Question of the Day - 17 April 2022

[Editor's Note: As is our wont, we handed this one off to Arnold Snyder. And as always, we're glad we did; he gives us the whole story on this rule variation.]

This rule has been available in casino blackjack variations for many years and you're correct, it's anything but good for the player.

Just added to an otherwise-standard blackjack game, it has an effect of -6.91%, according to the Wizard of Odds. That’s horrible!

Of course, the players must play their hands before the dealer plays his hand. So when players bust, they lose their bets. After the players finish playing their hands, the dealer plays his. If the dealer hits to a total of 22, any player hands still in play—i.e., all hands totaling 21 or less—neither win nor lose, but simply push.

It's easy to see that this rule variation is atrocious for the players.

The first place I saw this rule was on a game called Blackjack Switch, available in online casinos more than 15 years ago and later in some downtown Las Vegas casinos. Blackjack Switch had a whole raft of unusual rules that were favorable to players: For example, the player could play two hands and switch cards between the hands to make better hands, the rule variation that gave the game its name.
But in this game, the 22-push rule was added. There were so many player-favorable rules that this one was needed just to balance the game closer to breakeven. I analyzed this variation of blackjack and provided a playing strategy for switching cards in my 2006 book, The Big Book of Blackjack.

About 10 years ago, the rule was introduced in another blackjack variation called Free Bet Blackjack, invented by the same guy who created Blackjack Switch. Again, the 22-push rule was used to balance out a whole raft of unusual rules that favored the player.

I’m not aware of this rule ever having been used on a blackjack game with an otherwise normal set of rules. If it is on such a game, avoid it!

If “Pompsie” ran into the rule at the Sahara (or any other Las Vegas casino), I’d be willing to bet it was on either a Blackjack Switch or Free Bet Blackjack table. Both variations are still available in Vegas casinos. Free Bet Blackjack has become quite popular. But I wouldn’t advise playing in such a game unless you've first studied the proper basic strategies. You won't do well with normal blackjack basic strategy.