Question of the Day - 30 June 2019

[Editor's Note: As usual for blackjack questions, we turned to our blackjack scholar, Arnold Snyder, author of numerous books on the subject, publisher of the prestigious trade journal Blackjack Forum (online at http://www.blackjackforumonline.com/), and prolific and imaginative novelist extraordinaire, for the inside scoop on 6-5.]

Many players today, especially younger ones, think the 6-5 blackjack payout is standard on single-deck games and just another rule variation on many shoe games. In fact, it never existed on any blackjack games prior to 1999.

Ever since card counting became known as a valid system for beating casino blackjack games (starting in the early 1960s), casinos have been trying to create rule variations that would negate the counters’ advantage over the house. At one point in the 1960s, some Vegas casinos tried allowing doubling down on hard 11 only, but this rule died quickly when players simply stopped playing the game.

Howard Grossman, an ex-card counter and one-time teammate of Ken Uston's, created and patented a blackjack variation called "Super Fun 21" in 1999. In this version of blackjack, most blackjacks paid even money, but a whole raft of player options and bonuses were added to make the game more appealing to the public. All of the bonuses combined didn’t add up to the cost of most blackjacks paying even money, so Grossman marketed Super Fun 21 as a blackjack game that card counters couldn’t beat.

A number of casinos started offering the game and found that it was popular with enough recreational players to pay Grossman his licensing fee for using the Super Fun 21 table layout and rules.

Very shortly after Super Fun 21 was introduced, two Vegas casino execs, Bill Bert and Bill Zimmer, came up with the idea of paying out blackjacks at 6-5, but not changing any of the other rules or adding any other bonuses. This simple rule change adds 1.4% to the house edge, very neatly negating the card counter’s ability to get any significant edge on the game and without having to pay a licensing fee for a new variation of the game.

The Flamingo was the first casino on the Strip to offer 6-5 payouts on single-deck games. They started with one table, but soon expanded to more tables as they found that many recreational players didn’t even notice the difference. Other casinos took note and because they didn't have to sign a contract or pay a fee to anyone to offer the game, 6-5 blackjack continued to take over the single-deck games. It has since expanded to multi-deck games and is now vastly more popular than Super Fun 21.

Ironically, Super Fun 21 gives the player slightly better odds than 6-5 blackjack. But we can thank an ex-card counter with inspiring a couple Vegas casino execs to look into the effect of simply adjusting the BJ payout to foil card counters. Thanks, Howard! (Actually, Howard Grossman passed away in 2011, but his brainchild lives on.)