What is Australian Pontoon?

Australian Pontoon is a unlicensed local variation of Blackjack that comes in many different shapes and sizes. It's very similar to a game called Spanish 21, a well known blackjack variant that's owned and licensed by Masque Publishing Inc.

Australian Pontoon is not licensed by any companies and is popular throughout the Australian and Malaysian continent (don't get it confused with the UK game 'Pontoon'). The game actually goes by many different names according to where in Australia/Malaysia it is being played; for example, in the Treasury Casino in Brisbane, it is known as Treasury 21.

Pontoon and Blackjack both originally come from the game 'Vingt-et-un' (French for twenty-one). The game has been around since the time of Louis XV and was loved by Napoleon.

While the rules for blackjack tend to remain the same wherever the game is played, Pontoon rules change according to where in the world the game is being played. However, the basic premise remains the same: each player is aiming to 'beat' the dealer in terms of card face value, but not to exceed 21. A 'pontoon' is a hand consisting of an ace and a card worth ten - this hand pays more than a straightforward win.

Australian Pontoon can either be played with a standard 52 card pack or with a 48 card Spanish pack (used in the official Spanish 21), where the 4 ten-spot cards have been removed.

A keen Australian Pontoon player can learn something called 'Basic Strategy' which reduces the banker's advantage to less than 0.5%. Because of the rules' variations, pontoon is often a much more complicated game than blackjack. Because the rules of Australian pontoon vary from casino to casino, the first step in playing a tactical game of pontoon is to choose the best location!