Other Blackjack Variants Regulators Document: Double Attack and More

Two questions decided the list. Is the game printed in a regulator document that was read for this site? And does the site already have a page for it? A game had to pass the first and fail the second.

That leaves the eight above. Blackjack Switch, Free Bet Blackjack, Spanish 21, Pontoon, Double Exposure Blackjack, European Blackjack, single-deck blackjack and double-deck blackjack each have a page, and they are not repeated here.

Casino rule sheets and operator blog posts are not used. The Victorian document is the rulebook that Crown Melbourne itself operates under, approved by the regulator, and the New Jersey text is the regulation itself. Games that appear in a regulator document only as a side wager or a jackpot are left out, and the last section names them.

A rule variation only means something against the rules it changes, so every game here is set against a reference. The two reference games above come from the same documents as the variations. A game from the Crown Melbourne rulebook is compared with the base rules of that rulebook. Double Attack is compared with New Jersey's ordinary blackjack.

The two references are not the same game. Crown's base doubles only on a hard 9, 10 or 11, stands on a soft 17 and has no surrender. New Jersey's base doubles on the first two cards and offers surrender, and each casino decides whether a soft 17 is hit. Read a statement like "the dealer hits soft 17" as meaning "unlike the reference game named beside it".

The grid below filters the differences by the kind of rule that changes. Pick payouts and only the games that change a payout stay, with only that row. Pick doubling and most of the games stay, which shows how much of this page is about that one rule.

Double Attack Blackjack is regulated in New Jersey as its own subchapter. It is dealt with six or eight decks from which the tens have been removed, leaving 48 cards per deck. Jacks, queens and kings still count ten. Every card is dealt face up, and the dealer takes one card face up before the players are dealt anything.

That early dealer card is the reason for the name. Once the upcard is visible, a player may add a Double Attack wager, up to the amount of the initial wager. The two wagers travel together: both win, both lose, both are void on equal totals. The exception is a dealer blackjack. A dealer natural takes the initial wager, and the Double Attack wager is void unless the player also has a blackjack.

The payouts are the sharpest change. Every winning wager pays 1 to 1, a blackjack included. A player blackjack does not earn a bonus; it earns a win against a dealer 21 made of three or more cards, which an ordinary 21 would not. Equal totals are void rather than a push in the ordinary sense. Insurance is different too: with tens removed, a dealer second card of king, queen or jack is the only way to a blackjack under an ace, and insurance pays 5 to 2.

Player choices are wider. Doubling is open on two or more cards, surrender is available until the player stands, even after drawing, splitting or doubling, and splits run to three hands at a seven-position table and four at a six-position table. New Jersey also allows an optional bonus wager that the dealer busts with exactly three cards, paid according to the value of the third card. That is a separate side bet with its own pay table, and this page does not reproduce it.

Three of the Crown Melbourne variations do their work mostly on the doubling rule, and they are the easiest to confuse.

Vegas Blackjack is dealt with four decks. Its two changes are surrender and doubling. Against a dealer first card that is a ten, jack, queen, king or ace, every player with less than 21 may surrender half the wager after the initial deal and before any further cards are dealt. If the dealer then turns out to hold a blackjack, the surrender is void and the whole wager is lost. Doubling is allowed on the first two cards, a blackjack excepted, and on the first two cards of a split pair other than aces.

Premier Blackjack changes doubling and the dealer. Doubling is open on any first two cards, or the first two cards of a split hand other than aces, and the dealer draws until a hard 17 or more, or a soft 18 or more, so a soft 17 is hit.

Premium Doubling Blackjack goes further. On top of doubling on any two cards, a player may double on any hand under 21 that has reached a third or later card. That means doubling after drawing, which the base rules and the other two variations do not allow. The dealer hits soft 17 here too.

Each of these is a package of rule changes, and the direction of each change is known. The size of the combined effect is not stated in any of the documents, so no figure appears.

Blackjack Plus is the closest of the Victorian variations to a bust-rule change. A dealer total of 22 is a stand-off for every wager still in play, and dealer totals above 22 lose to any player who has not bust. In the reference game any dealer total over 21 is a bust and every player still standing wins. The change hands back the winnings on one specific total.

Doubling opens on the first two cards and on the first three when they total less than 21, for split hands too, except split aces. A player blackjack is announced and paid at once whatever the dealer's first card, its cards are removed before anyone receives a third card, and a hand with a blackjack may not take insurance against a dealer ace.

The document connects this game to the Buster Blackjack side wager: played with Blackjack Plus, a dealer 22 counts as a bust for the side bet even though it is a stand-off for the main wager. The Buster Blackjack page covers that bet and its figures.

Two gaps remain in the stored text. The table of winning payouts is not readable, so none is stated. And the text lists a player 21 among winning results as well as equal scores as a stand-off, without saying which governs when both sides hold 21. This page does not guess.

Crown Blackjack is the smallest change in the rulebook: the dealer draws until a hard 17 or more, or a soft 18 or more, so a soft 17 is hit, and everything else is the base game. The same dealer rule runs through the Premier, Premium Doubling, Sports and Select variations.

Sports Blackjack changes what a blackjack is worth. A blackjack pays 6 to 5. Insurance still pays 2 to 1 and every other winning wager 1 to 1. Where the dealer's first card is an ace, a player with a blackjack may not ask to be paid an amount equal to the initial wager on the spot. The dealer hits soft 17.

Blackjack Select is the odd one out because it takes decisions away. After the initial deal, if the hand is below a soft 17 or a hard 12, the dealer draws to it until it reaches that floor. Above the floor, and below 21, the player chooses to stand or draw, again and again, until standing, reaching 21 or busting. Splitting and doubling are not allowed. The dealer hits soft 17 and stops early when no player decision can still be affected.

The text states the floor as below soft 17 or hard 12 and the free choice as strictly above them, so the total that sits exactly on the floor is not spelled out. The choice being narrower than in the reference game is not in doubt.

The Victorian rulebook lists more than the seven variations above. Crown Pontoon, 6 to 5 Pontoon and Spanish Blackjack are Pontoon relatives, and the Pontoon page covers the Australian game. Pontoon Pandemonium, Crown Pairs, Crown Suits, Magnificent Sevens, Blackjack Jackpots, Blackpot, Supernova and Spread Bet Blackjack are side wagers and progressive prizes, and none of them is described here.

A game is left out when the stored text of its rules is incomplete. Silence is safer than a paraphrase of a rule that cannot be read. Where a document is incomplete for a game that is included, as with Blackjack Plus, the summary card says so.

A house edge is a solved number for one exact set of rules, and every figure on this site comes from that kind of count. For these eight games no such count is in the data, and the documents give no house edge of their own. So the honest entry for each is No figure published, which is what the summary cards say.

That is not a reason to treat the games as equal or as cheap. The direction of most changes is well known from the games that do have figures: a blackjack paid 6 to 5 is worse for the player than 3 to 2, and doubling on more hands is better. What the direction cannot tell you is the size, or how several changes combine. The house edge calculator prices the rules it covers and is the place to look for the ones that overlap with these games.