The Casino Frog

A game of Spanish 21 is the same as the regular blackjack regarding payout rules whereby the player holding a blackjack hand is entitled for 3:2 winning odds on his bet but the difference lies in that while in the regular game, a dealer also holding a blackjack will mean a tie or push, in case of the game variant the player wins the bet at 3-to-1 odds irrespective of the dealer’s hand having a blackjack.

An important rule of the Spanish 21 game is that the insurance bet offered to the player is 2:1 odds just like the normal blackjack game although in this case, the card deck has four numbers of ten-valued cards lesser with stripping of the 10 card. So with only 12 possible ten-valued cards that can allow the dealer, with the ace card as his up card, to hit a blackjack the chances of this situation from occurring is 25%. It is evident that for the insurance to be an even money bet for the player the odds should be 3:1 instead of the standard 2:1 as in regular blackjack. Therefore, the insurance bet in a Spanish 21 game is a wager with significantly weak advantage for the players while making it profitable for the casino houses.

The rules regarding hitting, standing and splitting pairs as possible choices of action for the players are same as the regular blackjack game. Doubling after splitting is also commonly allowed for all cards received by the player as his second and/or subsequent cards following the split. However, splitting is only allowed for a maximum of three times, so a gambler can only play four hands at most simultaneously. Such re-splitting rules are applicable to all ranks, including the ace cards. Some casinos allow drawing of as many additional cards as the player intends after splitting his ace pair. However in some exceptional cases a casino house may prohibit drawing of extra cards if a player opts for splitting his pair of ace cards.