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Popular Blackjack Games to Play Online Live

Popular Blackjack Games—There are different blackjack games, and many of them are really worth exploring. The blackjack basics are still in place in most variants, but there are slight deviations from the standard rules. Or the rules aren’t changed, but one or more side bets are added to make the game a little bit more exciting.

Still, many gamblers think that every blackjack game is the same. So, time to browse through some of the many nice blackjack games. We will briefly review Double Exposure Blackjack, Double Attack Blackjack, Blackjack Switch and Spanish 21, all very popular blackjack games. Not an exhaustive list of blackjack games, but the first set of ideas if you are looking for something new. Google will help to find more.

popular But first, the basic blackjack rules

In case you don’t already know the blackjack rules, it is useful to have a short recap of the basic rules. These are essentially the same in all variants we will discuss here. Blackjack is a game between you and the casino (represented by the dealer). The winner is the party, which comes closest to 21 points. The tricky part is that while trying to achieve this by asking for additional cards, you may exceed 21 points. Which means you are busted and lose the game. In blackjack, an Ace counts for 1 or 11, whatever is better for you. Kings, Queens and Jacks all count for 10 points, and all other cards have their face value.

Double Exposure Blackjack, one of the most famous popular blackjack games

Double-exposure blackjack means that both dealer cards are shown face-up at the start of the game. Normally, one card is open, and the other is closed, which makes it more difficult for the player to assess whether he should hit (ask for another card) or stand (stay with the current hand). With Double Exposure Blackjack, you have more knowledge about the dealer's chances and more information to decide the best blackjack strategy.

Normally, this means that everybody would go for this blackjack version. However, a few alternative rules decrease your win chances to the level of traditional blackjack.

For example:

If there is a tie (except with blackjack), the dealer wins. In regular blackjack, a tie means nobody wins, and you keep your real-money bet as a player. A blackjack pays only 1:1 for the player, while in regular blackjack, this is 3:2. You can only split once.

Note that these are just a few examples, there may be more dependent on the online or live casino where you play Double Exposure Blackjack. The game is also known as Face up 21 or Dealer Disclosure.

Pontoon Blackjack

Since we described double-exposure blackjack, we also have to mention a game with growing popularity: Pontoon Blackjack. With Pontoon Blackjack, the dealer cards both stay closed, so it is basically the opposite from Double Exposure. This is compensated by a better pay-out for blackjack (2:1 instead of 3:2) and an additional side bet, the 5-card trick, aka Charlie.

48 cards blackjack games

Some popular blackjack games are played with a so-called ‘Spanish deck’ containing only 48 cards since all 10’s have been removed. Examples are Spanish 21 Blackjack and Double Attack Blackjack:

Double Attack Blackjack has essentially the same rules as traditional blackjack, however there are a few side bets with high pay-outs. You can bet that the dealer busts at three cards. Your payout ratio is then based on the value of the third dealer card. If the third card is, for example, a 9, the pay-out is 6:1. And for very specific combinations of dealer cards, the pay-out can even rise to 200:1. Where the wins in blackjack are normally very small (3:2 for a natural blackjack), this option brings a small chance for bigger wins.

It adds to the dynamics and fun. Spanish 21 is also comparable to regular blackjack, with few deviations for Double Downs, Splits, etc. What is really different are the win possibilities if you have a 5-card 21, a 6-card 21, or even a 7-card 21.

Blackjack Switch

In Blackjack Switch you play two hands simultaneously. You might say that is already known as multi-hand blackjack, but there is a twist here. After you receive your two hands, you can switch cards between them to improve your chances of getting the right one. Hence it is also one of the popular blackjack games.

Single Deck blackjack

This is not one of the alternative popular blackjack games. It is the same as standard blackjack but played with a single deck of 52 cards. Nowadays, casinos typically use 6 or 8 decks at their blackjack tables. This causes an interesting impact on the casino house advantage. It is lower till 0,17%. This extremely low value makes Single Deck blackjack very popular among the fans.

Watch out, however, to compensate for this lower house advantage, some casinos adapt, for example, the blackjack pay-out (from 3:2 to 6:5). This seriously decreases the RTP of Single Deck blackjack.

More popular blackjack games to explore?

These are just a few examples of alternatives for the regular popular blackjack games. There are also options like Super Fun 21 Blackjack, 21+3 Blackjack, Lucky Lady etc. Be aware that many of these are based on side bets which are more or less isolated from the main game.

While blackjack has a very good RTP compared to other casino games, these side bets are often less attractive from an RTP point-of-view. However, they introduce a small chance for bigger wins as we already explained for Double Attack Blackjack. For this reason, they are often quite popular.

Always check the detailed rules for these popular blackjack games since they may differ per online casino. Have fun!