Nevada Casino in Las Vegas paid 2:1 on naturals. It also paid 2:1 for 6-7-8 of the same suit and on 7-7-7, and it offered late surrender. In the single-deck games, basic strategy yielded an edge of 2.2% right after a shuffle. In the double-deck games, your edge was 1.8% right after a shuffle.

These rules attracted a lot of good players. Even the best counter of all, Peter Griffin, flew in from Sacramento for the occasion. Howard Grossman, as well-known as his face is, was allowed to bring in his team to play for a while.

Unfortunately for the owners of the casino, the liberal rules did not attract enough losing players to counterbalance all the good players. So the rules were tightened somewhat. Late surrender was discarded, and doubling was restricted to two-card totals of ten and eleven. The good players continued to play and the 2:1 payment on naturals continued to take its toll. Two weeks after it began, the 2:1 payment was stopped.