Pirate 21 Blackjack Review

One of Betsoft’s more interesting blackjack styles is called Pirate 21. This game includes a ton of different side bets and special rules that add a lot of strategic elements that you wouldn’t normally find in a blackjack game.

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Pirate 21 Blackjack Game Review

One of Betsoft’s more interesting blackjack styles is called Pirate 21. This game includes a ton of different side bets and special rules that add a lot of strategic elements that you wouldn’t normally find in a blackjack game. Unfortunately, it also gives you more chances to go wrong if you just blindly follow standard online blackjack advice. The two key features of this game are the Spanish deck (a 48-card deck that includes no 10s) and the wide range of special side bets and jackpots that you can get for specific card combinations.

Match Side Bet

Let’s start with the Match Side Bet. This is a side bet that you can make that will give you payouts based on whether or not the dealer’s cards match one of your own. You get a 4:1 payout for an off suit match of your card, and you get a 9:1 payout for a suited match of your card. Since this game uses a six-deck shoe, your chances aren’t terrible with this side bet. However, it still has a house advantage of more than two percent, and so you shouldn’t take it. Instead, you should focus on trying to play as well as possible within the standard game.

Pirate 21 Blackjack Rules

One rule that’s worth noting is that ties at 21 always go in favor of the player instead of being a push. This also includes player blackjacks beating dealer blackjacks, and since they pay out at 3:2 instead of the typical 1:1 for offbeat 21-style games, it’s a pretty good rule to have. You can get various side payouts for making 21 with five or more cards as well, and there are other side payouts for hitting 7-7-7 and 6-7-8 combinations. They are paid out automatically with no required side bet, so they’re not really worth worrying about in terms of overall strategy.

What is worth worrying about is the fact that there are no tens in the deck. Having fewer tens means that you will hit blackjacks less often, but it also has a couple of other effects. First, the dealer will not bust as often since it’s the forced hit on totals from 12-16 that create most dealer busts. Second, you will not bust as often when you hit on the same hard totals. Both of these effects mean that you have to be a little more aggressive with hard hands against weak dealer cards.

Another important rule change for Pirate 21 when compared to typical blackjack is that you can double on however many cards you want. This means that you will get more opportunities to double with totals of ten and eleven. However, remember that since there are no tens in a Spanish deck, your average hand after doubling will be slightly weaker than usual. To compensate for this, you should hit instead of doubling in the least favorable doubling scenarios like when you’re facing a two or three with soft hands or when you’re facing a nine or higher with a hard ten or eleven.

Rated 4/5