There is not a universal consensus for Spanish 21 strategy with these rules. The strategy tables below are primarily based on Wizard of Odds' analysis of the game.

I have not manually verified all of the unique strategy decisions. Copyright © www. All Rights Reserved. SPANISH BLACKJACK STRATEGY TABLE Spanish Blackjack has many rule differences from traditional blackjack.

Stand on or fewer cards, otherwise Hit. Double on or fewer cards, otherwise Hit. Split Pair. Knowing all the rules for Spanish 21 is key to your success.

Familiarize yourself with all of the ways that you can make 21, be sure to understand all of the betting options including splitting, doubling down, and surrendering , and know the payouts for Spanish With this knowledge, you can make informed choices about when to hit and stand and how to bet.

The rest of the game is entirely up to chance. Tips and strategies for Spanish 21 can get quite extensive, covering a variety of possible hands.

Here are some highlights to keep in mind:. Again, this list can get quite extensive. Start small by memorizing a few of these tips.

Once you get more familiar with the game and these strategies feel like second-nature, study some additional tips to add to your repertoire.

Etiquette in Spanish 21 is the same as etiquette in Blackjack. You never sit at a table unless you are playing. Make sure you know the minimum bets at the table, and be prepared to plan your game play around it. Know the hand gestures for play. Tap the table in front of you with a finger to indicate that you want to hit, or get another card.

Wave your hand over your cards if you want to stand. The rules are nearly the same. The only difference in gameplay is that Spanish 21 uses decks with the 10s removed, and there are more options for betting.

Your count will change since the deck will not include any 10s. You also must know how many decks are being used in the game to get a proper count. It is growing in popularity as many people are learning about how easy and fun it is to play, while also offering new and exciting opportunities to win.

Blue Lake Casino Hotel is glad to offer Spanish 21, along with Blackjack and many other table games. Spanish 21 offers hours of fun play for all kinds of players, and the unique betting options give you new chances to win.

What is Spanish 21? Basic Rules of Spanish 21 The basic rules of Spanish 21 are the same as Blackjack. How to Play Spanish 21 Once you know the basics of Blackjack, you know the basics of Spanish Objective The objective in Spanish 21 is the same as it is in Blackjack: To get 21 or as close to it as possible without going over.

Hit The dealer automatically wins if they get a Blackjack. Stand If you feel that your hand is as close to 21 as you think it will go, you should stand, or stop accepting cards.

Double Down If you feel that you need only one more card to win, you can double down. Split If your first two cards are a pair, you can choose to split them into two hands.

Basic Strategy Knowing all the rules for Spanish 21 is key to your success. Late surrender is allowed in Spanish Players can split aces multiple times. Players can double down after splitting. Tips to Win at Spanish 21 Tips and strategies for Spanish 21 can get quite extensive, covering a variety of possible hands.

Spanish 21 Etiquette Etiquette in Spanish 21 is the same as etiquette in Blackjack.

Always stand on hands valued at a hard 18 or higher Never split a pair of 4s or 5s Always stand with a pair of 10s

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Advanced Tips for Spanish Blackjack - Always double down on a hand valued at 11 Always stand on hands valued at a hard 18 or higher Never split a pair of 4s or 5s Always stand with a pair of 10s

Know When To Split If done correctly, splitting can increase your chances of winning. Here are some instances where you should consider splitting: When you have a pair of aces. When you have a pair of 2s or 3s and the dealer has 2 to 8. Hit if the dealer has 9 or more. When you have a pair of 6s and the dealer has 4 to 6.

Hit if the dealer has seven or more. When you have a pair of 7s and the dealer has 2 to 7. Hit if the dealer has 8 or more. When you have a pair of 8s, you always split.

Surrender if the dealer has an ace. When you have a pair of 9s and the dealer has 3 to 6 or 8 or 9. Stand if the dealer has any other cards. Never split with 4s and 5s. Never split with a pair of 10s. Avoid the Side Bets Just as in blackjack, you should stick to the base game and avoid the Match the Dealer and Insurance side bets.

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Related Stories. BetMGM Mar 12, Understanding Short Deck Poker Hand Rankings. BetMGM Jan 29, What Are the Main Types of Bounty Tournaments in Poker? Most Read Articles. Unique Rules -- Played with card decks with 10s 10s, not face cards removed, Player BJ beats dealer BJ, Player 21 beats dealer 21, Double on any number of cards, Re-double down once, Surrender after doubling down.

Common Blackjack Rules -- 8 decks, Dealer hits soft 17, Dealer peeks for blackjack, Double after split, Resplit to 4 hands, Resplit aces, Draw to split aces, Surrender allowed. In the strategy tables below, D indicates double if your hand has or fewer cards, otherwise hit.

S indicates stand if your hand has or fewer cards, otherwise hit. The first table applies to typical situations, when the player has not yet doubled. The second table applies to after the player has doubled, when the only possible strategy options are stand, redouble, or surrender no hit.

Where time allows I may cover this topic in more depth at a later date. In general the player will play through one complete deal of the pack, knowing the shuffle that will be performed in advance, and attempt to locate either a dense packet of high cards, a dense packet of low cards or a specific favourable card usually an Ace to visually follow through the shuffle.

Where a packet of high cards is followed the player will attempt to position them in a favourable place in the following shoe by using the cut card — often at the very start of the shoe, allowing them to draw a sharp distinction between their play and that of a Card Counter, who will normally place their large bets toward the end of the shoe - and will raise their bets substantially to take advantage of the higher than normal density of player favourable cards.

Where a packet of low cards is followed the player will attempt to use the cut card to remove these dealer favourable cards from play and adjust their playing and betting strategy for the subsequent shoe accordingly.

Where an Ace is followed through the shuffle — normally using cards that were directly adjacent to it in the previous shoe to indicate when the Ace is likely to appear — the player will attempt to steer this card to their hand providing that hand with a substantially improved chance of being dealt a Blackjack.

Shuffle Tracking can provide the player with a substantially larger advantage than those achievable with Card Counting — often double or more - but is vastly more difficult to perform successfully and far more costly where mistakes are made. As such only the most skilled players will ever make money employing Shuffle Tracking techniques.

Hole Carding is the practice of locating a dealer that is insufficiently protecting their down card hole card enough so that a vigilant player can gain information regarding what the card is. The player then uses this information to adjust their strategy to account for the additional information.

The easiest card to gain information about is the bottom card on the pack prior to the player cutting the deck after the shuffle, though this is far from the only way to gain this type of information and sloppy dealers and defective equipment can provide just as strong opportunities. Regarding the legality of Hole Card play and Card Steering — These strategies are only legal within the US and UK if the player can gain the required information from a natural position and without use of devices at the table they are playing at.

There are several methods of legitimately gaining an advantage via online blackjack strategy. By and large these involve the use of promotions, bonuses and comp point systems and the games by themselves — assuming the game is functioning in a correct fashion — will not provide any additional information about the cards and shuffle after every hand.

What is so impressive about the work of Baldwin, Cantey, Maisel and McDermott is that they completed their analysis simply by playing the game, recording the results and crunching the numbers on an old calculator. Today this sort of analysis would be far less demanding, with simulations completed at the touch of a button, but the hard work of the Horsemen changed the game of Blackjack forever.

It should be noted that each rule variation in the game of Blackjack results in a different Basic Strategy, but this will be addressed below in the Basic Strategy section of this article. In Edward O Thorp, a mathematics professor who has worked at some of the most respected universities in the United States, read the work of Baldwin, Cantey, Maisel and McDermott on Basic Strategy in Blackjack and concluded that each card in the deck must have an inherent value to the player, either positive or negative, and that if the cards that had been played already could be accounted for the player would know whether the cards still to be dealt were favourable to the player or the dealer.

After extensive research Thorp concluded that small cards benefited the dealer and high cards ten pips and face cards benefited the player. So an excess of high cards left to come out would create a situation where the player would have the advantage over the casino.

While over the average of all hands the casino would still have an advantage, if the player bet low when the odds favoured the house and high when the odds favoured themselves that advantage could not only be nullified but turned towards the player. The surge in popularity was directly related to players realising that the game of Blackjack could be beaten.

The reality however was that the vast majority of players failed to learn the skills necessary to beat the game so the publication of a winning system actually resulted in an increase in profits for the casinos. The Ten Count was an awkward system to implement accurately, requiring the player to keep note of how many high cards came out, how many low cards came out and then calculate the ratio of remaining high to low cards in their head.

While awkward this was still achievable for a patient practitioner at a single deck game. A spokesperson for the LVRHA, Gabriel Vogliatti gave the following quote to the media;. This guy [Thorp] is the first in Las Vegas history to have a system that works.

The specific rule changes that were implemented were a restriction of the splitting of Aces and only allowing the player to double down on hard eleven.

These rule changes had the opposite of the desired effect — skilled players could still beat the games despite the poorer rules and the unskilled players deserted the casinos offering the poorer rules. Even the additional edge that the rule provided the house was not enough to compensate for the substantial loss of custom resulting from the rule changes.

Within two weeks of the new rules being implemented, the financial consequences for the casinos had been so substantial that the rules were returned to their former standards with one slight exception, the casinos started to increase the number of decks used to play the game figuring that it would be more difficult to keep track of more cards.

The HiLo count assigned a point value to each card which the player would then add or subtract for each card seen, reducing the mental workload for the player substantially by allowing the use of the system with only one memorised number.

The HiLo count made the addition of multiple decks a relatively minor inconvenience to the Card Counter. Its impact on the world of casino games has been unquestionable.

This was done in such a way that many players did not realise that they were being offered a weaker game. The casinos dropped the payout for a player receiving a Blackjack from to With this rule the casinos finally found a way to substantially increase their edge over the playing public without discouraging players.

As the player will receive a Blackjack approximately every 21 hands, even at a slowly dealt game the cost of this reduction can add up very quickly. This rule is now being added by several smaller software providers — generally on single deck games - to online casinos.

These games are by no means prolific, but their appearance is no good thing for players.