Pontoon is a popular variant of Spanish 21 in casinos all over Australia and South East Asia, especially Malaysia. The game of Pontoon goes by different name all over the continent of Australia; it is called Treasury 21 in Brisbane, Jupiters 21 in the Gold Coast, Paradise Pontoon in Cairns and Federal Pontoon in Tasmania. By no means should it be confused with the Blackjack variant called Pontoon, usually played in the British Commonwealth. The game is by leaps and bounds more popular in Australia than Spanish 21 is in the U.S.
Vingt-et-un is French for twenty-one, a popular game in King Louis XV court, favored by Napoleon himself. The game evolved into what Americans call Blackjack and what the British call Pontoon. Pontoon unlike Blackjack has no strict rules thus varies from place to place.
Pontoon is played on a table with a similar layout as Blackjack. The player’s objective is to come up with a hand whose total value is greater than the dealer without exceeding twenty-one. If the player’s total hand value exceeds twenty-one, he is said to have “bust” and loses the game. If the player gets a hand that consists of an ace and another card with a value of ten, he is said to have a pontoon and that pays extra. The game is played either a shoe or four-decks with a CSM (continuos shuffling machine). The shoe game uses six or eight decks. The cards from two to nine has the same value, face cards count as ten, aces are either 11 or 1, as the player may freely declare.
The rules are quite similar with Spanish 21 with the following differences:
- The dealer has no hole card, which means there is no way to tell if he has a natural e.g. Blackjack until the second card comes around. Thus a player may draw a 21 and win against the dealer even if the dealer eventually gets a natural. This situation is not possible for Spanish 21 or Blackjack.
- Since the dealer has no hole card, it is also possible to double and/or split and lose several hands to a dealer’s natural.
- The ace in a pre-double hand is always a one, rather than an eleven. The rule makes doubling on a soft hand, a highly recommended strategy.
- Drawing is NOT allowed on split aces.
- Spanish 21 allows splitting into four hands. There are limits to when, where and how the cards are split. Resplitting is not allowed in New South Wales and Queensland. Aces cannot be resplit in most venues except in Perth’s Burswood casino and Malaysia’s Casino de Genting.
- Player’s may only surrender their cards against the dealer’s ace or face card. If the dealer gets a natural, the player still loses the whole wager. Strategy wise, surrendering is not a good option as it is in Spanish 21.
- Players can double on any number of cards, except in Adelaide’s Skycity and Malaysia’s Casino de Genting where you can only double a two-card hand.
- The dealer always hits on a soft seventeen.
- Pontoon and Spanish 21 has the same super bonus payouts.
Despite the house advantage, the house edge for Pontoon is significantly lower than Spanish 21. This is so, because rule 1 is such an advantage to the player.
This article was written by Alexis.
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