Spanish 21: rules, bonus payouts, strategy and house edge

Key facts

Spanish 21 is blackjack played with 48-card decks: the 10 of each suit is removed, while jacks, queens and kings stay. Queensland's rule book calls it Spanish blackjack; Crown Melbourne deals it under its Crown Pontoon rules.
Removing the tens alone would lift the house edge of 6 deck blackjack from about 0.67% to 2.78% in our calculation, with the dealer hitting soft 17.
The extra rules give it back: your blackjack and any 21 always win and are paid at once, you can double on any number of cards and take back a double, and five card and 6-7-8 hands pay bonuses.
Under Queensland's rules with 6 decks we calculate the house edge at about 0.35%, lower than ordinary Australian blackjack at 0.55%. The bonus payouts alone are worth about 0.37% of each bet.
The strategy is different: hit 12 against a 4 to 6, hit hard 17 against an ace, double soft 17 against a 6, and do not double a two-card 9 against a 3.

What Spanish 21 is

Spanish 21 is blackjack dealt from Spanish decks: ordinary 52-card decks with the four 10s taken out, leaving 48 cards. Jacks, queens and kings still count 10, so each deck keeps 12 ten-value cards instead of 16. On its own that is very bad for you, so the game adds a set of player-friendly rules.

In Australian rule books the game appears under other names. Queensland's Casino Gaming Rule has a schedule called Spanish blackjack. Crown Melbourne's approved blackjack rules include Spanish Blackjack and say it is played under the Crown Pontoon rules. The ACT approves the same game as Pontoon. The rules on this page are Queensland's unless stated; our pontoon card game guide covers the Crown and ACT versions.

Spanish 21 rules compared with blackjack

Rule	Ordinary Queensland blackjack	Queensland Spanish blackjack
Decks	5 to 8 of 52 cards	5 to 8 of 48 cards (no 10s)
Your blackjack	Pays 3 to 2; pushes against a dealer blackjack	Pays 3 to 2 and always wins
Your 21	Can tie the dealer's 21	Always wins, paid immediately
Dealer on soft 17	Stands	Hits
Doubling	Two cards totalling 9, 10 or 11	Any two or more cards, including after a split
After doubling	Hand stands	You may withdraw the doubled chips and forfeit the original bet
Surrender	Not offered	Half the bet, when the dealer shows J, Q, K or A
Splitting	Once; split aces get one card	Once; split aces get one card
Bonus payouts	None	Five or more card 21s and 6-7-8 or 7-7-7 hands

The "always wins, paid immediately" rule matters more in Australia than in casinos where the dealer peeks. Here the dealer's second card comes only after you have played, so if you draw to 21 your bet is paid before the dealer can turn up a blackjack.

The bonus payouts

Bonuses are paid on winning 21s that were not doubled. From Queensland's pay table:

Hand	Pays
Blackjack	3 to 2
Five card 21	3 to 2
Six card 21	2 to 1
Seven or more card 21	3 to 1
6-7-8 or 7-7-7, mixed suits	3 to 2
6-7-8 or 7-7-7, same suit (not spades)	2 to 1
6-7-8 or 7-7-7, all spades	3 to 1
Any other win	1 to 1

On top of that sits the super bonus: three suited 7s, not from a split, with the dealer showing a 7, pays a fixed $1,000 if your bet is $24 or less, or $5,000 if it is $25 or more, and every other player in the round gets $50. Because it is a fixed dollar amount, its value depends on your bet size, so we leave it out of the house edge below.

What the missing tens cost, and how the rules pay it back

We solved the game step by step for 6 decks, with the dealer hitting soft 17 throughout and one split allowed:

Rules	House edge in our calculation
Ordinary blackjack, 52-card decks, double any two	0.67%
Same game with the tens removed	2.78%
Plus: blackjack and 21 always win, paid at once	1.00%
Plus: double on any number of cards	0.81%
Plus: take back a double	0.72%
Plus: surrender against J, Q, K or A	0.72%
Plus: bonus payouts (full Queensland rules)	about 0.35%

Removing the tens costs about 2.1% of every bet: fewer blackjacks, weaker doubles on 10 and 11, and fewer dealer busts. The single biggest giveback is the 21 rule. Surrender adds almost nothing, because with 21 paid before the dealer's second card you would rather keep drawing than give up half the bet. With 8 decks the full game comes to about 0.38%.

To test what the no hole card rule is worth, we also solved the game as if the dealer checked for blackjack first, so that a dealer blackjack beat your later 21. That version comes out at about 1.19%. The Australian way of dealing is worth about 0.84% of each bet to you here.

Spanish 21 strategy

Every rule change shifts the best play, and some shifts are large. These are from our solver for the full Queensland rules with 6 decks, compared with ordinary Australian blackjack where the dealer hits soft 17:

Your hand	Dealer shows	Ordinary blackjack	Spanish 21
Hard 12	4, 5 or 6	Stand	Hit
Hard 13	2, 3 or 4	Stand	Hit
6, 7 (hard 13)	6	Stand	Hit, chasing 6-7-8
3, 3	8	Hit	Split
Hard 16	10 or ace	Hit	Hit; do not surrender
Hard 17	Ace	Stand	Hit
5, 4 (hard 9)	3	Double	Hit
A, 6 (soft 17)	6	Hit (no soft doubles)	Double
6, 5 (hard 11)	Ace	Double	Double
8, 8	10	Split	Split

Three ideas explain most of the table:

Draws are worth more. Every card you take is a chance at a five card bonus or a 21 that cannot lose, so stiff hands get hit more often.
A dealer ace is less frightening. A dealer blackjack cannot take a hand you have already turned into 21. Even hard 17 against an ace is worth hitting.
Doubling can wait. You may double on three or more cards later, so marginal two-card doubles such as 9 against a 3 are better as a hit first.

Playing ordinary blackjack strategy here throws away part of the advantage the rules give you.

Pundit tip: if you only change three habits for Spanish 21, hit 12 against small cards, hit 17 against an ace, and never surrender a hand you could still turn into 21.

How Spanish 21 compares

Game, 6 decks, our calculation	House edge
Spanish 21, Queensland rules	about 0.35%
Ordinary Australian blackjack	0.55%
Blackjack Switch	0.58%
Free Bet Blackjack	1.44%

Spanish 21 played well is among the cheapest table games in an Australian casino. The catch is that its advantage depends on unusual strategy; with ordinary basic strategy the gap closes. The full comparison is in our online blackjack Australia guide, and the house edge table compares it with every other game. For the chance of a natural from a 48-card shoe, about 1 in 24, see blackjack odds.

Online Spanish 21 is a casino-style game and cannot legally be offered to people in Australia.

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Frequently asked questions

What is Spanish 21?

Spanish 21 is a version of blackjack played with 48-card Spanish decks that have the four 10s removed. To make up for it, player blackjacks and 21s always win, you can double on any number of cards, and some 21s pay bonuses.

Does Spanish 21 have better odds than blackjack?

It can. Under Queensland's Spanish blackjack rules with 6 decks we calculate a house edge of about 0.35%, against 0.55% for ordinary Australian blackjack. That depends on playing the different strategy the game needs; ordinary basic strategy does noticeably worse.

What does a five card 21 pay in Spanish 21?

3 to 2 under the Queensland and Crown Melbourne rules. A six card 21 pays 2 to 1, and seven or more cards totalling 21 pay 3 to 1. Bonuses are not paid on doubled hands.

Is Spanish 21 the same as pontoon?

In Australian casinos, very nearly. Crown Melbourne's approved rules say Spanish Blackjack is played under its Crown Pontoon rules, and the ACT's pontoon rules use the same deck and bonus table.

Can you surrender in Spanish 21?

Yes, but under the Queensland and Crown rules only when the dealer's first card is a jack, queen, king or ace, and the surrender is void if the dealer then makes blackjack. In our calculation it is almost never worth using.