Malaysian Pontoon

This game is similar to match play 21 or Spanish 21, while original pontoon, played in Britain, holds closer to the traditional Twenty-One rules, but can be quickly distinguished by the use of the terms "twist" and "stick".

[3] The British variant of Twenty-One called pontoon is played in the UK and Commonwealth with single 52-card decks.

[4] Pontoon is the British or domestic version of Twenty-One which was originally Vingt-Un (French for twenty-one), a French gambling game popular at the court of Louis XV and later, much favoured by Napoleon, especially at St.

[5] In the twentieth century it became the most popular game of the armed forces of English-speaking nations.

The Australasian version of pontoon is an arithmetical game played on a table with the same layout as blackjack.

In each deal, the player's aim is to receive cards totalling more in face value than the banker's, but not exceeding 21, otherwise he/she is "bust" and loses.

The complete set of optimal plays is known as basic strategy, and is highly dependent on the rules.

Pontoon does, on average, have a lower house edge than its American counterparts because the player is paid out immediately on any total of 21, regardless of whether the dealer ends up with a natural (a blackjack).

Key: The following table lists the Pontoon house edges for all known rule sets.

The result is that Pontoon, on average, has about two-thirds the house edge of Australian Blackjack, which due to no surrender, hole card, and limitations on soft doubling, has some of the highest house edges for regular Blackjack in the world.