Given how popular blackjack has proven to be around the world, it's only natural that many have tried to change or build on the basics of the classic in order to create new challenges for players. One of the most popular of these attempts is Spanish 21, a game that can be found in many brick-and-mortar casinos, as well as many. Spanish 21 is a blackjack variation offered at both online casinos and brick and mortar casinos. The game starts just like regular blackjack with the player and dealer receiving two cards. Spanish 21 is played with standard decks of cards. The only exception to the standard decks is that all. Number 10 cards and Jokers are removed, a Spanish 21 deck consists of 48 cards (2 – 9, J, Q, K, A; no number 10 cards).
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Spanish 21 is a common form of blackjack played in many of the larger casinos. You'll find the game played all over the world, though it originated in European casinos. Most gambling establishments in the United States didn't offer the game until 1995 or later. If you live in Australia, you'll know a quite similar game under the name Australian pontoon. Wild cherries slot machine. Most online casinos offer the game, while the big software companies like Microgaming, Playtech, IGT, and RealTime Gaming have their own versions of the game. Like all other forms of twenty-one, you hope to build a hand of two or more cards without the cards going over 21. The closest hand to twenty-one is the winner.
While Spanish 21 may not have been the original version of the game, it was the first recorded form of blackjack. In Miguel de Cervantes's Exemplary Novels, which was published in 1613, a game called ventiuno (Spanish for '21') is mentioned. The reference is in the short story Rinconete y Cortadillo, which tells the story of a game of card cheats. In the game described, the object is to build a hand equaling twenty-one, but without going over. All 10-cards are taken out of the deck. As a rough sketch, this describes the distinct rules of Spanish 21. It's unknown how closely this variation resembles the 21st century version of the game, but Spanish 21 has been popular for at least 400 years.
Casino Card Deck
In most casinos, you'll find the game deck used includes 4 to 6 decks placed together. Easy roulette strategy. Instead of the 52 cards most gamblers are used to, the Spanish deck rules are used. The tens are taken out, which leaves a 48-card deck. Jacks, queens, and kings remain.
Super Bonus
The most distinctive rule in Spanish 21 is the 'super bonus'. Anytime a player receives a twenty-one with a suited 7-7-7 against a dealer 7, a large bonus is won by the player. If you wagered $25 or less, you'll receive a $1,000 bonus. If you wagered $25 or more, then you'll receive a $5,000 bonus. This isn't the only advantageous chance for special twenty-one payouts.
When you receive an unsuited 6-7-8 or 7-7-7, the payout is 3 to 2. Therefore, if you wagered $10, you would receive $15 in this circumstance. If the 6-7-8 or 7-7-7 includes any cards of the same suit (hearts, diamonds, clubs), then the player receives a 2 to 1 payout. If the 6-7-8 or 7-7-7 includes all spades, the payout is 3 to 1. These rules even apply if you win after splitting, though a doubled hand won't win these special payouts.
No Push on Twenty-One
If you receive any other 21, you always win. No pushes exist when you get a blackjack, because ties are won by the player. This is a major advantage for gamblers, though you'll see later that the various advantages in this game variant are negated by the disadvantage posed by the Spanish deck.
Hit, Stand, or Split
The hitting, standing, and splitting rules are identical with classic blackjack. After splitting aces, gamblers may receive as many hits as they want. When doubling, gamblers may receive a second card or even additional cards. Players are allowed to split up to four decks (in most casinos), even when they hold aces.
Insurance
Insurance pays 2 to 1 and is offered on this game. As with most forms of twenty-one, insurance is a sucker bet. In Spanish 21, the house edge when taking insurance is 24.7%, making insurance one of the most inadvisable bets in the entire casino. Unless you are a card counter and the count is heavily in your favor, never take insurance.
Dealer Rules
The dealer receives a hole card, much like classic blackjack. In most casinos, house rules require the dealer to hit on a 16 and stand on 17. In most cases, the dealer hits on the soft 17.
Surrender Rules
Late surrender rules are used most often. This means the player can surrender before asking for a hit or stand, if the dealer doesn't receive a blackjack when the second card is dealt. When a player surrenders, they lose half their wager and have no chance to win the pot. This is used when the player believes he or she has less than 50% chance of winning. A player also may surrender after doubling down. When this happens, it's often call forfeit, concede, or double-down rescue. In this case, the original bet is lost, but the doubled part is returned to the player.
Match the Dealer
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Some casinos offer a side bet in this game: 'Match the Dealer'. Under these rules, players are paid when one of their cards matches the face card of the dealer. This pays at 4 to 1 when your card is the same rank as the dealer's card on a six-deck game, while it pays 3 to 1 if your card is ranked the same and 9 to 1 if the rank and suit are the same (a 'perfect match'). On an eight-deck game, the payout is 4 to 1 when the rank is the same and 12 to 1 when the rank and suit are perfectly matched.
Players should remember that side bets almost always have a house edge higher than the main bet. In casino gambling, bigger payouts tend to go hand-in-hand with a higher house edge, which isn't good for you. The 'Match the Dealer' side bet is the same, but the (roughly) 3% house edge is still one of the best blackjack side bets.
House Edge
Readers might be thinking the rules of Spanish 21 heavily favor players and they would be right. The advantage is not as much as you would think, though, because of the removal of the 10's from the deck. This tips the house edge in the favor of the casino by about 2%, because the player won't hit the 21 nearly so often. Even with this disadvantage, Spanish 21 has a slightly better expected return than classic blackjack with the same rules.
Spanish 21 is a blackjack variant owned by Masque Publishing Inc., a gaming publishing company based in Colorado. Unlicensed, but equivalent, versions may be called Spanish blackjack. In Australia and Malaysia, an unlicensed version of the game, with no dealer hole card and significant rule differences, is played in casinos under the name 'Pontoon'. It was first introduced about 1995.[1]
Rules[edit]
Spanish 21 is played on a blackjack table with a custom layout and uses the following rules:
- The game is played with six or eight decks dealt from a shoe, or from a continuous shuffling machine (CSM). Spanish 21 is played with 48-card Spanish decks, although standard French suited 52-card decks are used with the 4 ten-spot cards removed. All cards have the same values as in blackjack.
- The dealer gets a hole card.
- Like traditional blackjack, the dealer hits on 16 and stands on 17. In some venues, the dealer hits on a soft 17 (abbreviated as H17), though most venues have the dealer stand on soft 17 (S17). Hitting soft 17 (H17) negatively impacts the player; that rule increased the house edge by 0.40%.
- Blackjack (a natural total of 21 on the first two cards) always wins, and is always paid 3:2 regardless of whether or not the dealer has a blackjack.
- Insurance is paid 2:1, just like in blackjack, despite the fact that there are four fewer ten-valued cards per deck. As 3 cards in 12 are worth ten, the chance of the dealer getting a blackjack when showing an Ace is only 25%. Therefore, for insurance to be an even bet, it would have to pay 3:1, not 2:1. The house edge on the insurance is 24.7%, one of the worst of any wager in a casino.
- Hitting, standing, and splitting all follow similar rules to blackjack. Doubling after splitting (DAS) is always permitted, and, in most venues, players are allowed to draw as many cards as they wish after splitting aces, or may double down after receiving second or subsequent cards.
- Players can split to a maximum of four hands, even on aces.
- In most venues, if the dealer does not have blackjack, players may surrender, and get half their bet back in exchange for relinquishing the right to play on. This type of surrender is known as a 'late surrender' (LS).
- Players can surrender after doubling (sometimes called forfeit, double-down rescue, or concede). The dealer takes the original bet, and the player retains the double portion of the bet. This is because the player is allowed to double down for less than the original bet.
- Once the initial two-card hands are dealt, if the dealer is showing an Ace or face card, he peeks underneath the hole card to check for a blackjack, before playing actually commences. If he has blackjack, all players automatically lose, unless they also have a blackjack (which, as mentioned above, automatically win 3:2).
- The player may double down on any total and on any number of cards.
- In some casinos, players may double double down, or redouble up to two times after doubling down. For example: The player bets one unit and is dealt 2-3, giving a hand total of 5; the dealer is showing a 6. The player doubles the first time and draws a 3. The hand total is now 8 and the total amount wagered is two units. The player doubles a second time and draws a 3. The hand total is now 11 and the total amount wagered is four units. When the player doubles a third time on 11, the total amount wagered will be eight units. Redoubling is a profoundly player-advantageous rule, when optimally executed.
- A total of 21 always wins for the player. It never pushes against the dealer's 21.
- A five-card 21 pays 3:2, a six-card 21 pays 2:1, and a 21 with seven or more cards pays 3:1. A 21 composed of 6-7-8 or 7-7-7 of mixed suits pays 3:2, of the same suit pays 2:1, and of spades pays 3:1. These bonus payouts apply even if the hand was the result of a split. However, doubling down negates these bonuses.
- A 'super bonus' of $1000 for bets under $25, and $5000 for bets of $25 and over, is paid on a suited 7-7-7 against any dealer 7. All other players at the table receive a $50 'envy bonus'. Splitting or doubling down negates the 'super bonus'.
Spanish 21 Blackjack Difference
The removal of the four tens in each deck gives roughly a 2% advantage to the dealer. The liberal rules of Spanish 21, though, do compensate for this. With optimal play, the house edge of a Spanish 21 table is lower than that of a blackjack table with the same rules on hitting or standing on soft 17.
The game also offers an optional 'Match the Dealer' side bet, which compares a player's cards with the dealer's upcard. Matching the rank of the dealer's card pays 4:1 on a six-deck game, and 3:1 on an eight-deck game, while a 'perfect match' of rank and suit pays 9:1 on six decks and 12:1 on eight decks. A player may win on both cards; (e.g. if a player has 8s 8c and the dealer has 8c as an upcard, the player will receive 3:1 on the rank match and 12:1 on the perfect match, paying out a total of 15:1.) While this side bet has a house edge of approximately 3%, significantly higher than the edge of the main game, it is one of the lowest house edges of any blackjack side bet.
House edge[edit]
The following tables list the Spanish 21 house edges for all rule sets found in North America.[2] (The figures were obtained from 10-billion hand simulations and have a standard error of 0.001%. The super bonus is averaged out to a 100:1 payout.) These charts assume that the player is using basic strategy. 'H17' means that the dealer hits soft seventeen, 'S17' means that the dealer stands on soft seventeen.
Rules | Decks | House Edge |
---|---|---|
H17 | 6 | 0.78% |
8 | 0.80% | |
S17 | 6 | 0.37% |
8 | 0.38% | |
H17 with redoubling | 6 | 0.42% |
8 | 0.45% |
Rule Changes | Change in House Edge |
---|---|
No surrender (H17) | 0.018% |
No surrender (S17) | 0.006% |
No draws on split Aces (H17 or S17) | 0.28% |
No draws on split Aces (H17 with redoubling) | 0.29% |
Natural after split pays 3:2 | –0.16% |
Match the Dealer[edit]
Match the Dealer is a side bet offered on most Spanish 21 games. The player wins the side bet if the rank of either or both of their initial two cards matches the rank of the dealer's up card. If the cards match in both rank and suit, the player wins a bigger payout. Some casinos offer a second Match the Dealer bet which wins when either or both of the player's initial two cards match the dealer's hole card. The payouts and the house edge vary depending on the number of decks in play as shown below.
Number of Decks | Non-Suited Match | Double Non-Suited Match | Suited Match | Suited + Non-Suited Match | Double Suited Match | House Edge |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 | 4:1 | 8:1 | 15:1 | 19:1 | NA | 3.63% |
4 | 4:1 | 8:1 | 10:1 | 14:1 | 20:1 | 3.20% |
5 | 3:1 | 6:1 | 13:1 | 16:1 | 26:1 | 3.53% |
6 | 4:1 | 8:1 | 9:1 | 13:1 | 18:1 | 3.06% |
8 | 3:1 | 6:1 | 12:1 | 15:1 | 24:1 | 2.99% |
References[edit]
Spanish 21 Blackjack In Las Vegas
- ^Dalton, Michael. 'S .. is for Shuffle - Blackjack Review Network'. Blackjack Review Network.
- ^Reproduced from The Pro's Guide to Spanish 21 and Australian Pontoon (Lulu Publishing, 2008), with permission from the author, Katarina Walker