The discount is only downside protection, it does not change the odds. The changes that mattered were playing with a hand-shuffled six-deck shoe and the right to split and double down on up to four hands at once; and double a "soft 17". These changes essentially made the game 50/50. Still, an incredible amount of luck, though he was playing $100,000 a hand, so when you have an amazing split, split, double, double hand it adds up. The key factor here was once he was up, he basically could keep going, because statistically odds were even.