Learning the Major Lessons for Pontoon in One Sitting

Published: August 7, 2014

Pontoon is very closely related to blackjack, and most sources indicate that blackjack was developed from this game or a variation of it. If you want to play pontoon online with a high level of skill, then there is good news and bad news. The good news is that the strategies involved aren't always as difficult as they are with games like blackjack, and they're certainly not as complicated as they can be with video poker. However, the bad news is that your intuition as a blackjack player can really lead you in the wrong direction because pontoon is often a vastly different game.

Let's start with some basic principles. There is no dealer card available to look at, so there are only three key pieces of information that you have available. That information is the total of your hand, whether your hand is hard or soft, and how many cards are in your hand. Having four cards gives you a much stronger hand than having just two in this game because getting five cards without going bust beats everything except for a natural 21 (two initial cards that make 21).

Next up is when to stand. You can't stand on less than 15 because of the rules of the game, so that kind of simplifies things a bit. You'll only stand with a soft hand if you have exactly two cards and you have a total of 19 or more. With hard hands, you're always going to stand with 15 or higher unless you have a four-card hand. In this instance, you'll stand with just 18 or higher. Split hands are played according to their hard hand value except that you're always going to split aces and eights.

The doubling game is the other major lesson you need to take from pontoon if you want to have a good chance at doing well. If you have four cards to a soft hand, you should obviously always double since you're guaranteed a five-card hand with a double-sized bet, and this includes when you have a soft 21. Double four-card hard hands with 16 or less, double hard 10s-11s with two cards, and double hard 9s-11s with three cards. When it comes to other soft hands, double if you have a soft 19 or more with three hands, and never double a soft hand with two cards.