How to Play Spanish 21: Essential Tips for New Players

Spanish 21 is one of the most popular blackjack variants and is available in many land-based casinos, as well as many online casinos, too.

It’s a fun game to play and offers lots of bonuses and player-friendly rules.

When you finish reading this guide, you will know how to play Spanish 21, what the rules are and how they differ from a regular blackjack game, and we’ll cover some tips for making the best decisions when playing the game.

Ready!

Here we go . . .

What is Spanish 21?

Spanish 21 is a game that is very similar to regular blackjack – the object is to get closest to 21 without busting your hand. It is dealt out of a 6-deck or 8-deck shoe, and all the 10-value cards have been removed. The face cards remain, but all the 10s are gone.

This makes it more difficult to get a blackjack of course, so the casino has added some very player-friendly rules to make the game more appealing.

We’re going to look at the standard rules today, although you may find some games with slightly different rules and/or different pay tables.

I remember as a young boy in England my mum teaching me a version of this game called “Pontoon’, at the kitchen table. It came complete with its own verbiage including ‘stick’ and ‘twist’ (for stand and hit). 

The casino game is called Spanish 21 pretty much everywhere except Australia and Malaysia, where it is still called Pontoon.

In the USA, it is owned by Masque Publishing, a Colorado-based company, and it took off as a casino game in the mid-1990s.

I must admit, when I was first looking to put this game on my casino floor, I wasn’t very motivated – I was thinking ‘it’s just another low minimum retail version of blackjack to add to my casino floor’. 

But when I saw that HA, it was like ‘Wait, what! Why would . . .?’

And I discovered that there’s a lot more to this game than a simple carnival version of blackjack. 

You may think that it’s a knock-off blackjack variant, not to be taken too seriously, and that those who play it don’t know too much about blackjack. 

The reality is that this game offers lots of opportunities to a serious player that regular blackjack does not, and it may even be more countable and exploitable for the advantage player. 

That is why I was interested in putting it on my casino floor. It’s a good game for both the casual player and the more dedicated and knowledgeable players who can get get their teeth stuck into the strategy of the game, because it offers them a good gamble for their money. 

Oh, and by the way – we have many articles about playing the other popular casino table games, including Roulette, Baccarat, Blackjack and Craps. Go here to access them all for free.

Our articles are written by experts and cover a lot of ground that will help you go from beginner to expert. We also have lots of informative articles on how to play Slots and other casino-related topics, too.

Spanish 21 Rules

The game can be dealt from a 6-deck or an 8-deck shoe, using decks that have no 10-value cards in them. The face cards are included, but all the 10s are removed.

1. A player 21 always wins 
2. A player blackjack always beats a dealer blackjack
3. A player can double on any number of cards
4. Double down after a split is allowed
5. You can split Aces three times, to make up to four hands 
6. A player can hit and double down after splitting Aces
7. Late Surrender is allowed
8. Players may ‘double down rescue’ – which means Surrender after doubling down. They lose their original wager, but ‘rescue’ the double down wager
9. A 5-card 21 pays 3 to 2, a 6-card 21 pays 2 to 1, and a 7-card (or more) 21 pays 3 to 1. These bonuses are void after doubling down
10. 7-7-7 of Spades pays 3 to 1
11. 7-7-7 Suited pays 2 to 1
12. A mixed suit 7-7-7 or 6-7-8 pays 3 to 2, Suited pays 2 to 1, and in all Spades pays 3 to 1. A double down voids those bonuses.
13. The Super Bonus is a Suited 7-7-7 with the dealer’s up card of 7 (any suit) and it pays $1,000 for bets of $5 - $24, and $5,000 for bets of $25 and up. All other players with a regular bet receive a $50 Envy Bonus. This bonus is void after a split or a double down. 

House Advantage

The Match the Dealer Side Bet

A player may bet that either or both of her initial cards will match the dealer’s up card.

The pay table is:

• 1 Non-Suited match pays 4 to 1
• 2 Non-Suited matches pays 8 to 1
• 1 Suited match pays 9 to 1
• 1 Non-Suited match and 1 Suited match pays 13 to 1
• 2 Suited matches pays 18 to 1

As with all side bets, the HA on this bet is much higher than the base game it’s part of. In this case, it’s slightly more than 3%, or 7 times greater than the typical HA on the Spanish 21 game. 

So the short answer is ‘Don’t Go There!

How to Play Spanish 21?

Spanish 21 plays just like regular blackjack. 

It’s played on a blackjack table, usually with a 6-deck shoe.

And that’s where the similarities end. 

The important thing to be aware of is that you must take full advantage of the additional rules the casino has in place to compensate for the missing 10s.

For example, if you have a pair of 6s, and the dealer has a 3 up card, regular BJ Basic Strategy is to Split them. But on Spanish 21, the correct play is don’t Split them, just Hit.

There are multiple differences to a regular BJ game which means you need to learn the Spanish 21 Basic Strategy to be really successful playing this game.

Spanish 21 Basic Strategy

Removing the 10s increases the HA by almost 2% - which is completely unassailable. 

You can never win playing against an HA that high. 

Casinos knew they had to put some really liberal rules in place to attract some players – so they did! 

Here are some Basic Strategy charts for Spanish 21. S17 means the dealer stands on a Soft 17. H17 means the dealer hits a Soft 17.

Standing on a soft 17 is better for the players.

Spanish 21 Basic Strategy Chart 1 - H17

Spanish 21 Basic Strategy Chart 2 - S17

Spanish 21 Basic Strategy Chart 3 - H17, Double Down, Player Has Not Doubled

Spanish 21 Basic Strategy Chart 4 - S17, Double Down, Player Has Doubled

Tips for Winning at Spanish 21

• Find a game where the dealer stands on a Soft 17. It is much more common for the dealer to hit a Soft 17 because it raises the HA from 0.40% to 0.76%.
• Even if you’re not ‘counting cards’, be aware of the high cards coming out. A deck rich in small cards will give you opportunities to make the 4, 5, and 6-card bonus payouts. 
• The bonus payouts make up a lot of your opportunities to win on Spanish 21. Unlike regular blackjack, the small cards are your friend, so split your low pairs and try to hit into a multi-card payout of 3 to 2, or 2 to 1, or even 3 to 1.
• Don’t take Insurance. Ever! Insurance is a bet that the dealer will have a blackjack. Because there are no 10s in the shoe, it becomes an even worse bet than on a regular blackjack game.
• If your first card is an Ace on a regular blackjack game, you win 52% of your hands. The Aces become even more valuable on Spanish 21 because all the 10s are gone, meaning the Ace is now 1 of 12 cards, instead of 1 of 13, so you get more of them.
• You can also re-draw to Aces after the split, and then double down.
• And a blackjack always pays 3 to 2, none of that 6 to 5 nonsense.

Spanish 21 vs Blackjack

If you usually play blackjack and play solid blackjack Basic Strategy on Spanish 21, you will not do very well.

All the 10-spot cards are gone so the ratio of low cards to high cards is very different. 

There are many bonus payoffs in Spanish 21 that you don’t get on a regular blackjack game. 

If you get 21 with three or more cards, you’re guaranteed to win even if the dealer has 21.

In a regular BJ deck, there are 4 out of 13 ten-value cards – so almost 31%. In a Spanish 21 deck, there are only 3 ten-value cards out of 12, so only 25%.

Because there are fewer 10s, it’s harder to bust a stiff hand (a hard 12, 13, 14, 15, or 16). And because of the bonus you get for a 4, 5, or 6-card hand of 21, a ‘Stand’ on regular blackjack can often become ‘Hit’ on Spanish 21.

If you have a hard 15 with any number of cards vs. the dealer’s up card of 2, blackjack Basic Strategy says ‘Stand’, but with a 4-card hard 15 on Spanish 21, the correct Basic Strategy move is to ‘Hit’ because of the added 5-card bonus payout of 3 to 2. 

You would also hit if you had a 2-card hard 15 with a 7 and 8, because of the opportunity to make a 6-7-8 and it’s bonus payout of at least 3 to 2 depending on the composition of the hand.

Bottom line is that Spanish 21 Basic Strategy is different than regular BJ Basic Strategy, and more complex to learn. 

Now add card counting to that mix and you have an opportunity to truly run with the big dogs.

And if you are card counting, you’re flying under the radar of most casino personnel.

Why? Because they think it’s just a retail carnival version of blackjack. 

Expert Advice about Spanish 21

The best advice I can give you is to go and buy Katarina Walker’s terrific book, ‘The Pro’s Guide to Spanish 21 and Australian Pontoon’.

She was the acknowledged world’s expert in Spanish 21 and really put a wrecking ball through the idea that Spanish 21 was a simple variant of blackjack and not to be taken too seriously.

Sadly, she passed away at her home in Perth, Australia in 2015. She was in her late 40s.