The Basic Rules of Spanish Blackjack

Spanish 21 is one of the known variants of blackjack. The gaming company, Masque Publishing Inc, owns the rights to the game. The unlicensed version is known as Spanish Blackjack, which has the same rules as Spanish 21.

Just like the traditional blackjack, Spanish blackjack is played on a blackjack table. The dealer may use up to eight decks of cards from a shoe. Four or six decks may also be used. The tens are removed from the deck. The Spanish blackjack deck is composed of the twos to the nines, one jack, one knight, and a king. When using a standard deck, the queen may take the place of the knight when playing Spanish blackjack. The values of the cards are the same with the traditional blackjack game.

Just like in the conventional game, the payout a blackjack in Spanish blackjack is three to two. The blackjack always wins and it doesn't matter if the dealer also got a blackjack.

In Spanish blackjack, the same rules apply when choosing to stand, to hit or to split. However, when Spanish 21 in Australia, the aces may not be split unlike in American games. Another difference is that in the US version of Spanish blackjack, it is possible to re-split the cards into four hands. In Australia, the rules on this vary from one state to another.

In Spanish blackjack, the player may also surrender, which means quitting and losing only half of the bet, after the first two cards were dealt or after choosing to double down. In the Australian version of Spanish blackjack, surrender is only possible if the dealer has a ten or an ace. Also, if the dealer got a blackjack, the player will still lose his entire bet.

Another difference in playing the US and Australian versions of Spanish blackjack is that in the US, the dealer may determine if he has a blackjack through the face card that is shown at the beginning of the game. In Australia, the dealer determines if he has a blackjack after all the players have played their cards.

The player advantage when playing Spanish blackjack is that a twenty-one always wins. It cannot push along with a dealer's twenty-one. Bonus payouts are also given in Spanish blackjack. Three to two is paid for a five card twenty-one, two to one for a six-card twenty-one and, with seven cards or above, the payout for a twenty-one is three to one.

There are lots of differences between Spanish blackjack and the traditional game. The Spanish version continues to gain popularity due to the possibility of getting higher payouts.