Picking up where I left off last month, as promised, you will find below the questions and the answers to the challenging 21-question test given to the attendees at the Blackjack Ball. Give yourself one point for each correct answer. (If you got 16 or more correct, you did better than all the blackjack pros that took the test.) I'll also reveal who got the most votes and was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

Out of a possible 21 correct answers, the players with the most correct answers were:

• Blackjack Hall of Famer John Chang had15 correct answers
• David Spence had 13 correct answers
• Anthony Curtis had 12 correct
• Loco had 12 correct, and
• Andy Bloch also had 12 correct

The above five contestants advanced to the skills part of the competition conducted on a blackjack table (with Max dealing the cards). Here is what the skills part of the competition entailed.

In Round #1, Max placed a shuffled deck of cards in front of each contestant and randomly removed one card from each deck. Each contestant had to state what counting system he was going to use to count down his deck of 51 cards. Four of the contestants used Hi Lo, where the tags of the cards are +1 (2 through 6), zero (7, 8, and 9), and -1 (10, J, Q, K, A); Anthony Curtis used the Uston Advanced Point Count system, a multi-level counting system where 2 and 8 is +1; 3, 4, 6, and 7 is +2; 5 is +3; 8 is -1; tens are -3; and aces are zero). When Max gave the signal to start counting, the players rapidly started their count down and when they were done, they slammed their deck on the table. The player who was the slowest at counting down his deck had to state what the lone card was that Max removed from his deck First player who incorrectly stated his card was eliminated (or if they all got it right, the slowest player was eliminated.) The order from fastest counter to slowest was: John Chang, Anthony Curtis, David Spence, Andy Bloch, and Loco. All the players correctly identified their missing cards; therefore, Loco was eliminated.

In Round #2, the remaining four contestants were given 10 seconds to estimate a stack of cards that Max had placed in a discard tray, and then write their estimate on a piece of paper. The number of cards in the stack was 135. Anthony Curtis estimated 136; David Spence 131; and John Chang and Andy Block both estimated 124. Max then held a tie-breaker between Chang and Bloch. He allowed them to examine a well-shuffled single deck of cards for about 15-20 seconds. Max then lightly riffled the deck once and then allowed then to place the cut card such that the player who cuts to the highest-value card would win. Chang cut to a deuce, Bloch to a ten, and Chang was eliminated.

In Round #3, the three remaining contestants had 10 seconds to cut exactly 22 cards from the bottom of a single-deck of cards. Anthony Curtis missed by one card; David Spence by two cards, and Andy by three cards and was eliminated.

Two players were left: Anthony Curtis and the relative newcomer David Spence. The last round was similar to Round #1 except Max used a double-deck of cards. Max removed one card from Curtis' stack of cards and another from Spence's stack. When Max stated "start" each player had to rapidly count down the stack of cards and then slam their decks on the table indicated they were done counting and then state what the missing card was (low, neutral, and high). Ironically, both players slammed their cards down almost at the same time. It was too close for Max to call as to who was fasted so he asked the crowd of pros who were watching the contestants for their input. The consensus was that David was a split second faster than Anthony. However, the rules for this Round was such that if the fastest counter counter got the missing card in his stank correct, he would be declared the winner; however, if he got it wrong, the other contestant would automatically win. The pressure, therefore, was on David to make the right call. Unfortunately he David he miscounted. He said the missing card was a neutral card (7, 8 or 9 by Hi Lo, which he was using) but it turned out to be a low-value card. Max declared Anthony Curtis the winner of "The World's Great Blackjack Player" contest. (Note: Anthony didn't have to state what his missing card was but he did so anyway (low card) and got it right.)

Hall of Fame Voting

As I mentioned last month, Don Johnson received the most votes and was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Johnson gave a speech to the attendees, and he graciously forwarded a copy, which is reproduced below.

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