Pontoon rules

The British ancestor of blackjack. The rules look similar and play quite differently, mostly because the banker's cards stay hidden and the banker's seat can change hands.

Players and deck

Two to eight players, one of whom is the banker, with an ordinary 52-card deck.

Values

Aces are 1 or 11, court cards are 10, everything else counts its face value. Go over 21 and you are bust.

The deal

The banker deals one card face down to everyone including themselves. Players look and stake. A second card follows, again face down. Nothing the banker holds is ever shown until the end.

The two special hands

A pontoon is an ace with a ten-value card, and it beats everything. A five card trick is any five cards totalling 21 or less, and it beats everything except a pontoon.

A player dealt a pontoon makes no decisions — it is already the best hand there is.

Your turn

Buy: increase your stake and take a card face down. Twist: take a card face up without increasing the stake. Once you twist you may not buy again. Stick: stop. You may only stick on 15 or more.

Go over 21 and you have bust: you hand your cards in and lose your stake at once, whatever the banker ends up with. Five cards is the limit — once you hold five, you stop.

The banker's turn

When every player has finished, the banker turns their two cards over and takes more as they please. They are not bound by the rule of fifteen. A banker who busts pays everyone who is still in.

Settling

The banker wins ties, which is where the seat's advantage lies. A pontoon or a five card trick pays double.

Ties are wider than they look. Equal totals go to the banker, and so do a player's five card trick against the banker's, and a player's pontoon against the banker's pontoon.

Taking the bank

A player dealt a pontoon takes over the bank at the end of the hand, unless the banker had one too. That is what makes the game a contest rather than a house game.

Pontoon and blackjack

The differences in one list: no card of the banker's is face up, the banker wins every tie, a five card trick is a winning hand, you cannot stick below 15, and the bank moves round the table instead of belonging to the house. Stick, twist and bust are blackjack's stand, hit and bust.