How to play
Quad Down 21 is blackjack with a bigger doubling button. On your first two cards you can raise your bet to two, three or four times, take one more card and let it ride. To pay for that, the shoe is thinner: all the 9s and 10s have been taken out, so strong totals are harder to reach.
The goal is the usual one: finish closer to 21 than the dealer without going over. Cards 2 to 8 count their face value, Jacks, Queens and Kings count 10, and an ace counts 1 or 11.
A round:
- Choose a chip, bet between 10 and 500 credits, then press Deal.
- If the dealer shows an ace you can take insurance, which costs half your bet and pays 2 to 1 if the dealer has blackjack.
- When the dealer shows an ace or a 10-value card, they check for blackjack before you play.
- Play your hand with Hit, Stand, Double, Triple, Quadruple or Split.
- The dealer draws to 17 and stands on every 17. Blackjack pays 3 to 2 and a tie is a push.
The deck
The game uses eight decks with every 9 and 10 removed, which leaves 44 cards per deck: A to 8, plus J, Q and K. In a normal deck, 16 of 52 cards are worth 10. Here it’s 12 of 44, and no card is worth 9.
That changes how hands play out:
- a two-card 9, 10 or 11 is less likely to turn into 19, 20 or 21;
- aces make up a bigger share of the deck, so blackjacks come slightly more often;
- small cards come up more often, for you and for the dealer.
Doubling, tripling and quadrupling
| Button | Your bet becomes | When |
|---|---|---|
| Double | 2× | First two cards, including after a split |
| Triple | 3× | First two cards, including after a split |
| Quadruple | 4× | First two cards, including after a split |
Each one deals you exactly one more card and ends the hand. Triple and Quadruple only show up when you hold two cards and have enough credits to cover the extra bet. With a bet of 100 and 250 credits left, for example, you can triple (200 more) but not quadruple (300 more). A win pays even money on the whole raised bet.
You can split a pair once, making two hands in total. Split aces get one card each. There’s no surrender.
Strategy
If doubling is right, quadrupling is righter. Doubling and quadrupling deal the same single card, so whenever raising the bet is worth it at all, the biggest raise is worth the most. The Hint button follows this rule. It shows Triple only when you can’t afford to quadruple.
Double less often than in classic blackjack. Without 9s and 10s, the card you’re hoping for is rarer. The hint still quadruples 11 against a dealer 6 and 10 against a dealer 7. But it hits 11 against a dealer 10, and it never raises on a hard 9. A classic strategy would double both.
Look out for soft hands. Soft 19 (ace-8) against a dealer 6 is a quadruple. A dealer showing 6 busts often, and a small card can’t hurt you. Soft 18 (ace-7) against a 3, a classic doubling hand, is a stand here.
Split 8s. A pair of 8s is 16, the worst total in the game. Even against a dealer 10, the hint splits it into two hands starting on 8.
Size your base bet for the raise. Quadrupling a 50 bet puts 200 on one card. Keep enough credits behind your bet to take the raise when the hint calls for it.
The odds
Over one million hands played with the hint’s strategy, the house edge came out at about 1.17%, give or take 0.29%. The bigger doubles give you a lot back, but the missing 9s and 10s take a bit more. Results also swing more than in classic blackjack, because many of your winning and losing hands are played at four times the stake.
For blackjack with a standard deck, play classic Blackjack. Fiesta 21 removes only the 10s and adds player-friendly bonuses. Free Double 21 lets the house pay for some of your doubles.
If you enjoy Quad Down 21, try Raise 21 or Random Multiplier Poker next.
