How to Understand and Do Well at Pontoon

Published: December 11, 2014

Pontoon is a game that's related to blackjack, and while you might be tempted to jump right into the action if you're already an established blackjack player, that might not be the best idea. There are some serious differences in the basic game mechanics of this game, and if you want to understand the game and do well in it, then you have to start by understanding the basics. We're going to walk you through which rules you need to know and what information you need to be using to make decisions about the value of the hands that you hold when you play this game.

Start off with the fact that the dealer has no up card in this game. That means that everything you do will be based purely on the total of your hand and whether it's a soft or hard hand. However, add in the fact that you can beat anything other than a natural 21 (called a pontoon in this game) if you end up with a five-card hand, and things quickly become more complicated. Not only do you have to think about having a hard or soft hand, and not only do you have to consider your point total, but you also have to consider the number of cards in your hand.

So consider the evaluations as follows. A total of X with two cards is always weaker than a total of X with three cards because three cards will make it easier, on average, to make a five-card hand if need bet. Along similar lines, a total of X with four cards is always going to be a strong hand. This would lead us to think that we should double much less often with two or three cards as we do with four.

It also has an interesting effect on how we play soft hands specifically. Doubling any soft hand with four cards will always be the right play, even if we have 21. Along similar lines, doubling with any hard hand 16 or lower will also be correct as long as we have four cards. Note that hitting with two or three cards with low hard hands is forced by the rules since we can only stand if we have a total of 15 or more, and that eliminates a lot of otherwise difficult decisions.