Rules of Spanish 21

Spanish 21 is a variety of Blackjack getting popular in Europe. It is owned by Masque Publications Inc. Unlicensed, though equivalent versions of Spanish 21is popularly called Spanish Blackjack.

Regarding the rules of Spanish 21, many of them may appear liberal as opposed to that in the conventional blackjack. For example, Spanish 21 permits payout bonuses for five or more card 21's, 6-7-8 21's, 7-7-7 21's, late surrender, doubling down any number of cards with the option to ‘rescue’ or surrender only one wager to the house, and player blackjacks and player 21's always winning, at the cost of having no 10 cards in the deck (though there are kings, queens and jacks). To sum them up, if the player can have a fool proof basic strategy in place, Spanish 21 guarantees a definite lower house edge than any other blackjack game.

Here are some of the rules of Spanish 21 elaborated.

Spanish 21 is played with 6-8 decks dealt from a shoe. The name of the game itself comes from the fact that each deck used in Spanish 21 is a standard poker deck with all its tens removed (not the face cards). That is, a traditional Spanish deck consists of four sets of 1 through 9, a Jack, a Knight and a King, sans any tens. All cards have the same values as in the traditional blackjack game.

The game pays 3:2, and standing, hitting and splitting all follow the same rules as in the traditional blackjack. The difference exists in drawing split aces and re-splitting, which are both permitted in Spanish 21 as opposed to the original blackjack.

The player has the freedom to surrender on the first two cards or after doubling down. The dealer always checks for a blackjack with one face card showing before the game continues, quite similar to its American counterparts.

The player can double down on any total, even after taking hit cards. In come casinos, the players are permitted to redouble after doubling down.

A total of 21 always win the game for the player. It never pushes against the dealer’s 21. In the game, a six-card 21 pays 2:1, a five-card 21 pays 3:2, and a 21 with seven cards or more than that pays 3:1. But these bonuses are not applicable if the 21 is obtained as a result of doubling.

6-7-8 of mixed suits pays 3:2, of spades pays 3:1, and of the same suit pays 2:1,.

Three suited 7s against a dealer 7 pays a higher bonus (such as, $5000 for bets $25 and above and $1000 for bets $5to24). Every other player at the table will get a "envy bonus" of $50. But this rule is not applicable after splitting.

In most casinos, or more generally, in most Spanish blackjack games, the dealer usually hits soft 17.

As a general analysis, it can be concluded that the removal of the tens in each deck always favor the dealer, while the other additional rules all are advantageous to the player (the dealer hitting soft 17 being an exception). And as mentioned earlier, Spanish 21 usually result in a low house edge, than any other blackjack game.

Finally, there is no popular card counting method in Spanish 21, though it would likely generate less scrutiny. Of course, any of the counting systems applied to the game should account for the fewer ten-point cards in the shoe.