Super Fun 21

Introduction

Super Fun 21 is a variant of the standard Blackjack game.  Super Fun 21 is known as ‘Blackjack Super 21’ at Playtech casinos and ‘Super 21’ at RealTime Gaming.

We are currently aware of Super Fun 21 being offered by the following online casino softwares – Microgaming, OpenBet, Playtech and RealTime Gaming.

Play Structure

Differences to standard Blackjack and rules that are standard to the online game;

·         Blackjack pays 1 to 1.

·         Player Blackjack beats dealer Blackjack.

·         Player may Double at any point before Standing or Busting.

·         Player can Double once per hand.

·         Player can Surrender a hand at any point before Standing or Busting.

·         The dealer must Stand Soft 17.

·         Double After Split allowed.

·         Diamond Blackjack pays 2 to 1

·         6 Card Charlie pays 1 to 1 for total of 20 or less and 2 to 1 for 21.

·         Re-Split to 4 hands.

·         Draw to Split Aces.

Other than the above the game functions as a standard Blackjack game in terms of the play of hands and how wins are decided.

Rule Variations

Over and above the above mentioned rules, the following online software providers offer slightly different rules as detailed;

Microgaming – 1 deck, Hit Soft 17, Double on multiple cards, Surrender on multiple cards

OpenBet – Do not publish their game rules. Sidebet – 300 to 1 for Spades Blackjack

Playtech –  6 decks, No Resplits, No Draw to Split Aces,  Stand Soft 17, Lose Doubles on dealer’ Blackjack with Ace up returned with 10 up

RealTime Gaming –  No Resplits, No Draw to Split Aces, Hit Soft 17, bonus hands don’t apply when doubling, Decks ?

Optimal Strategy

Super Fun 21, like Blackjack, has a Basic Strategy to minimise the House Edge. The Basic Strategy chart for the different online rule sets can be found below;

Microgaming

Playtech

OpenBet Side Bet

The OpenBet version of Super Fun 21 offers a side bet that offers odds of 300 to 1 if you’re dealt a Blackjack in the suit of Spades. As the OpenBet game doesn’t provide information on how many decks are in play we’ve listed the House Edge of this bet for several different deck numbers;

House Edge*

The House Edge for Super Fun 21 is shown below for each known software provider;

Microgaming – 0.87%

OpenBet - ?

Playtech - <0.73% (based on the RealTime Gaming figures and an estimate that Stand Soft 17 will make more of a positive difference than losing Doubles on dealer Blackjack)

RealTime Gaming – 0.73% (This assumes 6 decks)

Fairness Calculator

Below you can find a calculator to allow you to check the fairness of your wins/losses when playing Super Fun 21.

[COMING SOON]

*This fairness calculator will assume that you’ve been playing with the optimal strategy detailed above. If you have not then the calculator will NOT return accurate results.

Winning Strategies

Offline

Super Fun 21 is likely to be vulnerable to all of the standard advantage play techniques that standard Blackjack can be beaten by. Strategies for gaining an edge over this game are not in common circulation (we are aware of no publications discussing these issues either on or offline), but at least in the case of Card Counting we can confirm Super Fun 21 can be beaten (http://apheat.net/2012/09/08/card-counting-blackjack-variants/).

Online

There are several methods of legitimately gaining an advantage playing online Super Fun 21 games. By and large these involve the use of promotions, bonuses and comp point systems as the games by themselves – assuming the game is functioning in a correct fashion and there are no errors in the paytable – will not provide any additional information about the cards and shuffles after every hand.

It should be noted that online advantage play is not specific to Super Fun 21 and in recent years the wagering requirements for player’s choosing to play any table game has inflated to the point that Super Fun 21 is now often a sub-optimal choice for the player. For more information on beating online casinos see BeatingBonuses.com.

* All ‘House Edge’ figures in this article are based on the ‘loss per unit wagered’ rather than ‘loss per initial bet’.