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possibility of getting 6-7-8 only if you're hitting a
‘wo-card thirteen, fourteen, oF fifteen, as your hand
‘can be only 6-7, 6-8, or 7-8. If you do have one of
these hands, you will have a conditional hit only
for thirteen versus six, fourteen versus four, or
fifteen versus two when playing 117, which will
hhappen less than 0.5% of the time, fewer than one
‘out of every 200 hands. As for suited and spaded 6-
7-8 or any 7-7-7, the frequency is a whole order of
magnitude less. You can take your time learning
the conditional 6-7-8 plays, because knowing them
will not save you much money. In fact, you will
probably find that by referring to your chart over
and over again, you will end up memorizing the
more complex plays over time without even being
aware of it. Note that both unsuited 6-7-8 and five-
‘card twenty-one pay 3 to 2, so you will find that if
the hard thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen play is ,
it will also be . "This makes the 6-7-8
unsuited plays easier to remember.
Note that the only possible five-card ten is five
twos, which is virtually impossible to get against
up cards 2-8 because you split twos. The only way
‘you will get a five-card ten against 2-8 is if you
inave already split twos to the maximum allowable
number of hands and are dealt four more twos in a
row. You will probably never get this in your entire
Tife, so it is safe to say that for hard ten, you ean
‘change all the DS plays to D, which will make it
easier to remember.
Tt will ease the memorization process if you note
that the mumbers after the letters D and S increase
8s you approach the dealer up card of six from both
directions. The reason why the hit numbers don’t
exceed six is because the bonus payouts are capped
at seven cards, Hitting a six-card hand and getting
Table 39. Frequency of n card hands
No.of cards inhand Frequency
2 r2.0%
3 219%
4 43%
5 7%
6
or more 0%
4 seven-card twenty-one is awarded the same
payout as hiting a seven-card hand and getting an
eight-card twenty-one. Consequently, the two
hands have virtually the same odds.
Most of your plays will be reasonably obvious
fand, after a while, you will be able to make them
very quickly. However, when you are confronted
with a tricky play, take your time playing it so that
‘you don’t make an error. I usually say something
like, "Should 1 go for a five-card twenty-one?”
This lets the dealer know that I require 2 moment
for reflection
USING CASINO VERITE
Learning is made quick and easy by the use of
Blackjack software containing flashcard drills. The
‘only Spanish 21-friendly product on the market is
Casino Vérité Blackjack (CVBJ) by Norm
Wattenberger, which is considered the most
advanced and accurate Blackjack software
available. You can download a two-week free-trial
version from www.qfitcom
Before you can do your flasheard drills, a great
deal of setting up is required, because CVBI is
designed for Blackjack rather than Spanish 21, It is
2 two-part process; first we set up CVBJ to play
Spanish 21, and then we enter our Spanish 21 basic
strategy inlo the Blackjack Testing Engine. 1 will
‘guide you through, step by step, so that it is a
painless process
When you first use CVBJ, it will ask you to
select from a list comprising casinos from all over
the world. It doesn’t really matter which one you
choose, as it is relevant to Blackjack, not Spanish
21. Choose the first table layout you see, and when
asked your playing level, choose “Maven,” which
‘means “expert.” When the table layout appears,
select “Options” from the menu along the top, then
choose “Settings.” Under the “Basic Rules” tab,
under “Decks/Penetration,” choose “No. of decks.”
Under “Parameters,” choose the numbe’y of burn
cards in the venue where you play. Under
“Common Rules,” choose your hard and soft
double down rules and tick “DD after spit.” If you
are playing Pontoon, tick “No dealer hole card
deal,” and in South Australia, tick “Dealer BJ wins
all” If HI7, tick “Dealer hits $17." Under the