Royal Alterations



            Last week’s column discussed how by altering your strategy, you can make Royals appear more often.  Let’s face it, by altering your strategy, you can make any hand you want to appear more often.  Just because Royal Flushes are the highest paying hand does NOT mean that by getting more of them you will automatically win.  If your goal is the bragging rights as the King or Queen of Royal Flushes, it might be worth it to you.  In reality, however, you’ll also be ‘flushing’ your bankroll by doing this.

            That isn’t to say that there isn’t a right time to alter your strategy in order to make a Royal appear sooner.  The obvious case of this is when you are playing a Progressive, where the meter is considerably above the normal 800 for 1 payout.  The intriguing part about playing Progressives is that the strategy keeps changing as the meter increases.  Even under normal circumstances it would be unusual for the meter to get to double the normal payout, but nowadays with some professionals monitoring progressive payouts, the likelihood is even less.  As soon as the meter gets to the point where the game is positive, a team of Players can hit a bank of machines and just keep playing until the jackpot is hit. 

            The Expert Player realizes that as the jackpot goes up, the strategy changes and the frequency of a Royal Flush can increase, which can push the payback up even more.  Using Expert Strategy for a full-pay jacks or better machine will result in a Royal (on average) every 40,400 hands.   If the Royal is paying 1600 for 1, we alter our strategy to make a Royal appear (on average) every 32,700 hands.  This increase in frequency allows us to extract an additional 0.9% of payback out of the Royal Flush hand.  Of course, this change in strategy costs us about 0.7% of payback on all the other hands.  The net increase is 0.2%, however.  So, you can play the Progressive using the altered strategy at 99.5% or you can use standard (8-5) strategy and play it at 99.3%.  It doesn’t seem like much of a choice to me.

            So, what are some of the changes we use when playing a Progressive paying 1600 for 1 on a Royal?  One of the biggest is that the 3-Card Royal now outranks a High Pair.  Yep, this one is going to hurt.  You going to throw away a sure winner (High Pair) and go for the Royal Flush.  Your odds of hitting that Royal is a bit more than 1000 to 1.  But, it’s paying 1600 for 1!  Throw in the fact that you still have many chances to hit a Straight Flush, a Flush, a Straight, Trips, Two Pair and a High Pair and quite frankly, the math isn’t even close.  The 3-Card Royal has an expected value of more than 2, while the High Pair is down at 1.5.

            Another significant change in our strategy is that the A-10 Royal is now playable.  Normally, when playing jacks or better, we do NOT hold a 2-Card Royal consisting of A-10.  We only have 1 way to fill it for Straights and/or the Royal Flush (with the JQK), which greatly reduces its expected value.  However, with the Royal Flush’s payout pumped up to 1600, we’re still better off holding the 2-Card Royal vs. holding just the Ace.  Keep in mind, however, that this hand is just barely playable.  This means that many other combinations of cards might be held instead (such as a 3-Card Straight Flush), so don’t forget to look at your WHOLE hand before getting overly excited about a suited A-10.
            Besides learning some of the changes to the strategy for a Progressive, another key point is learned.  Every change to the paytable can impact the strategy.  Now, if you sit down and play a full-pay bonus poker game using jacks or better strategy, I’m not saying you’ll get wiped out in 10 minutes.  But, what is the point of learning strategy if you’re just going to wing it when you change which type of game you’re playing.  0.1% or 0.2% might not seem like a lot to give up – but in reality, this may increase your loss rate by 20-50%!

            One of the best ways to learn how to play all the different games out there is to learn the strategy tables from a book like Winning Strategies for Video Poker and then practice what you’ve learned on your PC using Masque’s Video Poker Strategy Pro.  For a limited time, we’re offering a package of both the book and the software for only $14.95.  For an additional $5 ($19.95 in total) we’ll also include Video Poker: America’s National Game of Chance which is 200 pages of Lenny Frome’s best articles, quizzes and stories.  If you’d like to order, please send a check or money order to Compu-Flyers, P.O. Box 132, Bogota, NJ 07603. 

Don't Call It Spanish Blackjack

Until the recent emergence of Blackjack Switch, Spanish 21 was the only blackjack variant to make a significant impact to the casino floor. The trash heap is filled with the names of games using only numbers (i.e. 7, 11, 31, 41 and probably everything in between).
Spanish 21 (NEVER call it Spanish Blackjack!) is owned by Masque Publishing, a company you’ve probably never heard of. They are predominately a software company (www.masque.com) and license numerous variations of casino software. For fair disclosure, they have two titles (Video Poker Strategy Pro and Caribbean Stud Knowledge Pro) that were done in concert with my father’s strategies.
Spanish 21 is essentially a very liberal form of Blackjack. Here are some of the highlights of these rules:
Player Blackjack beats a Dealer Blackjack (and is still paid 3 to 2)
Player 21 beats a Dealer 21 (all other ties are pushes)
Player may Double Down on ANY number of cards
Player may Double Down after splitting
Late Surrender is allowed
Numerous Bonus 21 payoffs – 5-plus card 21, 6-7-8 and 7-7-7
‘Free’ Super Jackpot Bonus of $1,000 if player has suited 7-7-7 and dealer has 7 upcard.
As is always the case with table games, rules may vary a bit from one casino to the next, so keep your eyes open for the specific set of rules you’re playing.
So, how does Spanish 21 manage to give the player such a liberal game? Very easily. It uses a big shoe (six to eight decks) and removes the 10’s (NOT the face cards) from the shoe. For anyone who plays blackjack regularly, you know the big cards are good for the player and the little cards are good for the dealer. So, removing 24-32 10’s from a shoe can’t be good for the player.
The rule and deck changes combine to make significant shifts in how we play many hands. The removal of the 10’s causes the dealer to bust far less frequently. Thus, we find the player hits much more frequently against traditional "bust" upcards.
The 5-plus card 21 bonus causes us to hit some very ugly hands, IF we have 4-plus cards, in attempt to secure one of these bonuses. It should be noted, however, that we NEVER hit a hard 17 or greater to go for one of these bonuses. The payouts are simply not compelling enough in these cases.
The removal of the 10’s also causes us to re-think some of our double down situations. We don’t double on a 10 vs. 8 or 9 as we would in regular blackjack. At the same time, we have to be alert to the cases where we have three or more cards and get to a 10 or 11. In Spanish 21, you get to double in these cases.
The bottom line is you have to take your strategy for regular blackjack and throw it out the window.
 While there are, of course, similarities, the differences are significant. They affect every part of the game – when to hit, when to stick, when to double down and when to split.
 Spanish 21 offers the player a livelier version of the game at about the same payback as regular blackjack (99 percent-plus depending on the exact rules) but only if you learn the proper strategy. Fortunately, we’ve already done the hard part!
Availability: For $4.95 you can order Expert Strategy for Spanish 21 with a full-color pocket-sized strategy card. Send check or money order to Compu-Flyers, P.O. Box 132, Bogota, NJ 07603.