Power Blackjack Live
Evolution Gaming’s Power Blackjack Live game offers players a chance to triple or quadruple their hands instead of just doubling while also offering four different exciting side bets within their Infinity Blackjack format. This means no worrying about looking for empty seats since you can always play at this game.
Casinos with Power Blackjack Live
An Introduction to Power Blackjack Live
The number of blackjack variations out there in general is pretty tremendous, and there are easily dozens of distinctly different styles of the game. The Power Blackjack live dealer game is another one of those, exclusively available from Evolution Gaming in a live game format. It has some special rules and extra side bets that make the game particularly exciting.
The main rule change compared to other games is that you can triple or quadruple your bet for one extra card instead of only doubling.
Savvy blackjack fans will know that this rule change by itself would increase the payout rate for the player quite a bit, so there has to be some other rule change that makes the game a little bit harder. That comes in the form of the game having an atypically sized deck, which we’ll get into down below.
If you like big wager multipliers and lots of action with several popular side bets, then this is a blackjack game that you will not want to miss.
Rules and Gameplay Procedure
The way this game is set up is a little different than what you’ll find from other blackjack games, no matter if they’re live dealer-based or use a more traditional online format. As a result, it’s more important than usual for players to know what they’re getting into before they sit down to play.
Basic Rules of Power Blackjack Live
There are a number of parameters and basic rules for this game that players will want to know whether they are new to the genre or they are blackjack veterans.
- The deck used in this game is atypical in that it has no “9s” or “10s.” The jacks, queens and kings are still in the deck, so it’s a 44-card deck in total.
- Eight of these decks are used at a time in a shoe, and they’re dealt down until one-half of them have been taken out before a new shoe is brought to the table.
- The dealer will peek for blackjack with a 10-point card or an ace.
- Players can only split a single time.
- Doubling is expanded with tripling or quadrupling options where you triple or quadruple your wager for a single extra card.
- Doubling (and its variants) are allowed after a split.
- No surrender option is available in this game.
- The six-card Charlie option is not available in this game either.
- Dealers will stand on a soft 17.
There are also four side bets that we’ll cover in a section down below.
Gameplay Procedure for Power Blackjack Live
Unlike many other live dealer blackjack games, you will not have to reserve a given spot at the table and play that spot’s hand only. Instead, only one hand is dealt, and players will decide how to play with that one hand themselves. Each possibility is dealt out after players have made their decisions so that you can see how each possibility would have played.
That leads to the following gameplay procedure.
- Players make their wagers and any optional side bet wagers.
- Two cards are dealt for the player with both face-up. This is the case no matter how many players are enjoying the game since everyone plays the same hand.
- Two cards are dealt for the dealer with one face-up and one face-down.
- If the dealer has a 10-point card or an ace showing, he or she will check for blackjack. If the dealer has blackjack, the player hand loses unless the player also has blackjack, which makes it a push. Dealer blackjacks do not affect side bets.
- Otherwise, players get the chance to make their decisions on which betting options to play. See the available betting options below.
- If the player goes over a total of 21, then the player busts and loses the hand.
- Once the player stands, the dealer will hit on any total of less than 16 until a total of 17 or more is achieved.
- If the dealer busts, and the player still has a hand (ie: did not bust himself or herself), then the player wins.
- If the dealer does not bust, the player wins with a higher total than the dealer, and ties are a push.
- Side bets are also resolved, and betting for a new hand begins.
We also have the following betting options:
- Stand – Stop play and receive no more hands.
- Hit – Receive an additional card and continue play.
- Split – Add an additional wager equal to your starting wager to split two cards of equal ranks into two new hands. This can only be done once per hand in Power Blackjack.
- Double/Triple/Quadruple – With any two starting cards, the player can receive exactly one additional card and immediately stand regardless of that card’s value while doubling, tripling or quadrupling (at the player’s discretion) the initial size of the wager.
Note that you can only split with two cards that have the same rank, and you can only double/triple/quadruple with two cards in your hand. You do have the ability to double/triple/quadruple after splitting.
Side Bets in Power Blackjack
There are four different side bets available in this game. They each have their own pros and cons and ways of being resolved. If you like extra action, they are definitely something to check out.
Bust It Side Bet
The idea behind the bust it side bet is that you’re betting that the dealer will bust, and you’ll receive payouts based on how many cards the dealer has if he or her does bust out.
The pay table for the Bust It side bet in the Power Blackjack live dealer game is as follows:
- 8+ cards – 250x
- 7 cards – 100x
- 6 cards – 50x
- 5 cards – 9x
- 4 cards – 2x
- 3 cards – 1x
You get to root for the dealer to pick up more cards with this side bet, which makes it very engaging and particularly popular.
21+3 Side Bet
The 21+3 side bet adds a bit of three-card poker action to this game. This is set up by using the player’s two cards and the dealer’s up-card to create a three-card poker hand that is then paid out based on the following pay table:
- Three of a Kind (same suit) – 100x
- Straight Flush – 40x
- Three of a Kind (not same suit) – 25x
- Straight – 10x
- Flush – 5x
Some players may wonder why a straight pays more than a flush on this pay table since a flush is better than a straight in most poker games. The answer is that in three-card poker hands, a flush is actually easier to get than a straight, so it’s a smaller prize when three-card hands are used.
Any Pair Side Bet
This is probably the most simple side bet in the live dealer Power Blackjack game. You can get a payout if your two starting cards are of the same rank with the following prizes:
- Pair in the Same Suit – 25x
- Pair in Different Suits – 8x
There’s not much else to this one.
Hot 3
The Hot 3 side bet adds up the sum of the two player cards with the dealer’s up card to score wins based on a straightforward pay table. The cards are scored the same as in blackjack, so you can use aces to count as 1 or 11 points, whichever will give you the best potential win.
- Triple Sevens – 100x
- 21 (same suit) – 20x
- 21 (different suits) – 4x
- 20 total – 2x
- 19 total – 1x
The top payout with three sevens is fun here and is the main attraction for the side bet as a whole.
How to Win at Power Blackjack Live
There are some serious strategic differences for Power Blackjack that you don’t necessarily see in other games, and that makes it stand out in a very serious way from a strategic standpoint.
First off, you do not have any 9s or 10s in the deck, which shifts the house edge in favor of the house significantly. A big part of this is that doubling (or in this case, tripling and quadrupling) opportunities are of a lower value on average, so you have to look for bigger edges to increase your bet size in this way.
The extra option to triple or quadruple in addition to doubling adds an interesting twist to things. From a strategic perspective, you should actually never double or triple. Quadrupling or playing normally should be your only options with good hands, and that will typically happen with a strong total against a weak dealer card (3-6).
Note also that 2s don’t qualify as a “weak” dealer card in this game because of the removed 9s and 10s from the deck. The weak cards are 3-6, and the neutral cards are 2, 7 and 8. That makes the strong cards J, Q, K and A.
Overview
As far as blackjack variations go, particularly in the live dealer space, it’s hard to find one that has more strategic differences than normal than what you see in Power Blackjack Live. It’s a super-solid game with a lot of action from the quadruple option and four different side bets. If action is what you’re looking for, then this is probably the best live dealer blackjack table game that you’ll find out there because of all of these extra ways to get paid.
FAQ
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