When card game enthusiasts in Spain way back in the 17th century invented Twenty-One, they probably had no idea of the cultural significance of their innovation.
The game made its way around the world, morphing and mutating into new versions and variants. In the United States (and subsequently many other jurisdictions), Twenty-One became blackjack – the casino behemoth still enjoyed hundreds of years later.
The UK and many other parts of Europe have also adopted blackjack as their own, but for a long time another variant of Twenty-One – pontoon – was one of the most popular card games to be played on those shores.
Many online casinos still offer pontoon to this day, so what is it, how do you play it and how do the rules differ to those of blackjack?
What is Pontoon?
The truth is that if you have played blackjack before, you will instantly feel at home when playing pontoon.
The object is to score as close to 21 as possible, but never more, from your allotment of cards. Actions like hitting, standing and doubling down are available, so the action is very much familiar to those that have sampled versions of Twenty-One or Vingt-Un over the years.
Indeed, one of the few chief differences between pontoon and those other variants is in the naming: if you score a hand of 21 (an ace plus a face card or ten), this is known as a ‘pontoon’ – in blackjack, you may know this combination as a ‘natural’.
What are the Rules of Pontoon?
After taking your seat at the pontoon table, you will receive your first card face upwards. Take a peek before placing your bet – there will be minimum and maximum stakes, so the value of your card will determine how you wager.
Once all players have placed their initial bets – in the online casino environment, it will likely be you versus the banker in head-to-head action, the dealer will dish out the second card face up.
At this point you can assess the quality of your cards and plot your next move. If you or the banker have a natural pontoon, this is revealed immediately and the hand is effectively over. Otherwise, the actions in pontoon are very similar to those of blackjack – albeit with different names: you can ‘stick’ (stand), twist (hit), split or buy (double down), each with the ambition of scoring 21 or as close as possible with your hand(s).
Twisting is free and is typically used when you have a mediocre hand that you don’t want to invest further in. Buying, meanwhile, enables you to add another card at a cost of your choosing – this is usually a minimum of your original stake and a maximum of double that particular amount. You can continue twisting/buying until you get to 21 or as close as you dare, although be mindful of busting that magic number.
There are some caveats. You cannot stick unless you have a score of 16 or more, and while you can buy up to a five-card hand you must have at least 12 points to buy another – if you don’t, you’ll have to twist instead. Note that, depending on the pontoon game played, you can either split all pairs or only aces; check the rules before starting your game to find out where you stand.
If you haven’t got that natural pontoon, eventually one of two things will happen: you will stand with as strong a score as you can, or you will have bust 21 and lose your stake.
Once you have stood, the banker will reveal their cards, play out their hand and the result will be determined on their score compared to yours.
What is a Five-Card Trick?
The natural pontoon hand of 21 is the best that the game has to offer – this beats all others available.
But the next best hand in pontoon is a five-card trick, which beats all others. As the name suggests, this is a five-card hand of any score – so a five-card trick of, say, 16 still beats the banker’s hand of 21 if that is made up of four cards or fewer.
If your initial hole cards are of low value – remember, an ace can be one or eleven as you choose to play it, targeting a five-card trick can often be the percentage play.
How to Win at Pontoon
As with all card games, the best hand brings home the bacon.
In pontoon, the natural 21 is the best hand available followed by the five-card trick. If neither of these are shown, then the highest scoring hand wins – note that in pontoon if the player and the banker’s hand are tied, it’s actually the banker who is considered the winner and you will lose your stake.
All basic wins in pontoon are paid out at the rate of 1:1, so you’ll basically double your money for every win that you pick up. If you land the natural pontoon combination, you’ll receive a payout of 2:1.
Pontoon vs Blackjack
So, all things considered, there’s not a great deal of difference between pontoon and blackjack, with players of one easily able to transition to the other with minimal learning curve.
One of the principal differences is when you land the natural 21 hand – blackjack typically pays at 3:2, pontoon at 2:1. That helps to explain why the house edge in pontoon is around the 0.38% mark; with online blackjack, the variant and the playing style dictates the house edge, which can range from 0.11% to as high as 1.26%.
Another factor to ponder is that, in pontoon, there’s something of a reversal to the standard form when it comes to how the cards are dealt. Your hole cards are actually given to you face up, as opposed to face down in blackjack. Some players don’t like this – they feel exposed to the dealer, so that’s something to consider. In pontoon, you also won’t see either of the banker’s cards in advance of placing your bets.
And it’s worth reiterating that, in the event of a tie in pontoon between the player and the banker, it’s actually the banker that is given the win – in blackjack, a tie typically results in a push and therefore a stake return.
So those are the key points of consideration. But if you love blackjack, you might just find that pontoon is right up your street too.