Australian Pontoon- (Spenish 21)

• Australian Pontoon Rules
• BB+1 and OBBO
• Original Bets and Busted Only- (OBBO)
• Australian Pontoon Strategies
• Australian Pontoon House Edge

Pontoon is a most popular game, basically played in the casinos of Australia and Malaysia. It is an unlicensed version of Spanish 21, which is an American game. It is called as Treasury 21 in Brisbane’s Treasury Casino, Jupiter 21 in Gold Coast’s Jupiters Casino, Paradise Pontoon in Cairns’s Reef Casino and Federal Pontoon in Tasmania. 

Pontoon game shouldn’t be confused with a variant of Blackjack, named Pontoon, which is found mostly in the UK and former colonies of Britain like Nepal, and played with the regular deck of 52 cards. It has been proved that Pontoon is foremost popular game in Australia as compared to Spanish 21 game in US.

Australian Pontoon Rules

Pontoon is a game to be played on gambling table in the layout similar to Blackjack. As similar to Spanish 21, in this game either a shoe or a Continuous Shuffling Machine (CSM) with 4 decks of cards is used for playing. 6 or 8 Spanish decks of playing cards are used for playing shoe games, which excludes 10-spot cards from the regular deck of 52 playing cards. There is similarity in the rules of Pontoon with Spanish 21, along with some slight differences, following:

1. There is no hole card possessed by the dealer as in European, Asian and Australian game of Blackjack. This reflects that players do not acquainted with the fact whether the dealer is having a natural or not, consisting of a K, a Blackjack, a face card and an Ace, till the game finishes, when the 2nd card is drawn by the dealer. As a result, drawing 21 and winning against a natural of the dealer is possible, which is very much advantageous to the player and impossible in either Blackjack or Spanish 21.


2. Since, there are no hole cards with the dealer; it’s quite possible of doubling and/or splitting and losing multiple bets towards the natural of the dealer. Every casino, excepting Adelaide’s Sky City, which offers OBBO or BB+1 as a compensation.


3. Always, an Ace is reckoned as 1in a hand that is pre-doubled, instead of 1 or 11. For an instance, if some doubles on Soft-18, which includes an Ace along with 1 or more cards accumulating a total of 7, he is essentially moving to double on 8. Doubling up on soft hands is made highly recommended in such rule.


4. No one is permitted for drawing on split Aces, NDSA in short, it means that if someone splits Aces, he is given only a card on every card.
   



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5. As compare to Spanish 21, in which splitting is allowed to 4 hands i.e. (SPL3), there are some restrictions for allowing splits on the number of hands. Resplitting i.e. (SPL1) is not permitted in the casinos of New South Wales and Queensland. Splitting Aces i.e. (SPA1) is allowed in most of the casinos, excepting Malaysia’s Casino de Genting, and Perth’s Burswood Casino, where resplitting is allowed only for once (SPL2).


6. One is allowed only to surrender in front of a dealer’s face or Ace card. One will still lose his entire stake if the dealer finishes with a natural hand, likewise winning unconditionally, missing an opportunity of drawing ‘21’. That’s why it’s less worthy to surrender while playing Pontoon rather in Spanish 21.


7. It is allowed to double on the hands of two-cards in the casinos of Sky City in Adelaide and Casino de Genting in Malaysia. Somewhere else, one is allowed to double on cards of any number, which is referred as the doubling on ‘not last chance’ i.e. (NLC).


8. Soft-17 is always hit by the dealer, known as H17 in abbreviation.


9. The payouts of super bonus are similar in Pontoon and Spanish 21, excluding Malaysia’s Casino de Genting, where the payouts of super bonus is of RM1,000 on the bets ranging from RM10 - RM99, and RM5,000 on the bet of RM100 or more.

In spite of the disadvantages of the player regarding the rules from 2 to 9 on the average of the house edge, which is lower for Pontoon than for Spanish 21, because of extreme advantages of rule 1. The differences in rules reflect the significant differences in strategies between Pontoon and Spanish 21.

BB+1 and OBBO

(Busted Bets plus one) BB+1:

After the removal of all the busted bets from the gambling table, all the original and winning bets from the total 21 constituted hand, and all the original bets from the hands that have been forfeited, only one bets is lost by the player, even if the hands of multiple splits are with him in a single box.

Original Bets and Busted Only- (OBBO)

After the removal of all the busted bets from the gambling table, all the original and winning bets from the total 21 constituted hand, and all the original bets from the hands that have been forfeited, only one bets is lost by the player from the all hands remaining. Only a single bet will get lost by him, if he hasn’t split.

Briefly said, losing a single bet on each box refers BB+A, and losing a single bet on each hand refers OBBO, specified that original and winning bets from forfeits, the busted bets and the winning hands will be removed from the gambling table. Most commonly known among both the rules is BB+1; the casinos of Malaysia’s Casino de Genting and Perth’s Burswood Casino are only to have OBBO.

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