You may note that the SPI Chart includes no entries for the new rule variations found in some of today's games. In the past few years, many casinos in Las Vegas have begun offering single-deck blackjack where naturals pay 6 to 5 instead of the traditional 3 to 2. I'll call these games "BJ Pays 6 to 5." This rule is so bad that there is little use devising an SPI value for it. The negative value would simply negate the possibility of any such game providing a card counter with a profit opportunity. Super Fun 21 is even worse than BJ Pays 6 to 5, and the host of rules favoring players are not strong enough to counter the negative effect.

Technically, both BJ Pays 6 to 5 and Super Fun 21 can be beaten with card counting strategies. The problem is that you need deeper penetration than most casinos provide, and you would also have to use a much bigger betting spread than you would need for a traditional BJ Pays 3 to 2 game. So, my advice is to avoid these pseudo-blackjack games altogether.

Likewise, some casinos now use continuous shuffle machines, or CSMs, on some tables. These machines effectively cut penetration to 0%, making card counting a complete waste of time since there's nothing to count! Stay away from tables that use CSMs.

Another disturbing development in Nevada in the past few years has been the introduction of "fake" one- and two-deck games. At these tables, a machine is used to shuffle six to eight decks, and then the dealer removes only one or two decks from the machine, dealing what appears to be a hand-held one or two-deck game. In fact, what you have is a six- or eight-deck game with extremely poor penetration. Counting cards in a game like this is a waste of time. So watch out for the fake blackjack that casinos keep introducing. All of them are sucker games.

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• Blackjack – So How Much Money Do You Need? (0)