how team play works.

Advantages of Team Card Counting

Before Francesco’s team play approach, casinos would watch a suspected solo card counter’s betting pattern. If he fluctuated his bets, it was an indication that the player was card counting. 

Casinos never considered a coordinated attack by a team. Therefore, by using spotters and BPs, the team was able to disguise the fact that they were card counting. 

Profit Potential

Here’s an example of the profit potential of team play from Colin Jones’s excellent book, The 21st Century Card Counter.

“Imagine you and a friend each have $5,000 and perfect card-counting skills,” he notes in the book. “You might expect to each generate $10 per hour in Expected Value (i.e., profit) playing separately However, if you combine your money into a $10,000 bankroll, you can each generate $20 per hour.”

There are other benefits of team play that include:

Managing Teams

Successful blackjack teams have a strong team manager. Some of his duties include:

• Recruiting and training players
• Creating team standards and a policy manual
• Determining bankroll requirements, bet spreads, and associated risks
• Tracking expenses
• Holding team meetings
• Motivating team members
• Soliciting outside investors
• Managing very large team bankrolls
• Determining the payouts for team members
• Determining the optimal number of BPs and spotters
• Determining the ratio of spotters per BP
• Deciding on where to play, what the makeup of the team would be, and when to get out of Dodge

Additionally, and most importantly, team leaders are responsible for handling “emergencies” that could arise. When a team is profitable, they earn about 30% of the profits. However, when a team is unprofitable, the team leader usually gets the blame.

Outside Investors

Most successful card-counting teams solicit outside investors who put a large sum of money toward the team’s bankroll and expect a return on their investment.

The bigger the team’s bankroll, the greater the profit a team can earn. This is a common practice nowadays to fund a team’s bankroll.

Reasons Teams Fail

Not all blackjack teams succeed. Some fail for any one of the following reasons:

• Poor leadership
• Not carefully screening and constantly testing members
• Not trusting other team members
• The pressure of mentally dealing with the downswings in bankroll
• Starting without a sufficient bankroll
• Mistakes in the call-in by the spotter or BP
• Mistakes in keeping the count accurately 
• Team members who are not dedicated, or worse, cheat
• Bad habits of a team member (drugs, booze, philandering, etc.)
• Failing a polygraph test
• Mistakes in distributing and handling of money
• Determining team expenses versus player expenses
• Knowing and sticking to a timed playing session
• Accurately keeping the team’s “financial books”
• What to do if a player quits
• Being thrown out of too many casinos
• Currency issues when traveling outside the USA
• Constant travel

One way to avoid the above pitfalls is to read and adhere to the advice from several blackjack team leaders and members in the following publications: 

• Chapter 11 in Don Schlesinger’s book, Blackjack Attack: Playing the Pros’ Way, which contains a copy of a “Blackjack Team Handbook.”
• Chapter 8 in Colin Jones’s book, The 21st Century Card Counter.
• Chapters 27‒33 in Rick Blaine’s book, Blackjack Blueprint.

Casino gambling is not some arcane system of knowledge reserved for understanding by only an elite few. If you are not Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, or Neil deGrass Tyson then you are out in the cold if that were so. 

The 7 smart gambling tips are:

1. Know How the Game is Played

2. Crowded Tables Are Best

3. Know the System You Are Playing

4. What the Size of Your Bets Should Be

5. Know When to Leave a Game

6. Recommended Money Management System

7. Don’t Sweat the Comps

No, indeed, every casino gambler probably has the intellectual skills to understand how the games are played, what the probabilities are, how the casino makes its money from the games and which systems cost the players the least amount in losses over time at their favorite games.

What else do they have to know? The speed of the games is important information. A two percent edge at a game that comes in with about 40 decisions per hour is far better than a one percent game that comes in with 150 decisions based on the same dollar amounts of bets. The house edge is not the only criteria by which to judge a game’s ability to grind away at your money.

How about how crowded your preferred game’s table might be? Crowded tables make the casino more money but cost an individual player less money if such a player wagers wisely. That is certainly a consideration.

My findings in a personal non-scientific observation over three decades of playing casino games is short and not sweet; players by and large do not understand the games they are playing. Many do, but many more do not. This is particularly true of slot players. In addition, many players believe in superstitious that are obviously nonsense.

So, what should we do? The following seven gambling tips are certainly a starting point for casino players. They will set you on the right track.

[Please note: All references to roulette are based on the American double-zero wheel (0, 00). References to blackjack are based on an average six-deck game unless otherwise indicated.]

I see it all the time.

How many roulette players don’t realize (and maybe never realize) how the dealer takes the losing bets; how the dealer pays the winning bets; and when a new round of betting occurs and when no more bets can be made? Plenty. Just listen to a roulette dealer scolding players who have no idea of how the game is played. That will answer the above questions.

Ask roulette players what “even-money” bets mean. Many don’t know why they are called “even-money.” They think the payout reflects a bet with no house edge!

I have been at craps tables where “veteran” craps players argue that their winning bets haven’t been paid. Some will argue vociferously about this state of affairs and then the dealer will say (usually annoyed), “I haven’t gotten to you yet.” Such players have been playing for decades but still have no idea of the order of payouts.

Some craps players have no idea what the actual payouts of their bets are. They just throw such bets out and I guess they wish and hope they win whatever they are supposed to win when they do win. Some players consistently don’t even know what bets they have on the board!

Blackjack players do not know that the game generally breaks down to approximately 48 wins for the casino, 44 wins for the players and eight ties. Trend betting on live blackjack is not a good idea (actually it is never a “good” idea.) because the trend is always against the player except in exceptional hands such as blackjacks, double-downs, splits and double-downs on splits. 

The lack of knowledge can’t make a game more fun – or can it? I have no idea.

“I prefer to play alone at the table,” says Joe. Nope! Joe is committing a cardinal sin of table-game play.

Slow is the way to go at all casino games. This holds true for every game and every player’s desire to play. Except for advantage players who usually want more and more decisions, the regular player wants fewer and fewer decisions. By the way, almost all casino players are regular players and they are putting themselves in jeopardy.

Why is that? Because the more money a player bets at a game, the more money the casino’s edge has to grind away at it.

Yet, the average table-game player often wants to play alone or with only a few other players at his or her table. That’s a big mistake. Why position yourself to lose more money? That makes no sense to me. Lose less and enjoy your play more would be a good motto for casino players.

This advice holds true for slot machine players as well. Play one machine, slowly. Make that machine one that is a stand-alone machine. Do not play two machines as you basically double your chances to lose.

A good system will lose you less money over time; a bad system will lose you more money over time.

Is there a handy rule of thumb to distinguish the good systems over the bad systems? 

Bad systems usually call for an increase in the size of one’s bet as losses have occurred. Or they call for such increases as winning has occurred.

Players like the idea of raising their bets when they are winning because they think such winning must continue. Not so. A winning streak only happens in the past. It has nothing to do with the now or when. The future is unknown; the past is not. But the past has no influence on the future. Too many casino players don’t realize this.

Raising one’s bet is a bad idea. It just gives the casino more of your money to have its edge attack.

If I were to bet a couple of pennies on a bet in the casino, a win or loss would be meaningless as a penny or two is not a heart-thumping wager. If, however, I were to sell my house, sell my car, empty my bank account and any other investments I had and wagered all of that on one bet in the casino I would probably…die. I don’t think my heart could take this.

Our bets, according to my mentor the late Captain of craps, should be enough to cause the blood to flow, the excitement to increase though not so much that the dread of a loss causes us to become somewhat faint, no wager should be enough to endanger our bankroll or our physical health.

Waking up in the morning asking ourselves the question, “I bet how much yesterday?” is not a good situation.

[Please note: I’ve written about the Captain in my books. He was indeed my mentor.]

Casino gambling is meant to be a fun activity which it can’t be if there is any desperation during it. Betting too much is not good. Likewise betting too little does not give us the thrill we look for in the casinos. 

I guess the Greek philosopher Hesiod had it right when he wrote (I paraphrase.), “Moderation in all things.”

That saying holds particularly true for casino players and their betting choices.

The worst and most depressing way to start a casino session/trip is to get hammered so hard so fast that you find yourself at the bottom of a deep hole and your concept of the next day or two is to dig your way out. You aren’t even worried so much about winning as you are about not being buried.

Obviously, you feel that you must play some more to dig away and fill in that hole. Of course, the casino will not lose its house-edge over you so you might continue a precipitous slide into oblivion and crawl your way home. In a sense you could be clawing your way to the bottom. 

Can you do anything about that? Yes, you can slow down the pace of your play. Figure you are going to take a loss and tell yourself sternly, “Self, don’t do anything stupid.” Don’t bet more than you normally bet; don’t go for the gusto with really high house-edge bets that have big payouts.

Play safe. Play sane. Be wise. Stay contained. There are plenty of casino playing days ahead.

Now, let us say that you are holding your own, maybe down a little, maybe up a little, when to depart is the question.  

Here are the possible answers:

• Your mind says to the rest of you, “It’s time to quit now and do something else.” Then quit right there and then. Your session is over.
   
• I’m tired. Time to hop, skip and jump out of this game.
   
• I think I’ll savor this win until my next session. Bingo! Out of the game you go.
   
• I’m only losing a little. I’ll take a break and come back later.
   
• Goodness, am I tired. It’s time for a nap. Get comfy in bed for a while.
   
• Goodness, am I tired. Time for a good night’s sleep. Get comfy in bed for a while.

Money management can’t give a player an edge over casino games. That is a solid fact that casino players must understand. They are in a negative situation and that situation will inevitably reveal itself, either now or over time. Often now and over time. I sometimes wonder how many casino players were ever ahead of the games they love to play at any time in their playing careers – be short-term or long-term?

But good money management is a solid tool for keeping one’s losses contained. That is a fundamental idea that must settle into a casino player’s brain. Money management is a way to protect one’s gambling bankroll.

So here are my recommendations for a good money management system:

• Set up a bank/checking account called a 401G for your gambling funds. Regularly deposit money into this account. By the way, the “G” stands for gambling.
   
• Only use money from that account to play in the casino.
   
• Any casino wins you have, then the money from those wins will go into the account.
   
• Make sure you have enough money to play at least four hours per day in the casino. It can be less but more could be a mistake.
   
• Divide your money up based on how many sessions you are going to play. Do not play against your entire bankroll.
   
• Never allow yourself to lose more than one-third of your total bankroll in one trip to the casino. Consider a trip to be two days of play.
   
• Do not lend any money to anyone in order for them to gamble. That is a bad investment. Remember Polonius’s advice to Laertes in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be, for loan both loses both itself and friend and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”

Too many players worry about what level of comps they get from the casinos. Some casino patrons actually think of comps are freebees given by the casino because these players are liked – for some reason or other. They are of the mind that their host (if they merit a host) picked them for some ineffable reason.

Comps are based on one simple factor: How much money the casino expects you to lose over a period of time. They will return a percentage of that in terms of rooms and board and other “favors.”

Here is the simplest, smartest advice when it comes to comps: Take what they give you because you have earned that by potential losses but never play to get a comp. They will come or they won’t come. 

All the best in and out of the casinos!

 

*Credits for main photo in this article belongs to Eran Alergant

The most legendary team of blackjack players, which beat the casinos for millions of dollars, was the MIT team. Several books (Bringing Down the House, Busting Las Vegas, The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big in Business), movies (21 and The Last Casino), and numerous magazine stories and television shows have been written about their accomplishments. What follows is a summary of how the MIT team originated, and who were some of the more famous members of this team.

It all started in 1979 when a group of poker-playing MIT students decided to attend the short-term course, “How to Gamble if You Must,” to learn about blackjack. They learned card counting and started playing blackjack in Atlantic City; however, they didn’t do very well so they disbanded. Later, one of the team members (J. P. Massar) met up with another blackjack player, and they decided to form a team to take advantage of the Atlantic City regulation that forbade casinos from barring card counters. They recruited an investor, who bankrolled them with an alleged $5,000, and the two made a nice profit card counting. That’s when they decided to recruit more players to expand the team.

This new team decided to play in Atlantic City (mostly on weekends), and even though they were generating a profit, some members decided to leave because it was hard for them to handle (emotionally) the pressure of large losing sessions that can, and did, occur, and the inconsistent earnings.

All this changed when Massar met Harvard graduate Bill Kaplan, who had moved to Las Vegas and was running his own blackjack team for a profit using his statistical analysis of the game. The two formed a new blackjack team, consisting mostly of Massar’s team players, with this proviso: Kaplan would run it as a business with strict management procedures, and a new playing system that required player training that included “check-out procedures.”

This new MIT Team (circa 1980), armed with highly skilled players and an alleged $89,000 bankroll, played in Las Vegas and doubled their initial team bankroll in ten weeks. (Undergraduate students, who were members of this team, were earning an average of about $80 per hour.) This team continued to recruit new players (about 30), and continued playing and beating the casinos throughout the 1980s.

The next big event that occurred in the history of the MIT team was when Bill Kaplan, J. P. Massar, and John Chang formed Strategic Investments (a Massachusetts limited partnership) to capitalize on the opening of the new Foxwoods Casino in nearby Connecticut. The limited partnership raised a million dollars from investors who bankrolled this new MIT team.  They used the following playing strategy.

A “spotter” sat at a table and card counted. When the count became positive, he or she would signal a “controller,” who entered the game betting small while confirming the spotter’s count.  When the confirmation was made, the controller would signal a big player (BP), who entered the game making very large bets when the count was favorable.  Sarah McCoran, an MIT student, joined the team around1983 as a partner who was responsible for training and recruiting players on the West Coast. (At this point, the team had grown to over 80 players.)

As profits were rolling in, heat from the casinos escalated to the point where many team members were barred from playing. Casino managers finally made the connection of this team of players to MIT, and with many of the team leaders barred, Strategic Investments dissolved the partnership (on December 31, 1993), and paid out profits to its investors. (According to Mike Aponte, Strategic Investments disbanded because they “didn’t do very well.”)

In 1994, some of the players split off into independent teams. Semyon Dukach (the Big Player) led one team (known as the Amphibians Team) along with Kaite Lilienkamp (Controller), and Andy Bloch (Spotter). Mike Aponte led another team (known as the Reptiles Team).  These teams had million-dollar bankrolls, with a combined total of over 50 players, and were quite successful extracting money from casinos.

In 1984, Kaplan became so recognizable that it was difficult for him to play anymore so he left the team.  Finally, around 2000, the MIT teams ceased playing and players went on to other careers.

MOST FAMOUS MIT MEMBERS (ALPHABETICAL)

Mike Aponte

Aponte joined the Strategic Investments team and he eventually formed the The Reptiles Team with Manilo Lopez and Mes Atamian. He won millions of dollars playing with the latter team, and in 2004, he won the World Series of Blackjack. He created the mikeaponte.com site, which includes information on his live virtual coaching, private blackjack training, and hands-on blackjack card counting classes.

Andy Bloch

Bloch holds two electrical engineering degrees from MIT, and a Juris Doctorate in Law from Harvard Law School. He is most famous as a successful professional poker player, who has won many poker tournaments. However, while at MIT, he joined the MIT Blackjack Team. Bloch was featured in the book Bringing Down Las Vegas (in one session he won $100,000 playing blackjack). Additionally, he was mentioned in the book Busting Vegas, as one of the MIT Team members who played in Monte Carlo. Bloch was also featured in the blackjack documentary “The Hot Shoe, “and in the blackjack card-counting training DVD, “Beating Vegas.”

John Chang

Chang took over for Kaplan as manager of the MIT Team. He was also one of the partners that launched Strategic Investments. Chang is one of the most prolific professional players ever. In 2007, he was elected by his peers at the Blackjack Ball to become a member of the prestigious Blackjack Hall of Fame. Chang frequently attends the annual Blackjack Ball.

Lori Chang (Tsao)

Wife of John Chang (also known as Lori Tsao), she was a long-time member and manager of the MIT Team.

Semyon Dukach

Dukach was born in Russia and studied at Columbia University and later MIT. He was part of the Strategic Investments Team (1992), and later became leader of the team. He was the main character in the book Busting Vegas, which chronicled the MIT team’s experiences.  Once Strategic Investments ended, he formed his own team (known as Amphibians Investments), which used not only card counting but also other advanced blackjack playing techniques like card sequencing. He stopped playing professionally in the late 1990s but continues to speak at events, coaching players in blackjack techniques, and formed the Blackjack Science website.

Bill Kaplan

Kaplan was an MBA graduate from Harvard. After reading the classic book Beat the Dealer, by Ed Thorp, Kaplan started card counting in Las Vegas and eventually ran a successful blackjack team there (1977). He later met with Massar and together they formed the original MIT Team. Kaplan was the catalyst that introduced new scientific-based playing strategies and management techniques that raised the level of success for the team. After he left the team, he launched several businesses that became very successful, which made him much more money than he probably would have made by continuing to play/manage blackjack teams.

J. P. Massar (aka Jeff Ma)

Massar was one of a handful of MIT students in 1979 who attended the MIT short-course “How to Gamble if You Must.” He formed, what most claim, the first MIT blackjack team composed of MIT students. He took a one-year break from school, moved to Las Vegas to begin playing there as a card counter.  He eventually met with Kaplan and together they formed a new MIT Team that was very successful. For a period of ten years, he was with this team. It was Massar’s story about the MIT Team in the novel Bringing Down the House that formed the basis of the movie 21. After his stint with the MIT Team, Massar became an incredibly successful entrepreneur, and also a Predictive Analytics Expert for ESPN (2014). He also wrote the book The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big in Business.

Jane Willis

Willis is a math genius, a 1991 graduate of Harvard University, and one of the most successful spotters on the MIT Team. She was quoted as saying that her presence on the team is what probably allowed them to go undetected for so long, mainly because “casinos don’t necessary think that women are good at math.” After her stint with the MIT Team, she went to law school and works for a law firm on Litigation and Enforcement. In 2018, Best Lawyers named her as “Lawyer of the Year”.

There have been other MIT Team members who have achieved some fame. In 1999, one team member, “MIT Ted,” won the third annual Blackjack Ball competition.  (He also earned the title of “Most Feared Man in the Casino Business.”)  Additionally, Nathaniel Tilton, a student of former team leaders Mike Aponte and Semyon Dukach, wrote the book The Blackjack Life, which contained details of his playing and training experience with the MIT Team.

Note: As a long-time invitee to the Blackjack Ball, I had the privilege of meeting several members of the MIT Team. They are a great group of men and women, who legally beat the casinos at their own game. To learn more about card counting, and some of the techniques used by professional players, read Chapter 10 in my Ultimate Blackjack Strategy Guide.

Larry Flynt was hilarious. The recently deceased publisher of Hustler magazine was an avid gambler, who, despite being paralyzed as the result of an assassination attempt in 1978, retained a perfectly dry sense of humor. The first time I interviewed Flynt, back in the late 1990s, I asked him why he had such an affinity for poker and blackjack. In his froggy voice, speaking to me from a perch on his motorized gold-plated wheelchair, he replied, “Well, I’m not going to take up water skiing, am I?”

That is no doubt a true statement, but Flynt, who had a disarmingly boyish way about him, did not wait until being wheelchair bound to get into gambling. He told me that he first played poker in the military. As his financial resources increased so did the stakes at which he chose to gamble. By the time casino host Steve Cyr encountered him in the high-limit room of Las Vegas’s Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Flynt was a bonafide whale. He played blackjack for $25,000 per hand (a sum that would increase over the years) and maintained a credit line of $1 million.

Cyr spent months trying to woo Flynt away from the Rio and to the Las Vegas Hilton where Cyr worked as a host.

Flynt was comfortable at the Rio and not really interested in playing elsewhere until Cyr made the publisher an offer he could not refuse. “I told him that I have 100,000 reasons for him to come over the Hilton,” Cyr, the subject of a book called “Whale Hunt in the Desert”, told 888. “I gave him $100,000 in promotional chips [used for play at the table and paid off with cashable chips on winning hands]. Larry is such a great guy that he said, ‘If you’re giving me 100,000, I’ll bring a million-dollars of my own.’ He gave us a shot at winning some of his money, which most players would not necessarily do.”

It proved to be a profitable decision. “Larry went through the 100K,” recalls Cyr. “Then he dipped into his own money and wound up winning a million dollars from us.”

That outcome set a precedent. “He won on his next seven trips,” says Cyr. “Baron Hilton [who owned the hotel chain] made Larry a trophy that said World’s Greatest Blackjack Player. He was up millions of dollars that year and we could not beat him. He gave us plenty of time, but, unlike a lot of gamblers, Larry was disciplined. I think he came to the casino with a number in his head, played until he won that number or else lost a certain amount, and then he left. He flew to Las Vegas on his own jet” – a sinister looking aircraft, painted black with the word Hustler in electric pink – “and took off when he wanted to. He would not necessarily stay the weekend.”

Cyr describes him as “shrewd … Larry’s strength was bankroll. He could ride out the losses and he was disciplined.” He avoided playing after a few glasses of wine and drank ultra-hot coffee at the table (a butler would man a Bunson burner that kept Flynt’s brew at the properly scorching temperature). Cyr respected Flynt’s financial resiliency but the Vegas gambling dens did not necessarily love it. “Casinos were not sure whether to keep him playing or to stop him from playing,”Justin Smith, a friend of Flynt’s and a former high-stakes poker pro turned movie producer (his latest project, “Flinch” [flinchthemovie.com], was recently released), tells 888. “He put them into tricky positions.”

A natural negotiator, Flynt wheedled concessions from the casino before sitting down to play. “There would be 30 deal points,” says Cyr. “As soon as he landed, he got a $10,000 reimbursement for airfare. If he lost a million dollars, we gave him a 20-percent discount. So it cost him only $800,000. Then he got $25,000 in promo chips for every three hours he played. Larry negotiated to split aces four times, switch dealers any time he wanted and to surrender with any two cards.”

That last condition was critical for Flynt. He was not just any blackjack player. Years ago, while I was attending a major baccarat tournament in Monte Carlo, one of the sharpest players on the circuit told me about working with a poker pro to create a blackjack strategy for Flynt. It optimized comps, took discounts into consideration and minimized losses. Flynt confirmed this for me, identifying Jason Lester as the poker pro in question and accurately describing my source as “a guy from out of San Francisco.”

Flynt added, “The big thing they helped me on is whether you are supposed to surrender six against a face card. He and the San Francisco guy ran several million hands through a computer and concluded that you are 30-percent better off to just surrender.” And while Flynt may have ranked among the few high-rollers to use a basic strategy card at the table – these things tend to be employed by old ladies and nervous pensioners – he told me that his card was far from ordinary. It contained the strategy cooked up by Lester and his San Francisco collaborator. “The ones soldin casinos are bullshit. They’re conservative, they’re weak, they’re non-aggressive. I had a lot of these special cards made up and I used them. I used it last year [2007, one year before this particular interview] in Vegas and came out winning $2.5 million.”

Two other requests would have been less costly for the casino – putting Hustler in the sundries shop and allowing his 1998 bachelor party to be thrown at the Beverly Hills Hilton – but were both shot down by Baron himself. The ever resourceful Cyr, however, found workarounds. “Whenever Larry came to the casino, I bought a half-dozen Hustlers and put them on the gift shop’s magazine shelf,” he says. “And I arranged to have the bachelor party held in a Beverly Hills mansion owned by a player of mine. Larry’s logic about us carrying his magazine was, ‘You have Playboy in there and I don’t see Hugh Hefner gambling at the Hilton.’”

As to whether or not Flynt – who opened his own Gardena, California, gambling spot, the Hustler Casino, in 2000 – was a winning player at blackjack depends on who you ask. Flynt himself told me he was ahead and Cyr counters that he lost overall. Smith, who was one of the world’s top poker players before shifting to movie production, expresses some insight: “Larry knew what he was doing. I’ll put it that way. One would be foolish to expect that a guy whose company name is Hustler would not be a hustler in his own right. I would be careful about letting him gamble in a casino. I would think he was a winning player, based on what he told me.” 

Pressed for further details, Smith clams up. “I’ve got to honor the code,” he cryptically explains.

As Smith knows, from participating in many iterations of the famous Larry Game, Flynt’ sultra-high-stakes poker blowout where you could win or lose $500,000 in a single night, Flynt loved to play 7 card stud. For years the game was held in his home – kept at temperatures so low that frequent participant Barry Greenstein wore layers of thermal underwear below his clothing – and it later moved to the Hustler Casino. But prior to that, Flynt was a fixture on the Vegas circuit where he matched wits with greats like Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese and Stu Ungar. Asked to recall a good story about the drug-loving Ungar, Flynt answered without hesitation: “I got shot a couple years before I started playing in Vegas and I was taking a lot of pain killers. I used to drink a Brompton cocktail: 60-percent morphine, 20-percent alcohol, and 10-percent cocaine. This concoction was perfectly legal. It was made up for cancer patients in their final few weeks of life. I gave Stuey a cup of that. He went to the restroom and drank it. He didn’t come out for a while. So a couple people went in looking for him, and he was sprawled on the floor, unconscious. When he came to, he accused me of trying to kill him.”

Flynt hesitated for a beat, allowing the tale to resonate, and then kicked in another one about the great but tragic poker star. “This sums up Stuey’s whole personality. He and I are playing poker, heads up, at the Horseshoe in Vegas. I took off a card and had a gut-shot straight-draw. I caught a 7 for a 9 high straight. He made trips or something, bet out, I raised and he called me. I turned over my cards, and he said, ‘God damn.’ We were playing on a blackjack table and he picked up the table and just threw it on the floor. Stuey had a temper. As long as things were going Stuey’s way and he was winning, he was fine. But if he started losing and you started making bad beats on him, well, he started to steam pretty bad.”

Then Flynt’s boyishness rose to the surface as he smiled tightly and added, “I was always able to get him irritated pretty easily.”

Whether playing blackjack or poker, Larry Flynt will be remembered as a gambler who savored competition and handled beats a lot better than Ungar did. “He was a gentleman all the time,” says Cyr. “He took losing the same way he took winning. You had to love a guy who had a big bankroll, had balls and loved the action. That was Larry.”

Casino gambling is more than just math and methods of play. So much of what players do in a casino is based on their personalities and emotions at any given time. There are some players who are disciplined and astute about the house edges and how the house secures those edges. You might even call such players intellectual scholars of the games. 

But how do they actually play the games they enjoy? Does knowledge always translate into good play? If you know something does that mean you can actually do that something properly? Are players who are intellectually disciplined actually emotionally disciplined when they challenge chance?

If those players can stick to disciplined methods of play, never losing their inner selves to emotional play or chasing the money they’ve lost, then the are truly not only scholars of the game but outstanding players of the game as well.

TIME FLIES

There is a great moment in the movie Casino where “Lefty” Rosenthal explains that the longer a player plays in the casino, the better off the casino will be. Indeed, time is on the side of the casino because with much playing time the house edge will grind away at just about every casino player.

Knowing this truth, the casinos base their comping policies not only on how much the player bets on each decision but on how long the player actually plays the game. Most readers of casino policies know that the casino wants players to play about four hours or more. 

[Please note: If a player is a true high roller, the casino can be flexible in the time-played category. A thousand-dollar player is more desired playing just an hour than a ten-dollar player logging in four hours. However, the swings of chance for that high roller will be much wider than for the ten-dollar player.]

THE ACTION PLAYER

You might hear some players brag that they love the action of the games, the excitement of wagering their money, the thrill of it all. Their definition of action has a lot to do with emotions, less to do with math and statistics.

The casino has a definition of the action player too. It is however somewhat different than the definition the players tend to express. The casino wants the worst possible bets over the longest period of time.

If a roulette player enjoys making the five-number bet of 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 at the American game over and over, he or she is beloved by the casino raters. If that same player spreads out directly on more numbers “beloved” isn’t a strong enough word to describe what that player means to the bottom line of the casino.

The casino bases everything on statistics. Even though I jokingly use the word “beloved” the casino-manager mathletes do view such a player as an earner for them. Such a player is the casino’s ATM machine from start to finish. They will lionize such a player.

The better the player is, the less money that player makes the casino – unless such a player plays an unusually long period of time. 

A roulette player who bets the table minimum on an outside even-money bet, while taking plenty of pauses, isn’t a delight for the arithmetic scribes in the casinos’ underground vaults. Such a player is not an action player. The casino wants such a player to play, (of course it wants everyone to play) but it doesn’t hunger for the small, skilled player over the action player.

Bad bets, experiencing long periods of playing time, represent great players in the casino bosses’ minds.

THE ACTION PLAYERS’ VALUE CAN BE SKY HIGH

The formula for determining the action players’ worth (or any player’s worth) is rather simple. 

• Game played
• Decisions per hour
• Percent of house edge
• Amount wagered
• How long the player engages in game

Let us take the roulette wheel as our example: 

A player makes an inside bet directly on a single number for $10. The house edge on the American game is 5.26 percent. Such a player plays for an hour – about 50 decisions. He or she places $500 in action. With a house edge of 5.26 percent, the player is expected to lose $26.30. 

Over a four-hour period that player is expected to lose $105.20. 

Now let’s take a high roller doing the same exact thing but betting $100 per spin on an inside number. In an hour such a player is expected to lose $263.  In four hours, our player is expected to lose $1052.

Many, if not most, roulette players do not just bet one inside number. They bet several or many numbers. That $10 player may be placing $10 on six or seven numbers. Some players build small smoke-stakes of chips on some numbers that have hit for them in the past. 

The casino raters just look at how much money is wagered and use the above formula to calculate the worth of that player.If the player tends to bet many numbers the sum of all that money is put through the formula to come up with what that player is worth to the casino.

A $10 player betting many bets is the equivalent at times to a small high roller. The $100 player on a single number is not worth as much as a $10 player on a dozen numbers. 

[Please note: Rating players’ value is not as clear cut as I am making it out to be. I am using rating theory as opposed to concrete rating reality. It is hard to constantly add up many players making many bets during each decision. Much of the time the casino rater takes an educated guess as to how much a player is actually wagering. Also, they might write their guesstimates down on this decision and that decision but it is not on every decision. A full live roulette table has so many bets that it is a crazy-looking layout. Today the casino rater might even put the numbers immediately into the computer saving time by not hand-writing everything down. The computer would then figure out the values.]

MATH VERSUS EMOTIONS

Emotions play a large part in casino gambling. While players can’t duck the house edges of the games they love to play, they are in deep waters if they let their emotions take them over.

The house edge is going to work against you whether you are in a calm frame of mind or whether you are getting rattled. But getting rattled is the quickest way to bet more money than you can afford or playing longer than you should on a quickly diminishing bankroll. 

Yelling, screaming, whining, complaining, slamming your chips down when you bet; harassing the dealer, telling the floor person and the pit boss what you really think about them and their crummy casino doesn’t change the house edge. At best, they’ll throw you out of the casino (which might actually be a good thing) but at worst your luck will continue to be of the negative variety. 

If you have had a bad run, and you doggedly continue to play, won’t change the odds of roulette or the house edge. You would still have a better chance to continue losing than you would to make an heroic comeback. Your emotions do not affect the fact that the casino has it over you. The more bets you make will not change the edge either.  When you are going on tilt, it can be a fast way down the mountain to the crowded bone-strewn valley named disaster.

[Please note: The phrase “going on tilt” or “I am on tilt” or “I’m tilting” is often thought of as a poker term that describes a person who has lost his emotional self. Such a person will play recklessly, betting poorly, thereby losing all sense of the game. Some theorists think the term originated with players tilting the pinball machines in order to score points. Actually, it could have come from slot players in the late 1800s who would tilt the slot machine to get coins or presents to flow out. These players might have been on tilt themselves.]

PLAYERS’ TEMPERAMENTS

Obviously, each player has his or her own temperament. Some players are cool and laid back; others are demonstrative and aggressive. Some players are whiners and complainers; while some players think the casino is cheating because these players are losing. Just as people are in their normal lives, so they can be in their casino lives. You shouldn’t expect anything different.

However, the casinos have more emotional pressure on individuals who are attempting to beat Lady Luck. That emotion is sifted down to the upcoming decisions and the decisions that have happened in the recent past. If good things have happened, the player is probably in a very good mood. If bad things have happened, the player can be miserable. How a player handles such emotions tells you much about that player’s character.

In a land-based casino, or on riverboats, or at home on the Internet, casino play brings in all types of people. I personally prefer cool and laid-back players who know proper strategies, understand the house edges and how the casino creates those house edges. Knowing the advantage the casino has does not distort this player’s laid-back attitude.

I don’t mind some cheering when things are going well but going emotionally ga-ga is not something I enjoy watching.

Complainers and whiners are anathema to me. Aggressive players can be a nuisance. I do not enjoy drunks trying to be funny (they never are).  Or those who think of themselves as experts who are ready, willing and anxious to tell everyone how to play roulette. Many are not capable of giving proper advice since they don’t really understand the game they are playing. You see such behavior at blackjack and sometimes even at roulette.

“Numbers repeat,” some will loudly tell other roulette players. “Numbers don’t repeat,” some will loudly tell other roulette players. The truth is simple: Some numbers repeat at times and some number don’t repeat for a long, long time. If the game is random then how the numbers fall is random too. There is no betting system that can beat that fact.

I do not enjoy other players interfering with how I play my favorite games.  Come on, real life is tough enough and so is casino play for that matter. Don’t get too caught up in your emotional investments in casino games. Just be aware of your money!

Adding to these facts a person lambasting everyone and everything just makes the game something of a horror show. If I want to be annoyed, I can find plenty of other activities that annoy me. I don’t want to be annoyed as the roulette ball makes its journey from the dealer’s hand to its final resting place by someone moaning about his or her bad luck. I agree, losing is not fun.

THE PRESSURE OF LOSING

Losing can tease some players into making wagering mistakes. I think most casino players have been there. Nothing is going right. You just keep falling deeper and deeper into the losing pit. So, what do you do?

Many players will make the big no-no! They will increase the size of their bets in an attempt to get all their losses back in a short period of time. Sometimes this might work; most times it doesn’t work because the more money you invest in a game the greater the chance the casino edge grinds that money away.

[Please note: Losing can bring out the worst in a player’s temperament. The system called the Martingale is the perfect system for players who can’t abide any losses. They just double up their bets until they win a decision and get all their losses back with an original win. That system works, until it doesn’t and loads of money can be lost. Avoid the Martingale!]

All the best in and out of the casinos!

• Spanish 21 is a variant of blackjack in which all the ten-spot cards have been removed, resulting in a 48-card deck.
• The game is offered in land-based and online casinos.
• To compensate for the removal of the tens, and resulting higher house edge, the game has some very liberal playing rules and bonus hands.
• The basic playing strategy is different from a traditional game. 
• Depending on the mix of playing rules and number of decks of cards, the house edge can be as low as 0.37% using the Spanish 21 basic playing strategy.
• There is a published card counting system for this game.

Spanish 21 was invented in 1995 and the game has proliferated in land-based and online casinos. The game is played like the traditional game of blackjack with one major distinction: all four 10-spot cards are removed so a deck of cards in Spanish 21 contains only 48 cards. The objective is the same as it is in a traditional blackjack game, namely, having your hand total higher than the dealer’s hand without busting.  

Playing live blackjack with a deck of cards that does not contain any ten-spots has a profound effect on the player’s odds because a player will be getting fewer blackjack hands (and the 3 to 2 payoff), and the dealer will not bust as often. In fact, the casino’s edge over a basic strategy player increases about 2% due to the removal of the four tens.

Playing a game with a house edge of 2% is suicidal; however, to compensate for this large disadvantage, there are several very liberal playing rules and interesting and unique bonus hands offered in Spanish 21 that significantly reduce the house edge. 

To make it easier for you to understand the playing rules for Spanish 21(S21), I’ve summarized them below and compared them to a traditional game of blackjack (TR21)

TR21: Played with one, two, four, six, or eight decks of cards
S21:  Six or eight decks of cards

TR21: Cards can be dealt by hand, from a dealing shoe, or with a Continuous Shuffling Machine (CSM)
S21: Dealt either from a dealing shoe or from CSM.

TR21 and S21: Dealer receives a hole card

TR21 and S21: Dealer must hit on 16 or less and stand on 17‒21. With soft 17, can either hit or stand depending on casino rules.

TR21: A player’s 21 pushes a dealer’s 21 but loses to a dealer’s blackjack.
SP21: Any player’s 21 beats any dealer’s 21. However, it losses if the player has 21 in more than two cards and the dealer has a blackjack.

TR21: A blackjack hand occurs when the initially dealt two cards total 21, and it always pushes if the dealer has a blackjack in the same round.
S21: A player blackjack always wins regardless of what the dealer has. (Even if the dealer has a blackjack or 21.)

TR21 and S21: The rules for hitting and standing are the same.

TR21: You can double down after you receive your initial two-card hand. Once you draw a third card, the double down option is no longer available.
S21: You can double down on any number of cards.

TR21: Doubling down after pair splitting is usually, but not always, allowed.
S21: Always allowed.

TR21: You can usually resplit pairs up to three or four hands but not with a pair of aces, which you can split only once.
S21: You can resplit up to a maximum of four hands, including aces.

TR21: Late surrender is sometimes allowed.  You can only surrender the initial two-card hand. Once you draw a third card, the surrender option is no longer available.
S21: Surrender is always allowed even after hitting, pair splitting, or doubling down. In case of the latter, it is known as “double down rescue.”

TR21: Insurance pays 2‒1.
S21: Same 2‒1 payoff but because there are fewer tens in Spanish 21, the house edge skyrockets to 24.7%, making it one of the worst bets in a casino.

TR21: Bonus hands rarely offered.
S21: There are many bonus hands in Spanish 21. Below is a list of them.

Note: The above bonus payouts apply even if the hand resulted from a split; however, doubling down negates the bonus payout.

In some casinos, a player may double down and then double down once more up to two times (known as redoubling).  For example, assume a player bets $5 and is dealt a 3-2, which totals 5, and the dealer has a 6 upcard.  He doubles down for an additional $5 and draws a 3 for a total of 8 (total bet =$10). He now has the option to double a second time for another $10 wager. Let’s assume the draw card was a 3 giving him a total of 11 (total wagered is $20). The player is also allowed to redouble again for $20 (the total amount wagered would be $40). This playing option to double and redouble is a very favorable player rule when optimally implemented.

If you peruse the above rules for Spanish 21, you can see how extreme they are. For example, you can double down after drawing any number of cards to your hand not just after receiving the initial two cards. For example, suppose you have 3-4-2-2 for a four-card 11. You have the option of doubling down even though you have four cards in your hand.  Suppose the card drawn on the double down is not helpful for our hand. You could exercise the “double down rescue” option, which means you would forfeit your original bet but keep the secondary bet made in doubling. 

If you are getting excited about playing Spanish 21, then pay attention to this. If you play the game as you would a traditional game of blackjack, you will be hammered. That’s because with all the ten-spot cards removed, the ratio of low cards to high cards in Spanish 21 is much different from a traditional blackjack game. Normally, four out of 13 cards in blackjack are ten-value cards (30.8%), but with Spanish 21, this ratio is reduced to three out of 12 (only 25%). In addition, if you get a 21 in blackjack, you don’t have a guaranteed win, whereas, in Spanish 21, you do (except you lose in one instance … if you have a multi-card 21 and the dealer has a blackjack).  The bottom line is this: these differences in rules have a great effect on the basic playing strategy.

Here’s an example of how the basic strategy differs. If you have a stiff 12 through 16 in a  traditional blackjack game, and the dealer shows a 2 through 6 upcard, you should stand (except hit 12 against dealer’s 2 and 3). With Spanish 21, hitting becomes more attractive because you have less chance of busting (because there are fewer tens per deck), and if you draw to 21, you automatically win.  Therefore, the traditional “stand on stiffs” rule becomes “hit” in Spanish 21 when your hand contains four, five, or six cards. The traditional basic strategy advises you to stand with some hands regardless of the number of cards in your hand; however, with Spanish 21, the number of cards in your hand can influence whether you play a hand one or way or another.

Here’s another example. Suppose you are dealt a 10-4 against a dealer’s four upcard. In a traditional game, basic strategy states to stand. With Spanish 21 you would also stand, except if your 14 consists of four or more cards, in which case you should hit.

The potential bonus payout for five- and six-card 21 also affects the playing strategy.  In fact, you’ll risk busting some hard totals containing four, five, or six cards by taking another hit for a chance at a bonus 21 payout.

The bottom line is that the basic blackjack strategy for Spanish 21 is different, and slightly more complicated, than the traditional basic playing strategy. It’s not impossible to learn the basic strategy for this game, you just have to spend a little more time doing it. 

Note: You can find a basic playing strategy for Spanish 21 in the book The Pro’s Guide to Spanish 21 and Australian Pontoon by the late Katarina Walker, or on wizardofodds.com.

HOUSE EDGE

According to the detailed study on Spanish 21 done by Katarina Walker, the house edge can be as low as 0.37%, making it a very favorable game for basic strategy players. Note that the house edge changes depending upon the rules, and the number of decks of cards (see below).

Note: s17, means dealer stands on soft 17
          h17, means dealer hits soft 17

Your best game is when the dealer must stand on soft 17 and six-decks of cards are used.

Match the Dealer Side Bet

This side bet is offered on most Spanish 21 games. The player wins the side bet if the rank of either or both of his or her initial two cards matches the rank of the dealer's up card. The house edge can be as low as 3.1% depending on the payouts. A study was done on whether card counting could be used for this side bet. For details, click here.

Pontoon

In Australia and some Internet sites, Pontoon is offered, which is similar to Spanish 21, but with some slight differences in rules. I don’t have the space to list them; however, if you want to play Pontoon, I strongly encourage you to read Walker’s book on the game.

Spanish 21 on the Internet

Some gambling sites offer Spanish 21. Others offer a similar game under a different name (e.g., Pirate 21). In any event, I would recommend you check the playing rules to be sure that all the liberal rules mentioned above are offered.

Card Counting in Spanish 21

Can you count cards playing Spanish 21? The answer is yes, and you’ll find details in Walker’s book, which contains a detailed counting system for the game.
 

Even the oldest table games can have new wrinkles, and roulette, craps and blackjack are some of the longest-running player favorites.

Regardless of whether you're playing at an online casino or a live casino, you're playing games with a lot of history.

Modern roulette wheels, complete with 0 and 00, were used in Paris in the late 1700s. Craps has evolved over the centuries and is said to descend from a game called "hazard" that was played by British knights in the Crusades in the 1100s. Blackjack had a number of European precursors, but its direct lineage seems traceable to vingt-et-un, or 21, in France circa 1700.

The games are still evolving, with new bets and side bets introduced almost every year.

Let's look at three recent additions. You won't find them everywhere just yet.  It takes time for new wagers to build a following and convince more casinos to give then a try. They spread faster in online casinos than in live casinos, which have different space requirements and investments in equipment.

For each of these options, here's how they work and how they affect your chance of winning.

CRAPS

Muggsy's Corner is designed to replace the Big 6 and Big 8 bets on the corners of craps tables.

Those bets can do with some replacing. They work the same way as place bets on 6 and 8, but they pay less. If you bet on Big 6 or place 6, you win if the shooter rolls a 6 and lose if the shooter rolls a 7. Big 8 and place 8 work the same way with 8s instead of 6s. Problem: Big 6 and Big 8 pay even money, but place 6 and place 8 pay at 7-6 odds provided you bet in multiples of $6. House edges are 9.09 percent on the "Bigs," but only 1.52 percent on the place bets.

With those numbers, there is no reason to bet Big 6 or Big 8.

If you take those bad bets off the table, what do you do with the space?

One potential solution is Muggsy's Corner.

Muggsy's Corner is a one or two-roll bet with a 5.56-percent house edge. That's the same as the edge on the field when both 2 and 12 pay 2-1

On the comeout roll, Muggsy's Corner wins if the shooter rolls a 7 and loses if the roll is 2, 3, 11 or 12. That's six ways to win -- six of the 36 possible rolls of two dice total 7 - and six ways to lose with one way to make 2, two to make 3, two to make 11 and one to make 12.

Winners on the comeout are paid 2-1.

If the comeout roll is 4, 5. 6, 8, 9 or 10, the Muggsy's Corner bet stays in place. If the next roll is a 7, Muggsy's Corner bettors win and are paid at 3-1 odds. All other rolls lose, so on that second chance there are still six ways to win but 30 ways to lose.

You'll average a first-roll win once per six times you make the bet and a second-roll win once per nine times. Overall, you'll win 27.78 percent of your bets and the house will win 72.22 percent. The 2-1 payoff on a first-roll win and 3-1 on a second-roll win mean your average return is 94.44 percent of your wagers while the house keeps 5.56 percent.

ROULETTE

A new bet called 2G's gives you a chance at a 350-1 payoff in two spins of the wheel. You win if the winning number is either 0 or 00 on consecutive spins.

Designed for a double-zero wheel, 2G'$ has a 2.77 percent house edge. That's a lower edge than other bets at double-zero wheels, where the edge is 5.26 percent on all wagers except the 7.89 percent on the five-number basket of 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3.

Judging strictly by house edge, 2G'$ is a rarity in being more favorable for players than the main game. However, there's a lot of volatility built into results. While a single-number bet will win an average of once per 38 spins, and an 18-number bet such as red or black once per 2.1 spins, 2G'$ will win an average of only once per 361 spins.

Here's the way it works. There are 38 numbers including 0 and 00 on a double-zero roulette wheel. To calculate the number of possible two-spin outcomes, multiply 38 by itself, and you get 1,444.

Four possible outcomes are winners:  0 on the first spin and 0 on the second; 0 first and 00 second; 00 first and second; or 00 first and 0 second.

Divide the four winners and the 1,444 total possibilities each by four, and you have an 1 in 361 chance of winning.

If you bet $1 on each of 361 spins, you'd risk $361. On average, you'd win once to collect $350 in winnings and keep your $1 bet. That would give the house a $10 profit for the sequence.

Divide the $10 house profit by the $361 wagered, then multiply by 10 to convert to percent, and you get a 2.77 percent house edge.

BLACKJACK

Match the Dealer has been around a little longer than Muggsy's Corner or 2G's and it's a little easier to find, though it's not a casino staple just yet.

It's a side bet to designed for either blackjack or the blackjack variation Spanish 21. Payoffs and odds can vary between the two games because Spanish 21 is played with multiple 48-card decks instead of 52, with the 10-spots removed.

You win if either of your first two cards matches the dealer's face-up card in rank. There's a bigger payoff if you match the dealer in both rank and suit.

In standard blackjack, payoffs on an unsuited match are 4-1 if the game is using two, four or six decks. The payoff decreases to 3-1 if five or eight decks are in play.

There's a bigger return if you match the dealer in the same suit. Then payoffs are 19-1 with two decks, 14-1 with four, 15-1 with five, 11-1 with six and 14-1 with eight.

Four and five decks are mainly seen in live casinos that use automatic continuous shufflers. In online casinos, four- and five-deck games are very rare.

House edges are 3.3 percent with two decks, 4.8 with four or five, 4.1 with six and 3.7 with eight.

That's better than many side bets but not as favorable as the main game where basic strategy can cut the edge to less than 1 percent.

That makes Match the casino dealer a bet for players who like the thrill of chasing a bigger one-hand payoff than you can get on the main game.

The same goes for Spanish 21, where blackjack basic strategy players also can cut the edge to less than 1 percent on the main game.

Spanish 21 is dealt with six or eight 48-card decks. With six decks, payoffs are 4-1 on unsuited matches and 9-1 on suited matches. Eight-deck payoffs are 3-1 if the match unsuited and 12-1 if suited.

House edges are 3.1 percent with six decks and 3.0 with eight, making Match the Dealer a bit better in Spanish 21 than in standard blackjack.

Either way, Match the Dealer gives players new ways to chase bigger payoffs as centuries-old casino games continue to add new wrinkles.

The one aspect of the game of blackjack that has garnered the most publicity is card counting. Countless number of books have been written about it; a host of internet websites and “chat rooms” discuss it; and card counting has even been featured in several popular Hollywood movies (e.g., Rain Man and 21). Nevertheless, most casino players really don’t understand what card counting is all about, which is why I developed this short true/false quiz. Get a sheet a paper and a writing instrument, and as you read each question below, jot down whether the statement is True or False. Then grade your quiz by comparing your answers to the ones at the end of this article. (There you’ll also find the details as to why a statement was true or false.)

Ready? Let’s get started. (Note: Give yourself one point for each correct answer.)

QUESTIONS

1. Card counting is illegal.
2. You have to be a mathematical genius to learn card counting.
3. In the movie Rain Man, a casino employee in surveillance is trying to figure out how autistic (actor) Dustin Hoffman is winning all that money playing blackjack. The employee says the following:  “He is not catching a hole card, he isn’t past-posting, and I don’t see him using a computer. But something is not right – you know there is no one in the world that can count into a 6-deck shoe.” Is the latter comment True or False?
4. Card counters don’t win every time they play.
5. You must have a tremendous bankroll to be a card counter.
6. Nowadays, casinos will take you into a backroom and beat you up if they catch you card counting.
7. The most important factors that a card counter looks for in a game is the percentage of cards dealt prior to shuffling, and the mix of playing rules.
8. The odds in blackjack are not static from one round to the next.
9. Removal of small cards (2 through 6) has a positive effect on a player’s expectation.
10. When the deck becomes richer in large cards, the card counter has the edge,  and he bets more.
11. Card counters lose more hands than they win.
12. There are many different types of card counting systems.
13. Card counters need to disguise their method of play.
14. Card counters use their count to vary the size of their bets and sometimes their blackjack strategy.
15. Card counters can enjoy a 10% edge over the casino.
16. Unbalanced card counting systems are easier to use than balanced card counting systems.
17. Many professional blackjack players play on blackjack teams.
18. The bigger the bet spread the greater the edge for the card counter.
19. Card counters can still win even when the casino uses a continuous shuffling machine.
20. Over-betting when you card count is a major downfall of most fledgling card counters.

ANSWERS

1. False. Using your brain when you play blackjack is not illegal; neither is card counting. (Note: However, using a concealed electronic device to aid you in card counting is illegal.) 
2. False. The movie 21 portrays card counting as an intellectually difficult task that can be learned only by top-level MIT college students with high IQs. That’s baloney. If you have average intelligence (meaning you can read, write, and can mentally add and subtract), you can learn card counting.
3. False. Card counting “works” in a six-deck game although there are some extra steps involved compared to counting in, say, a single-deck game.
4. True. The general public mistakenly believes that card counters win every time they play. That’s not the case. The edge a card counter has is very small and counters will, and do, experience losing sessions. However, over the long haul, they will win more money than they lose. 
5. False. If your bankroll is meager, you just need to play at a lower minimum bet size. What is important is that you have enough bankroll in relation to your bet size to withstand short-term losing streaks. (Remember, you can’t win every time you play.)
6. False. Although this has occurred in the past, nowadays this doesn’t happen anymore because several card counters have won large settlements from casinos for abusing their rights as a player. 
7. True. The percentage of cards dealt is known as “penetration.” The deeper the penetration, the more profitable the game will be for a card counter. Additionally, counters also look for a good mix of player-favorable playing rules. A host of good rules will also increase the counter’s edge; whereas, a host of bad rules may make the game less profitable. It’s a combination of the penetration and the blackjack rules that determine if a game is worth playing for a card counter.
8. True. The odds change depending on what cards were played (and removed) in previous rounds.
9. True. The removal of small cards (i.e., 2 through 6) results in the deck’s becoming richer in large cards (i.e., 10, J, Q, K, Aces). That’s better for a card counter because he is more likely to get a blackjack (and a bonus 3 to 2 payoff); his chances of drawing a big card when he doubles down increase; an abundance of large cards favors pair splitting; the dealer breaks more frequently when he shows a stiff 2 through 6 upcard; and the insurance bet becomes profitable.
10. True. For the reasons stated in the above answer, the card counter will increase his bets when the deck becomes richer in large cards.
11. True. Counters actually lose more hands than they win but they win more money than they lose, in aggregate. How do they accomplish this? They have a lot more bet on the hands that they win compared to the amount of money bet on the hands that they lose. It’s that simple.
12. True. There are dozens of different card counting systems that have been developed and published, with different  levels of complexity. The most popular is known as Hi-Lo. There are also entry level counting systems that are easier to master but give less of an edge compared to, say, Hi-Lo. Then there is a class of unbalanced card counting systems, also slightly easier to use than Hi-Lo. (For details on the different card counting systems. Click here.) 
13. True. In order to prolong their playing careers, most card counters camouflage the fact that they are card counting by how they bet and/or play their hands. (Although a new breed of counters has been using more aggressive play with little regard to camouflage.  For details, click here for one example of this style of play.)
14. True.  This is how counters get their advantage; they bet more when they have the edge and sometimes vary their playing strategy. (For example, if the deck is rich in high cards, they will bet more, and if they are dealt, say, a 10-6 with the dealer showing a 10,  they would stand rather than hit.)
15. False. The edge a card counter has is usually in the range of 0.5% to 1.5%.
16. True. With unbalanced card counting systems, you don’t have to convert the running count to a true count in multi-deck games. The most popular unbalanced counting system is known as K-O (or Knock Out). 
17. True.  Playing on a team reduces bankroll risk and increases profitability.  (Note: There are still some part-time professional card counters who play solo. For an example, click here.)
18. True.  Bet spread is important to increase the counter’s edge. In a single-deck game, a 1-4 bet spread is sufficient. The bet spread needs to be greater when the number of decks increases. (In a six-deck game, a counter will use a 1 to 10 or 12 bet spread, or higher, betting the minimum when he doesn’t have the edge then increasing his bets up to a maximum of 10 or 12 units or higher when the edge swings in his favor.)
19. False. Although there have been a few isolated cases of counters using very advanced techniques to gain the edge against a continuous shuffling machine (CSM), for the most part card counting doesn’t work when a CSM is used. (Note: With a CSM, the cards from each round are placed back into the shuffler where they are randomly inserted into the other decks of cards.)
20. True. The biggest downfall of most card counters is not having enough bankroll for the size of their bets they are making. Mathematical equations have been used to determine how much bankroll a counter needs to reduce the risk of going broke (known as risk-of-ruin).

If you scored below an 18 on the quiz and want to learn more about card counting, I encourage you to read Chapter 10 in my Ultimate Blackjack Strategy Guide.