Blackjack is thought to be the world’s most popular card game. And whilst we can all recognize it as a classic game of 21, it may be surprising to find that there are plenty of variants of the casino game out there.

So here’s a look at the different types of blackjack, and how they can all offer you different levels of complexity, and different ways of winning.

Spanish blackjack

Whilst standard blackjack is famous for having a very low house edge, Spanish blackjack offers the house a better chance of winning by removing the tens from the standard deck of cards.

This is done as Spanish blackjack gives the player more ways to win through providing bonuses for seven-card 21s, doubling three-card elevens, and even making sure that a 21 always wins.

21st century blackjack

When blackjack became banned in California, some enterprising gamblers decided to work their way around the ban by developing ‘21st century blackjack’.

This plays much like a game of standard blackjack, but it introduces multiple decks and even jokers to differentiate it. Whilst being able to win a game of 21st century blackjack just by picking up a single joker to make 21 might be fun, it’s clear that most people prefer playing the traditional way at sites like LadyLucks who’ve also included some handy guidelines of how to play the classic version of blackjack, all from your mobile.

Pure blackjack

Pure blackjack is another Californian variant of blackjack that’s emerged recently. This does away with the jokers, and instead makes the gamers attempt to reach 21.5 as all picture cards and tens are worth ten points, unless they are dealt an ace first, where they become 10.5.

This version of the game sees players competing against each other rather than the house in a bid to get past California’s strict gambling laws. But in all other respects it is remarkably similar to standard blackjack, and offers a fun and fast alternative.

Another interesting addition to the blackjack canon is blackjack switch. Although it was only invented in 2009, it’s quickly taken off in the online realm as it allows two hands to be dealt to each player, and the player can then switch the top two cards between hands.

This really opens up the options to the player, but obviously there are ways that the house can try and even things up. As a result natural blackjacks are only paid 1:1 and a dealer hand of 22 will push against anything that isn’t a blackjack for the player. All of which shows just how many interpretations there are of this fascinating card game.