online blackjack

Online Pontoon - The Aussie Blackjack

Pontoon is an unlicensed Australian version of the classical Blackjack. Offered by most Australian casinos, the game has a few slight differences from the classical online Blackjack.

• Aces on a doubled hand are always counted as 1, instead of either 1 or 11. Doubling on a soft 14, for instance (i.e. an Ace and a Three) means doubling on a four. Therefore, players are highly recommended against doubling on soft hands.

• Splitting is limited by the casino’s policy. Most classical online blackjack venues allow splitting up to four hands, whereas Pontoon games impose certain restrictions, like inability to split double aces or forbidding re-splitting altogether.

• As opposed to online Blackjack, the dealer always hits on soft seventeen hands.

• Players can only split equal cards. Two Queens, for instance, can be split, but not a Queen and a Jack, even though they hold the same value.

• Players may not draw on split aces. Therefore, if the player splits a pair of aces, he is given only a card on each ace.

• Five card tricks in Pontoon are always paid, whereas it is up to the casino’s policy in online Blackjack. If the dealer makes a five card trick, only the players holding a Pontoon are paid.

Despite these major restrictions, Pontoon holds a great advantage for the player compared to classical online Blackjack: the dealer doesn’t have a hole card. Therefore, it is possible for the player to draw up to 21 and win even though the dealer holds a pontoon (a Blackjack, an ace and a ten or a face card). Statistically, this gives a much lower margin to the house than online Blackjack.

Slight variations of the classical Pontoon are to be encountered in Australian casinos:

• Some venues don’t regard an A-10 pair as a Pontoon (or Blackjack) and others call A-K and A-Q a “natural” Pontoon that beats the “plain” A-J or A-10.

• Some casinos allow a hard 13 (i.e. not an A-2) to be “burned”: the player discards the two cards and gets a new pair, with the bet remaining in its place.

• Some casinos name a hand of three sevens a “royal Pontoon” that beats every other hand and pay you three times the bet.

Australian Pontoon should not be confused with its British variant. Even though they are called the same, rules and payouts vary.