To casino personnel, re: Spanish 21

I'm sure many of you have read Bill Zender's most recent (April 2009) Casino-ology newsletter, which was linked to in last week's BJ21.com free weekly newsletter. If you are reading this, I am correct in my estimate that you will be browsing the advantage player internet forums, looking for any tech on this latest threat to your bottom line.

You may well be concerned.

Please, don't be.

Katarina Walker's book may be newly published, but anyone who has ever been curious about Spanish 21 had long since done that much work � and plenty more �on their own. APs have always been among the everyday players at your Spanish 21 games. You only have yet to notice up until now for a number of reasons:

The most important of these is because we hardly leave behind a footprint.

Primarily, this is because the "Match The Dealer" bet (which is, incidentally, entirely unbeatable by any count system) gets immense action; I've seen no stats, but from my own experience at the game, I'd say it gets more action than the main wager. For every four card counters squeaking out that 0.78% edge that Bill Zender mentions, it only takes one player betting substantial money on the Match The Dealer bet to pay that off with plenty of change to spare.

The other reason would be due to the complexity of the game of Spanish 21 compared to regular blackjack. Blackjack is just substantially more beatable than Spanish 21. With Spanish 21, the basic strategy is harder to master, the count system is more difficult to master, the limits tend to be lower and the game is far less prevalent. Most any counter playing for all but the most trivial stakes will simply not be bothered.

I'm not asking you to change your casinos' policies on advantage player tolerance. All I'm asking is that you realize that Spanish 21 is not blackjack. It makes you substantially more money, it's substantially tougher to beat, and there are substantially less advantage players who are willing to put in any effort to play the game.

Thank you for your time,

SP21 Self Taught.

If any casino personnel read your post, it will fall on deaf ears. Casinos don't like anyone to have even a small advantage, especially in these tough economic times. I've read Walker's book and BS is a lot tougher than regular BJ. Besides the side bet, there must be a huge advantage to the house because a lot of BS in Sp 21 is not intuitive. I will be trying my news skills soon. If it's appropriate, I'll issue a trip report.

Yours really was a good post but I believe it was in vain.

Why bring more attention than already exists?

If you are referring to me, I obviously have considered that but feel that it was worth it in an effort to correct some misinformation in Zender's post. To a casino executive who felt the game was completely unbeatable until Zender's post came out, he may be imagining an army of APs coming to storm the game, when the truth is, virtually all the people who could be bothered to play the game already are, and any influx of counters from this book will be minor by comparison. As mentioned, many individuals have done far more work on our own than was in the book.

In other words -- the advent of the book does not precipitate any noticeable change in the SP21 drop in the near future, especially because so much of the SP21 profit comes from the side bet.

Casinos have a mindset that nobody shall beat their games, regardless of how absurdly high their hold is. Look at all the effort they go to wasting time with poor penetration, necessitating frequent (inefficient) shuffles.

Your post just brings more attention to the game.