FUN 21 (Cruise ship blackjack game)

Going on a cruise in October and the friends we are going with cannot wait to play Fun 21. From what he has told me it is a six-deck shoe game with the Queens removed from the deck. I was told surrender is offered. He also said there was a side bet that had eight different payouts/bonuses. I have found on Wongs website, in the forum section, members discussing this game, but I cannot find many other details.

Any one know more about this game and the side bets?

Thank you.

Here is a better detail to the rules:

Dealer hits soft 17

Split Aces allows hits

Double after split allowed

Early surrender against an A and 10.

Double on any number of cards

21 is an automatic winner paying 1:1, a blackjack always paying 3:2 even against a dealer BJ.

I am not sure if this is spanish 21 or not, but it seems pretty close.

This may be helpful.

Quote: MonkeyMonkey

This may be helpful.

That is not the same game. Super Fun 21 is a different game than Fun 21.

Quote: SONBP2

Quote: MonkeyMonkey

This may be helpful.

That is not the same game. Super Fun 21 is a different game than Fun 21.

Unless the '10's are removed it's not Spanish 21 either.

The OP says that queens are removed from the deck.

Is this game only offered on Carnival Cruise ships (i.e. their slogan is the "Fun Ships").

Wonder if Fun 21 is simply a derivative of Spanish (removing the Queens as opposed to Tens is mathematically no different in BJ, right?) that Carnival has made their own and avoided having to pay for Spanish 21 when offering it on their boats.

Quote: Paradigm

Wonder if Fun 21 is simply a derivative of Spanish (removing the Queens as opposed to Tens is mathematically no different in BJ, right?) that Carnival has made their own and avoided having to pay for Spanish 21 when offering it on their boats.

After reading the original post, that was my instinct. Spanish 21 also has the offer of the Super Bonus of 3 suited sevens against a dealer up card of seven and the special 6-7-8, 7-7-7 and 5+card 21 payouts. Take those away, and the house edge would go up a bit. I wonder if their regular BJ tables pay 6:5, so this is the enticement to play the game with less 10-valued cards in the deck.

I get 1.45%

The OP said early surrender against 10,and Ace,I don`t think spanish 21 has early surrender.

S21 only offers late surrender. Early surrender is a nice bonus to replace the loss of the 6-7-8, 777 and 5+ card 21 bonuses.

Don't buy Insurance. :)

Also, if there is no double-down rescue, then you should not double as aggressively against high dealer cards, compared to S21.

Check /wp/encyclopedia/f/#Fun21 for more information. Using MGP's Blackjack Combinatorial Analyzer I come up with a casino edge of 0.62% with early surrender and 0.88% with late surrender. This software can also create the appropriate basic strategy charts for you.

Just played this on one of the Princess cruise ships and yes, early surrender is offered. You will have to learn a modified basic strategy. Using the Hi-Lo counting system (which now becomes unbalanced here) you don't have an edge until the count is greater than +22 (assuming you start your count at 0).

I'll bite. Why did you feel the need to respond to a 5 year old thread?

Be specific in your answer.

Seemed like I couldn't find any other information online... and the fact that I just played this game (Fun21) for the first time.

I just came from a cruise on the Carnival Radiance. There was a game called Ultimate Fun 21, which I believe is the same game as this.

Here is my new page on Fun 21. I welcome all comments.

Just departing from Carnival Celebration where this game was offered. It is a continuous shuffle 6 deck shoe (only kings removed); the shuffler they use cannot fit more than 6 decks. Minimum $10, maximum $1000, with Lucky Ladies available too for $5/$10 per hand (I didn't memorize the payout for that). Mine was a relatively small sample size of about 20 hours of play, my wife played about 12 hours.

I stayed up late writing up a copy of your strategy chart to use at the tables and shared advice with other players unfamiliar with Fun 21. The dealers were fun and despite swallowing my pride and using a strategy card at the table, I didn't get teased by other players. Most of the dealers were genuinely very curious about the strategy card and thought it was pretty cool, though some thought 12/2, 12/3, and 13/3 should be stands and some A/5 area combos they thought should be double downs, which I thought was interesting that they felt that way but I stuck with the chart. It was a fun time, thanks! :)

Does the analysis change based on a 6 deck shoe instead of infinite decks?

How high does the +/- count have to be to be statistically significant given it is only 6 decks?

The surrender of 6/7, 6/8, 7/7, and 7/8 seems like it may not be the best strategy given the 3:2 payout for 6/7/8 and 7/7/7. 16 when dealer showing 10 also seemed like the player was better off hitting than surrendering. 16-7 seemed like Stand was a preferred and strong play among the players due to the high bust rate of the dealer. Of course, mine was a limited sample size, but I'm wondering how close those odds are.

Love the site, thanks again!