Double Exposure blackjack reveals both initial dealer cards before the player acts. That information is valuable, so the game uses compensating rules. The treatment of ties, blackjack payouts, soft 17, doubles and splits must be taken from the exact table or software rules.
Historical record
U.S. Patent 5,979,897 describes Double Exposure Twenty-One as a game first played at Vegas World in 1979 with both dealer cards face up. Its summary of that historical version says the dealer wins ties except blackjack, blackjack pays even money, and doubling after splits and surrender are unavailable.
That patent discussion documents a version; it is not a universal current rulebook. A modern implementation may use different approved options.
Why exposed cards change strategy
In standard blackjack, the player normally sees one dealer upcard. Seeing the dealer’s full initial total changes the expected value of hitting, standing, doubling and splitting. Standard upcard-only basic strategy therefore does not apply unchanged.
Compensating rules to check
- whether the dealer wins all ties or whether blackjack is an exception;
- the payout for a player blackjack;
- whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17;
- which totals may be doubled;
- whether doubling after a split is allowed;
- how many times pairs may be split;
- whether surrender or insurance exists;
- number of decks and shuffle procedure.
Soft 17 defined correctly
A soft 17 is any 17 in which an ace is currently counted as 11. It does not have to contain exactly two cards. If the dealer draws to a soft 17, the ace can change from 11 to 1 when necessary; the resulting total can improve, remain 17 or become a lower hard total.
Do not infer an average winning total
A statement that the “average winning hand is around 19” is not useful without a definition, ruleset, weighting method and calculation. Compare expected value or outcome probabilities under stated rules instead.
Source
Further reading
More information about the dealer’s hand does not make incomplete rules safe to assume.
