In the modern era, that game is nearly impossible to find. Unfortunately for the AP, Leib assumed a single-deck game with 7 rounds dealt between shuffles.
At the time, playing against RM was a viable alternative source of income for the AP. For example, an article written by John Leib titled “Royal Match and the Davies Counting System” was published in “Blackjack Forum” (Vol. Research on beating this bet dates back to the early 1990s. Quantifying the value that can be obtained through practical methods is where the work of the AP begins. It is intuitively clear that there must be situations where the player has the edge. If the cards form the rare hand KQ suited, then there is a premium payout. It pays if the player’s first two cards are the same suit. The Royal Match (RM) wager is one of the oldest blackjack side bets still available.
