Pontoon Card Game

In blackjack, the players have to make relatively few decisions and the basic rules and strategies of blackjack are not very complicated. It is possible for all players to understand the basic rules of the game because of which the game has become so famous with the players from all over the world.

Today, the game can be found in all the casinos all over the world as well as on the online casinos. However, blackjack players do not just have to stop at playing just the standard blackjack game. There are dozens of interesting variations of the game which can be found in the casinos and which are quite interesting for the players.

Pontoon Card Game

Pontoon is a variation of the blackjack game and is played in several Malaysian and Australian casinos. The game is also sometimes referred to as Treasury 21, especially in the Treasury Casino in Brisbane. Also, in Gold Coast, the Jupiter's Casino refers to the game as Jupiters 21. In Tasmania the game is called Federal Pontoon while in Cairns it is often known as the Paradise pontoon.

Pontoon card game is also quite widely played in the UK. However, in the UK the game of pontoon is played with a regular deck of 52 cards. The game is quite popular in Australia and UK and today it is widely spreading to the other parts of the world as well.

History of pontoon card game

Blackjack and Pontoon both have their roots in the French game of Vingt-et-un which was a very famous French game popular during the time of Louis XV and even later on. The game had been quite popular with Napoleon at St. Helena. During the 20th century, the game became quite popular with the armies of all the English speaking nations.

Pontoon is the domestic or the British version of the game. Unlike the casino blackjack, in pontoon there are no official rules and the rules would widely vary from one casino to another.

The objective of the game

Pontoon is basically a mathematical game which is played in the same manner as blackjack. Here, in every dealer, the aim of the punter is to receive the cards which total more than the value of the cards of the banker without exceeding the total of 21. If the player's total exceeds 21, he would bust and lose the hand. A 21 which consists of a Ten and an Ace is considered as a pontoon and would pay extra. However, a banker's pontoon cannot be beaten by a player's pontoon. The banker would always win the hand in case of equality.

Just like Spanish 21, Pontoon too is played from a four deck shuffling machine or from a shoe. The shoe games would use six or sometimes eight Spanish decks. Spanish decks are basically 48 card deck, the ten spot cards do not exist in the game. The aces count as 1 or 11 as required while the court cards would count as 10. All the remaining cards would have their face value.