Dream 21, Blackjack Varient

[biggg]

ES is nice and really takes some of the bite out of H17 in this, which is terrible in Spanish 21. You probably end up pitching 13-17, maybe 12 and 6,7 against A but someone would need to sim this. Overall this is probably a slightly worse game than regular BJ with good rules. All depends on pen and spreads/heat. Problem with these boats is they can easily just not pay you if you win.

[johnlocke2012]

ES is nice and really takes some of the bite out of H17 in this, which is terrible in Spanish 21. You probably end up pitching 13-17, maybe 12 and 6,7 against A but someone would need to sim this. Overall this is probably a slightly worse game than regular BJ with good rules. All depends on pen and spreads/heat. Problem with these boats is they can easily just not pay you if you win.

ES was nice. Saved me more than a few times from a dealer blackjack. I'm confused what you mean that they can easily not pay you? This is a $500 million cruise ship, I dont think anything anyone can win there will hurt them too much.

[biggg]

No gaming commission in overseas waters. They could easily just refuse to cash your chips saying counting is cheating. Most places pay, but such stories are common.

[Three]

memorizing basic strategy for the sp21 (removal of tens and 6 card bonus etc etc ) game is the real hurddle ... probably take weeks if you are an Einstein , months for the mere mortal ....

The most important step is to realize it is not BJ and forget everything about BJ when playing it.

[Nikky_Flash]

The most important step is to realize it is not BJ and forget everything about BJ when playing it.

exactly...

[Sidecount]

I recently returned from a cruise that had this blackjack variant, and was curious about the odds vs regular blackjack. I did horribly playing regular blackjack, but made most of it back playing this game.

The differences I remember are:

No 10s at all in the decks. Face cards still are in play, but absolutely no regular 10s.

Anytime you hit 21, you are automatically paid before the dealer hits or checks cards. Natural blackjack still pays 3:2.

6,7,8 or 7,7,7 pays like a blackjack and instantly.

Any win with 5 or more cards pays 3:2.

You can hit split Aces.

You can double down at any point.

You can surrender after doubling down.

You can surrender BEFORE the dealer checks for blackjack.

Thats all the differences I can think of off hand. Any thoughts?

Update on Dream 21.

Changes to the quote above from 10 years ago:

CSM

Blackjack pays 6:5

Late Surrender now (and also Rescue on Doubles). No longer early surrender. There is no re-double.

I don't think you can hit split Aces anymore. Can't remember for sure.

I was stunned to see a Spanish-type game that is 6:5 on blackjacks. Crazy.

Not sure the calcs for this or best place to look but I'm guessing it might be close to 2.5% or 3.0% house advantage. Typical Spanish with bad rules can be around 0.8% and then you tack on the 6:5 thing and lack of 6 and 7 card 21 bonus payouts, etc and that throws it into completely horrible territory. Have I found the worst Spanish-style game ever? LOL

10 Euro min. The table was packed every night.

Standard blackjack table was much better and quite reasonable even for a CSM:
CSM 6 decks, H17, 3:2, LS, DAS, No RSA. 25 Euro min. I believe 0.53% HE.

Played a little bit of both to earn some points. Didn't realize the Dream21 table was 6:5 when I joined.

Dream21 was packed. 10 Euro min.
Regular blackjack had zero players except for me. 25 Euro min.

There were a couple players who briefly joined me on regular blackjack for less than 5 minutes each and that was it. And they had no idea what they were doing.

Observers crowding around the table. Clearly there were many who had zero casino experience and had never seen it before. I had never been so seen before! LOL

The Dream game had some of the very worst players I had ever seen. Splitting 10s. Splitting 5s against a 9 or 10 (multiple players did this). Surrender 12 against a 2 and all sorts of other awful surrenders. Stand on Soft 15 and the lady who did it insisting that's what she wanted to do and telling her friend in French that she had to.

There is zero reason for the ship to mess with the rules on Dream/Spanish so dramatically. These players are begging to give away their money and many are probably at a 5%+ disadvantage already just on their own mistakes. I swear you could pay them 3:1 on blackjacks and I would be the only one playing at an actual advantage.

But for the lower min the largely European player base preferred the Dream game. They really balked at the 25 Euro min on regular blackjack.

4 roulette tables and usually 2 were going and they were packed. 15+ people playing or observing on each.

Dealers were very professional and very good. Was hoping I would find some inexperienced dealers and maybe have an advantage that way but I only had 2 mis-pays in my time on there and I think that was above expectation for this group that clearly weren't novices. One of them came when an observer was asking a bunch of different questions on a different language and the dealer was going back and forth with me in English and the other guy bombarding him. Thanks, Buddy!!