Down Under Blackjack

This is an old version of the game. Please see my updated video here.

Michael: Hi, this is Mike Shakleford at the 2016 Cutting Edge Table Game Show at the Flamingo Casino in Las Vegas and I'm here with Kyle Morris representing the game Down Under Blackjack for Mask Publishing. Hi, Kyle, can you tell me more about the game?

Kyle: Absolutely, so this is Down Under Blackjack. We're going to show you what the dealer has down under, whether it's a small, a medium, or a large card in the hole before the players decide how to play.

Michael: Okay, that sounds like a lot of good information for the player.

Kyle: It absolutely is, they get a completely new view on the game. It's not a just a face card up, we know if it's small, medium, or large in the hole.

Michael: So I would imagine for the smart player, there would be three separate basic strategies for a low, medium, and large card.

Kyle: That's correct, while it does feel like a huge advantage for the player, the strategy does get a little more complicated based on the up card and the range of the whole card.

Michael: And what are the other blackjack rules, besides knowing something about the card in the hole?

Kyle: So we have the golden rule, which has two parts. If the dealer gets two gold cards, we flip them up and sometimes we actually expose both cards and the players get to play against the open hand. For a player, if they get two gold cards, that's actually going to win when the dealer makes a 22 along with any player that has 21.

Michael: Okay, so which are the gold cards?

Kyle: So the gold cards are the ten through Ace, all the big cards.

Michael: All right, as I said before, you're with Mask Publishing and I believe you're behind another very successful game. Which one would that be?

Kyle: We are behind Spanish 21, and we actually took the-- matched the dealer's side bet from its successful run with Spanish 21 and we added it to Down Under Blackjack.

Michael: All right, well I hope you have as much success with this game as you did with Spanish 21. Can you show me a few examples?

Kyle: Absolutely. Dealt and played just like regular blackjack, but before we let the player's make a decision, I put the cards in the peeker and this time I see a blue square which guarantees the whole card will be a two, three, four, or five. Now we play regular blackjack. We can change our strategy a little bit. With ten, normally we would just hit it against a face card, but now we can actually double down, so we'll double on ten. We'll stay on 16 and 17, as advertised the dealer has 14, and that's 23 too many.

Kyle: Perfect.

Kyle: So in this hand, I check the cards and see a red card in the hole. With a seven out, that guarantees the dealer has 13, 14, 15, or 16. We'll have pretty much everybody stay. Nobody has a seven to match the dealer. And that's 15. Too many. At this point, a lot of people ask, "how do you get your edge back?" since you've given something away, and I'll show you on this next hand. We have what we call our golden rule and it covers what happens when I have a gold card up and I see a gold card in the peeker. Any time that happens, we just flip the cards over. If it's blackjack, obviously, it's over. If not, players are still going to have a chance to take a hit and try and beat the dealer's 20.

Kyle: No one has a match there, so 18 who'd normally stay, he's going to draw. Well, he had a chance at least.

Kyle: So 15 turns into 17. Hit it again, there's 21, 19, perfect. Push and a win. That's our golden rule for the dealer, I'll show you our golden rule for the player. Let's see, I've got a little one in the hole this time and that ten matches the dealer, so it's going to pay for a one. That ten's here. Okay, what would you like to with 11? We know the dealer's got a little one. Just a hit? Okay. Twenty's good. The dealer has 12 and that makes 22. When the dealer makes 22, any player with exactly two gold cards is still going to win. Any player with a total of 21, no matter how many cards they take is going to win, and anyone else who's left in the hand at that point pushes.

Michael: So Kyle, thank you very much for that example.

Kyle: You're welcome.

Michael: And I wish you success and that is Down Under Blackjack.