Spanish Blackjack

As one of the world’s most widespread casino games, blackjack has spawned countless variations, each of which add a new twist, option or feature to the standard game. One especially popular variant is Spanish Blackjack. Spanish Blackjack is a popular casino game at gambling sites because it introduces several significant changes to the game, with some favoring both the house and the player. While the additional rules for Spanish Blackjack are relatively easy to pick up, the implications of the game’s changes on betting and appropriate strategy can be difficult for less experienced blackjack players to grasp.

Spanish Blackjack Rules

Spanish Blackjack uses 4 to 6 Spanish decks, each composed of 48 cards. The smaller deck size is created by removing all 10s. While this rule is perhaps the most important in Spanish Blackjack, it increases the house edge. To entice individuals to play the game despite this disadvantage, most online casinos give players additional options that are not present in standard blackjack to bring the edge back down to a more conventional level. Rules vary between real money online gambling sites, but most implement the following rules.

In Spanish 21, players have a late surrender option, allowing them to forfeit their hand while losing only half of their bet. This is only available after a dealer has checked his or her hole card and does not have a natural blackjack. Unlike most variants, players can even surrender after doubling down, allowing them to avoid losing their initial wager twice. Players may also double down on any number of cards, including after a split. Additionally, a player’s blackjack always wins, even if the dealer flips a blackjack as well.

Spanish Blackjack also includes bonuses for special card combinations. It should be noted that doubling or splitting disqualifies a hand from receiving these bonuses. If a player manages to achieve a 21 with exactly 5 cards, he or she receives a payout of 3 to 2 on his or her initial wager. This payout increases to 2 to 1 if 21 is achieved with 6 cards and 3 to 1 if it is achieved with 7 cards.

A player whose hand consists of an unsuited 6-7-8 is paid out at 3 to 2. If these cards are suited the bonus increases to 2 to 1, unless the suit is spades, in which case the payout is 3 to 1. If a player’s hand is three suited 7s and the dealer flips a 7, the player typically receives a payout of $1000 for bets between $5 and $24. If the initial bet is above $24, this bonus payout increases to $5000. Initially, all other players receive $50 as an envy bonus.

Choosing Online Spanish Blackjack Casino Sites

Your biggest priority in choosing the best online Spanish Blackjack games should be which rules a given site uses. Since the rules above can vary between online casinos, one should be sure to pick the site that offers the most advantageous rules. Of course, care should also be taken to select a gambling site that is legal, legitimate and secure.

Tips for Playing Spanish Blackjack

Spanish Blackjack strategy can be difficult to master due to the number of changes made to the original rules. The best way to do so is to simply memorize a probability table constructed specifically for Spanish Blackjack.

Card counting techniques work slightly differently for Spanish Blackjack as well. Because of the bonuses given for 6-7-8 and triple 7s, smaller cards are more valuable than they are in most blackjack variants. The removal of all 10s further changes the nature of card counting. While it might make sense to assume that card counting techniques are rendered ineffective by Spanish Blackjack, the opposite is in fact true, making card counting more effective in Spanish Blackjack than many other casino games.