Depending on the exact set of rules and the number of decks (six or eight), the house edge at Spanish 21 is not that dissimilar from traditional blackjack for a basic strategy player. It ranges from about 0.4 percent to 0.8 percent. In Atlantic City, where dealers stand on soft 17, it's only about 0.4 percent. In Nevada, where dealers usually hit soft 17, it's more like 0.8 percent. If the redoubling option is allowed, then even the hit soft 17 game has an edge of only about 0.4 percent. But these house edges are assuming that you learn perfect basic strategy for the game, not the fifteen rules above. And that basic strategy is so much more difficult than the basic strategy for regular blackjack.

It's the bonus payouts that make it difficult. For example, the Spanish 21 basic strategy with a soft 17 is to double down against a dealer 4,5, or 6. But if it's a threecard soft 17, then you hit versus 4, and double versus 5 and 6 only. If it's a four-card soft 17, you hit versus 4 or 5, and double versus 6. But if it's a five-card soft 17, then you don't double against 4, 5, or 6; you just hit. Virtually all of the hard and soft double down decisions, and many of the hard and soft hit/stand decisions, change depending on the number of cards that make up your hand.

It's hard for me to imagine that any player would actually devote the memory work necessary to learning this complete strategy when regular blackjack basic strategy is so much easier, plus you can actually beat regular blackjack by counting cards. For all practical purposes, you can't beat Spanish 21 with card counting. The absence of all those tens really does hurt. The dealer busts much less frequently. Your double downs fail more often. That house edge hardly ever goes away.

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