Matchplay 21: The Blackjack Revolution
Matchplay 21 is Blackjack with a twist; it's Blackjack with a little kick. There are many, many forms of the Blackjack game (and, in fact, of almost all casino games) out there, but Matchplay 21 is one of the most unusual forms of the Blackjack game to find its way to the Internet. In Matchplay 21, in fact, all of the 10 cards are removed from the deck entirely. It seems so random. It seems so strange.
The Ins and Outs of Matchplay 21
Everything else is still the same: the object of the Matchplay 21 Blackjack game is still to achieve a hand with a value as close to 21 as possible without exceeding that limit. To start off with, the player is dealt two face-up cards and the dealer is dealt one face-up card and one face-down card. That is all as usual. A hand called a Blackjack hand is still a two-card hand equaling 21 and a Blackjack hand still automatically wins the game.
Matchplay 21, however, is a special Blackjack game because it has some special rules and some very special payouts. A payout of 40:1, for example, comes with a hand called MatchPlay 21, which consists of three 7 cards in a row. But there's one twist: the dealer's face-up card must also have been a 7 (using all four 7 cards in a standard 52-card deck). With the four 10 cards removed, face cards carry a value of 10, while numbered cards 2 through 9 are worth their face value, and aces can be worth either 1 or 11 points, depending on what best suits the hand of the player. Also, in Matchplay 21, you can split any two cards of the same point value, while you can double only once. If you choose to split, however, you must place a new bet on the new hand which equals your earlier bet on the original hand.
There are many different payouts with many different ratios on many different hands in the MatchPlay 21 Blackjack game. A classic Blackjack hand, for example, pays out 3:2. The MatchPlay 21 Blackjack hand, as previously described, pays out 40:1. Three 7 cards in spades pay out 3:1, as do the run of 6,7, and 8 of spades and a hand of 21 using seven or more cards. Any other hand of three 7 cards of the same suit, however, pays out 2:1 instead of 3:1. The same can be said of the 6, 7, and 8 cards in any suit but spades. A six-card hand equaling 21 also pays out 2:1. Many of these referenced payouts are for hands that have not been split and doubled.
There are many online resources which will point novice or interested players to information on the MatchPlay 21 Blackjack game, its various hands, and its various payouts. Reading all of this, however, it seems that it is a complicated game, as some of the hands and payouts seem somewhat redundant, and some hands are listed twice (in some places) with different payout ratios. Keeping track of all of it would be the job of one who enjoys a bit of a challenge.
