Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Carnival Cruise Line Fun 21

  1. #1


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No

    Carnival Cruise Line Fun 21

    Many of the Carnival Corporation cruise ships offer a blackjack variant called “Fun 21.” The deck and rules are very similar to Spanish 21. That is, Kings are removed from the deck; player wins all 21 hands, including pushes; player can split up to four times, including aces; player can take any number of cards, including on splits and split aces; player can double on any number of cards (but not redouble); player can surrender early, surrender on any two cards, and also surrender immediately after doubling down; certain hands (i.e., blackjack, five or more card 21s, and 6-7-8 or 7-7-7 21s) pay 3 to 2; and dealer hits a soft 17. The game differs slightly, however, from classic Spanish 21 in that certain hands (i.e., suited 6-7-8 and 7-7-7 hands, and six or more card 21s) do not pay any bonus beyond 3 to 2.

    Can this Fun 21 blackjack variation be simulated on Casino Verite software? The differences with Spanish 21 seem very minor, that is, only the early surrender option and the lack of any bonus payouts beyond 3 to 2. Also, I found a post here about "super fun 21", but I believe that this Carnival "fun 21" is closer to Spanish 21 than it is to "Super fun 21."

    Last edited by paul5795; 08-27-2019 at 01:58 AM. Reason: typo

  2. #2


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    paul5795,

    CVData can simulate Spanish21, and it can simulate Early Surrender, so naturally it can simulate this game.

    Hope this helps!

    Dog Hand

  3. #3


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Did you make any progress with this? what is the difference between what CVCX can do versus CV Data as far as it goes toward simulating the "Fun 21" variant Paul mentioned? I see various Michael Shackleford strategies pertaining to Spanish 21, but am not entirely sure how to read these. Each of these 2, 3, 4 etc Card strategies are simulations that assume the player has reached the card total with N cards? That doesn't make complete sense to me at first glance.

  4. #4


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    5+ card 21s and suited 678/777 are rare enough that eliminating the 2:1 bonus for them probably has less effect than adding early surrender. How many decks and what's the pen?

    Can CVData generate the basic strategy for such a variant of blackjack? How?

  5. #5


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Quote Originally Posted by bjoe View Post
    Did you make any progress with this? what is the difference between what CVCX can do versus CV Data as far as it goes toward simulating the "Fun 21" variant Paul mentioned? I see various Michael Shackleford strategies pertaining to Spanish 21, but am not entirely sure how to read these. Each of these 2, 3, 4 etc Card strategies are simulations that assume the player has reached the card total with N cards? That doesn't make complete sense to me at first glance.
    I just purchased CVDATA and received the CD ROM yesterday. And I can see right away about what you mean about the multiple Shackleford Spanish 21 strategies contained in the CVDATA database. None of these strategies seem to match the Spanish 21 Basic Strategy for H17 currently located on Mr. Shackleford's Wizard of Odds website. Plus the CVDATA software and reference manual do not provide any detail what these strategies are or where they come from -- and I did a Google search about these strategies and came up empty. Anyone care to help us out on this?

    I can see that I will have other questions about the CVDATA program, but I need to play with it some more before listing them. But will not get around to all that for a couple of weeks because, well . . . I am off on a cruise early tomorrow morning.

    Oh, and the number of decks in the Fun 21 shoe was 8, and the penetration varied a lot from dealer to dealer on the ship I was on. Most dealers were around 75%, but there was one dealer who had a very generous cut with a penetration of about 90%.

  6. #6


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Quote Originally Posted by scroogemcduck View Post
    5+ card 21s and suited 678/777 are rare enough that eliminating the 2:1 bonus for them probably has less effect than adding early surrender. How many decks and what's the pen?

    Can CVData generate the basic strategy for such a variant of blackjack? How?
    Well, I can see that I am not the only person on this forum interested in the cruise ship version of Fun 21.

    8 Decks and Pen ranging from 75% to 90%.

    I was also, of course, wondering whether basic strategy for Fun 21 is in any way different than for Spanish 21. On first glance, one would think that the absence of the high paying 678, 777, and 6+ card 21 bonuses would not affect the basic strategy -- but then I wonder if that is true for player hands like 67, 77, and 68 against, say, a dealer bust card of 3, 4, or 5. These are borderline hit/stand situations in regular Spanish 21, but maybe in Fun 21 they become "always stand" situations.

    And its not clear to me so far if CVDATA can generate outputs such as the effect of removal and the best basic strategy for a given set of rules. But, again, just got the program yesterday, so have more reading to do.
    Last edited by paul5795; 09-07-2019 at 07:51 AM. Reason: typo

  7. #7


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    The early surrender sounds interesting. Since this seems very close to Spanish 21, does anyone know the estimated impact of the early surrender on house edge?

    Someone on WoV estimates a reduction around 0.7%:
    https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gamb...rnival-cruise/

  8. #8


    Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    ES has less value in this game and Spanish 21 than in Blackjack because there are so few Tens left in the deck. Taking insurance is virtually never, unless the count is enormously high. The choices of hands that you would even want to surrender are very few in this game, other than the odd 17 vs. A.

    Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Similar Threads

  1. Which Cruise Line Does NOT Use CSM's
    By WABJ11 in forum General Blackjack Forum
    Replies: 47
    Last Post: 09-16-2022, 02:28 AM
  2. Carnival Fascination cruise
    By vagabond in forum General Blackjack Forum
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 09-13-2017, 02:40 AM
  3. Carnival Vista cruise ship
    By vagabond in forum General Blackjack Forum
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 09-11-2017, 09:25 AM
  4. Carnival Sunshine cruise
    By vagabond in forum General Blackjack Forum
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 09-11-2017, 09:18 AM
  5. Hawk: carnival cruise
    By Hawk in forum Blackjack Main
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 07-05-2008, 06:27 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

About Blackjack: The Forum

BJTF is an advantage player site based on the principles of comity. That is, civil and considerate behavior for the mutual benefit of all involved. The goal of advantage play is the legal extraction of funds from gaming establishments by gaining a mathematic advantage and developing the skills required to use that advantage. To maximize our success, it is important to understand that we are all on the same side. Personal conflicts simply get in the way of our goals.