Power Blackjack

Power Blackjack is a live blackjack variant that lets a player double, triple or quadruple down on any first two cards, not just the usual strong totals. It also carries the Push 22 rule, so a dealer who busts with exactly 22 returns every standing player bet rather than losing to it. The rule that pays for all of that is in the shoe. Every nine and every ten is stripped from each deck, leaving 44 cards — the jacks, queens and kings stay. Removing eight cards of ten-value and nine-value from every deck cuts the frequency of blackjacks and of twenty, the two hands a player most wants, and that shortage is precisely what funds the multi-step doubling. Worked example: quadrupling a 10 stake puts 40 in play on one card. Against a dealer 6 that is the whole appeal of the game — and it is also why a dealer 22, which used to be a bust, now returns 10 rather than paying 40. The published return for optimal play is a little under one percent from even, and it is stated in the game information panel alongside the exact doubling rules. Basic strategy from a normal blackjack chart does not transfer cleanly to a 44-card deck, which is the practical reason to read the panel before the first hand rather than after it.