Pennsylvania’s regulated game is called Double Attack Blackjack. It uses eight 48-card decks with the rank-ten cards removed, while jacks, queens and kings remain and still count as 10. The dealer shows one card before players decide whether to make the separate Double Attack wager.
A bounded official ruleset
This page describes Chapter 665a of the Pennsylvania Code, adopted for Double Attack Blackjack. It is not a claim that every game marketed with a similar name follows the same rules or is currently available online.
Compare it with standard blackjack rules before using a strategy chart.
Deck and deal
The game uses eight decks of 48 cards. Only the 10 of each suit is removed; jacks, queens and kings remain ten-value cards. At the start of a round, the dealer receives one face-up card. After seeing that upcard, an eligible player may add a Double Attack wager. The players then receive their two cards and the dealer receives a face-down second card.
Dealer play and blackjack payments
Under this ruleset, the dealer draws below 17 and stops on a hard or soft total of 17 through 21. The layout states that blackjack pays even money and insurance pays 5 to 2. The Code also specifies how the original, Double Attack, insurance and optional Bust It wagers settle; use its current paytable rather than a copied list.
Double Attack is not doubling down
The optional Double Attack wager is no larger than the original Bet Wager. You decide after seeing the dealer’s upcard but before receiving your own cards. Doubling down comes later, once you have a hand: except on blackjack, it is allowed on two or more cards, including a split hand, and gives you exactly one additional card. Its maximum amount is the combined original Bet and Double Attack wagers.
Suppose you place 10 units initially and add a 5-unit Double Attack wager. Your exposure is now 15 units. A subsequent maximum double adds 15 more, bringing the hand’s total to 30. The word “double” refers to two different decisions here; seeing a favorable dealer card does not tell you what your own hand will be.
Follow the money when the hand settles
For an undoubled, unsplit hand with a 10-unit Bet Wager and a 5-unit Double Attack wager, a winning hand earns 15 units of profit and returns 30 in total. A push returns the 15 units staked with no profit. A winning natural is also paid at even money, rather than the usual 3:2 premium.
The dealer-blackjack exception matters. If you do not have blackjack and the dealer does, your original 10-unit Bet Wager loses, but the 5-unit Double Attack wager is returned. Your net loss is 10, not 15. If both you and the dealer have blackjack, the wagers push. These settlement rules come from §665a.7; they are not a promise that the optional wager is profitable.
Bust It does not pay for every dealer bust
The optional Bust It wager is placed before the dealer’s upcard is dealt. It requires the dealer to bust with the third card. For example, dealer 9 + 7 + queen totals 26 and qualifies; dealer 5 + 6 + 4 + queen also totals 25, but the bust occurs on the fourth card and does not qualify. A three-card total of 21 is not a bust. Keep this separate wager’s outcome separate from your main hand, which may win, lose or push for a different reason.
Why ordinary strategy does not transfer
Removing every rank-ten card changes card frequencies, while the exposed dealer upcard and second wager change the decision sequence. Surrender, doubling, splitting and Bust It rules must also be taken from the same Chapter 665a configuration. A standard 52-card blackjack chart is not automatically correct.
Availability and safety
A regulator’s rule chapter establishes an approved procedure, not that a particular casino or website currently offers the game. Verify the venue, posted limits, current rules and complaint process before play.
Further reading
Double Attack Blackjack involves financial risk. Use the exact regulated rules and affordable limits.
