Has anyone seen this animal called "Super Fun 21"?

This seems at first glance to be a pretty good game, but perhaps someone has run some sims on it, or will do so, to check. Here's the rules:

~Double on any cards, even after splitting and hitting, including aces;

~Split up to 3 times;

~Late surrender on two or more cards totalling less than 21, even after hitting, splitting, or doubling;

~Any hand totalling 20 or less, with 6 cards, pays even money instantly (except on double downs);

~Any hand totalling 21, with 5 or more cards, pays 2 to 1 (except on double downs);

~Any player blackjack is a guaranteed winner at even money (even if dealer has blackjack), except blackjack in diamonds, which pays 2 to 1

Thanks, in advance, to anyone who has analyzed this.

By the way, I'M BACK! I took a couple years off to go back to school - it's good to see that many of the old familiar posters are still here.
I just re-joined Green Chip, and I'll post this same query there, as soon as Stanford sends me my new password. See y'all there.

Look for an ad from Rising Gorge Enterprises. The logo says it all.

BTW A certain postman who owned this firm got ahold of the original Griffin paper entitled, Binomial Approximation...., and got together with a student getting ready to drop out of CalTech. The postman was dating an Ambassador College student who left a librarian job at the Library of Congress. Her brother was a graphics artist who was in his last year at Ambassador and doing work as an intern for Basil Wolverton. The student who dropped out of CalTech is well known here for his self deprecating but usually accurate posting and is a near whale advantage player. I knew them both. That CTer had little success initially as a player (he tended to overtip especially in Reno[lame hustles tended to get to him]) until he tightened up, after a stint working as a travel agent, and some early simmulation work.

The postman was Arnold Snyder. The ex CalTecher( CalTechie?) is the originator of the Blacjack Formula. Arnold developed it from the CTer's notes on how to develope a more accuarate binomial approximation. I never had any part in it until permission to use from Arnold years later! All I added was noting a top-off limit for spreads.

Could the extreme number of drawf stars clustered around the black hole in the middle of the milky way galaxy have something to do with my always getting an Ace when I double down on 11?

But somehow the Bishop knew it would come to really crappy games like fun 21! The tie-in is that this was the start of early accuarate game evaluation (Snyer's BJF) and somehow it was bound to mutate to the games that really should make you puke: the casinos trying to come-up with a game that would have every option that sounds good and.....less.

Perhaps I'm dense, but do you think you could break it down for me as to why it's a crappy game? I must admit that I'm intrigued by what appear to be very liberal rules, and if I'm being fooled (lured by the siren call of very flexible doubling and surrendering), then I'd like to know where, how & why.
Obviously, if one does play this game, a very different strategy of play would apply to take advantage of the unusual rules.
I played it for half an hour and better than doubled my initial stake but, as we all know, standard deviation (i.e. "luck")is much more important as a short term factor than any specific play advantage.

I am not particularly mathematically inclined, but I know that many of you are.
I would be very interested in a breakdown of the odds (% advantage/disadvantage) for each of the special rules; plus a hypothetical basic strategy for this game.
Thanks for your help.

Having one sort pay 2 to 1 does little ofset~ -2.3% for having blackjacks pay even money. There are several sources to check for more precise estimates. Check here and the links too!

The problem with SuperFun 21 is the even-money payout on most blackjacks, which costs the player over 2%. All the other good rules do not come close to overcoming this. Even with a strategy optimized to take advantage of all the good rule variations, a typical 8 deck shoe game still has a smaller house advantage.

For more on SuperFun 21, try this link:

http://www.thewizardofodds.com/game/superfun21.html

Hooked, welcome (back?) aboard!

The house edge in this game is very high. Shackleford claims it's 0.77%, but I have enough evidence to suggest this number is uncertain, and that EV = -0.95% off the top is a far, far better estimate.

If you insist on counting at this game, bear in mind that even money blackjacks lower the effect of removal as well as the EV, so each TC is worth about 0.35% instead of 0.5%.

Drop me an email for further details.

M.