You may encounter a new table game called Burn 20 Blackjack at a casino near you.If you do, here's the lowdown on how to play. Most of the rules are the same as you've encountered at standard blackjack games all over the world. You know, 52-card deck - no jokers - blackjack pays 3 for 2 (you aren't accepting  terrible rules like 6-5 blackjack are you?). The game you find will most likely be played from a six-deck shoe, and as a Shuffle Master offering, there will probably be a multi-shuffler mixing the cards.


The game gets its name from the most important rule: the dealer will burn their own hand and draw a new one if they receive a 2-card 20. So if the dealer gets an ace and a nine or two tens, the hand is burned and you'll most likely be up against an easier hand to beat. That's great.

In exchange for this likely improvement in your odds of winning, the game uses the same twist that other Shuffle Master games like Free Bet, Blackjack Switch and Zappit use: when the dealer makes 22, all remaining player hands are a push. Now don't worry, you'll have already been paid 3 for 2 on a blackjack, but of course your hand will already be over if you busted.

Burn 20 Blackjack Rules

• Dealer hits soft 17
• Player may double on any number of cards
• Split aces get one card only and can not be doubled
• Standard 2-1 insurance
• Blackjack pays 3 for 2
• Dealer 2-card 20 is burned and new cards drawn
• Dealer Suited Blackjack is burned and new cards drawn
• Dealer redraw can not improve dealers hand (any redraw 20 or blackjack is burned)

• Dealer bust on 22 results in a push for remaining player hands

The dealer will hit a suited blackjack about once in 84 hands, so it's not going to happen too often. Still, it's a nice little bonus to have them forced to burn the hand. And, they will continue to burn any two-card hand of 20 or 21, so that's good too.

As for the dealer bust total of 22, that's going to happen much more often and the push 22 adds almost 7-percent to the house edge. This is of course is an overall trade-off, so if you find the game with the above rules you can expect the total house edge to be about .8-percent, which is still a very good casino game. This of course is if you are playing basic strategy.

If the dealer stands on soft 17 the house edge will drop to only about half the above number - making this a very good game at just .43-percent (yes, below 1-percent).

Since we know that the dealer will never have a starting hand of 20 (since those get burned), you might want to adopt a few strategy changes to your play. Try and remember your best blackjack strategy and adopt these rules:

Adjusted Strategy for Burn 20 Blackjack

• Stand on hard 15 or 16 against a dealer 10 up-card
• Double down with a hard 10 against a dealer 2-8, hit on 9, double against a 10
• Double down only a soft 16 or 17 as below:
• Double down on a soft 16 against a dealer up-card of 6
• Double down on a soft 17 against a dealer up-card of 5 or 6
• Split 2's and 3's against a dealer up-card of 4,5,6 and 10
• Don't split 4's - hit instead
• Don't split 5's, double against 2 through 10 but not an up-card of 9
• Split 6's against a dealer up-card of 4-6
• Split 7's against a dealer up-card of 2-7 and 10
• Split 8's against 2-9 and ace, not against a 10
• Split 9's against 4-10
• Don't split 10's
• Split all aces