The Ultimate Blackjack Challenge Guide

Blackjack Challenge is a modified blackjack variant introduced at The Star Sydney around 2013 by Star Entertainment Group, one of Australia’s biggest casino operators.

When you first check out the rules (and The Star’s promo banner), the game looks extremely player-friendly. Boosted blackjack payouts? Automatic payouts for any 21? An optional “7s Jackpot” side bet? They know their marketing, I’ll give them that.

Since the buy-in is very low, the game has become very popular among casual casino players, and the bonus payouts are really enticing.

Players see blackjack payouts of 2:1, 3:1, or even 5:1 advertised on the table and immediately assume the RTP must be amazing. Now, The Star itself lists the house edge of Blackjack Challenge at approximately 2.53% when played with “optimal strategy.”

The problem is that after running my own calculations and testing different strategy adjustments, I genuinely couldn’t get the RTP anywhere near that level. Based on my analysis, the actual long-term RTP is even worse when you factor in all the rules of the game.

The main objective of Blackjack Challenge is the same as in (almost) any other blackjack game: you’re dealt two cards, and you can stand, hit, split, or double. The goal is to beat the dealer without going over 21, and the game is played with 6 to 8 decks, with the cards shuffled continuously. However, there are some important tweaks in the ruleset that make this game very different from the standard variant.

Blackjack Challenge keeps most of the standard blackjack structure, but several rules are modified to support the “bonus payout” system that the game introduces.

I want to point out early on that some of these rules initially look extremely good for the player, especially the boosted blackjack payouts and automatic wins on certain hands. The problem is that one very important rule balances all of this out: all standard pushes count as losses for the player unless you have a special qualifying hand.

Here are the most important Blackjack Challenge rules you need to know:

• Dealer stands on all 17s
• Standard tied hands lose to the dealer (except blackjack ties)
• Any five-card hand without busting wins automatically
• Any player total of exactly 21 wins automatically
• Blackjack pays 2:1 if the dealer does not have blackjack
• Blackjack pays 3:1 if both player and dealer have blackjack, but the player’s 10-value card is ranked equal or lower
• Blackjack pays 5:1 if both player and dealer have blackjack, but the player’s 10-value card outranks the dealer’s
• Players can double on any two-card or three-card hand
• Players may hit after splitting Aces
• Splitting is allowed up to three hands total

Just like Blackjack Plus, Blackjack Challenge includes the Five Card Charlie rule. This is how it works: If you manage to build any five-card hand without going over 21, the hand automatically wins and pays even money regardless of what the dealer eventually draws. For example:

• 2, 3, 4, 5, 5 = 19
• Ace, 2, 3, Ace, 4 = 11

As long as the hand contains five cards and stays at 21 or below, you win automatically, and the payout is 1:1.

Another feature is that every total of exactly 21 automatically wins immediately, even if it’s not a natural blackjack. For example:

• 9 + 6 + 6 = 21
• 7 + 7 + 7 = 21

In the standard blackjack variant, these hands could push against a dealer 21 or even lose against a dealer blackjack, but here, you win immediately after you hit 21.

This is the feature that The Star heavily advertises. Normally, blackjack pays 3:2, but in Blackjack Challenge, blackjack payouts depend on both your blackjack and the dealer’s blackjack hand.

If you have a blackjack and the dealer doesn’t, the payout is 2:1. If both of you have blackjack, your 10-value cards are compared:

• King (highest)
• Queen
• Jack
• 10

So, for example, an Ace + King blackjack outranks an Ace + Queen blackjack. Here’s how the payouts work:

Blackjack Challenge also includes the optional Blazing 7s jackpot side bet. It uses your first two cards and the dealer’s first card and pays on combinations involving 7s. It’s actually a progressive jackpot where a portion of each side bet contributes toward the total prize, and this is how the jackpots are paid out:

Like most progressive blackjack side bets, this one is mainly there for entertainment. Mathematically, it’s not worth it to play it because the house edge is huge (over 8.5%).

The gameplay in Blackjack Challenge feels almost identical to regular blackjack most of the time, which is probably why many casual players don’t immediately realise how different the maths actually are.

The biggest difference is actually the way tied hands work. For example, let’s say you’re dealt a 10 and a 9 for a total of 19. The dealer eventually reveals a 9 and draws another 10, also reaching 19.

In regular blackjack, this would obviously be a push, and you’d simply get your wager back. But in Blackjack Challenge, you actually lose the hand. And trust me, the first few times this happens at the table, it will catch you off guard because your brain is so used to standard blackjack rules that you naturally expect equal totals to push instead of lose.

Otherwise, the gameplay is fairly standard, and I suggest you use the basic blackjack strategy with small tweaks. I’ve prepared guides on how to use the optimal blackjack strategy and how to use the blackjack chart, but do note that you’ll need to change some decisions here.

Since pushes count as losses, this means that you need to hit much more often on totals between 12 and 17, and you rarely stand on just two cards unless you already have a very strong hand.

According to The Star, Blackjack Challenge has “a theoretical RTP of 97.47% when played with the optimal strategy.” Now, technically, that might be true, but I found it extremely difficult to justify once I started breaking down the actual rules mathematically.

In RTP terms alone, this “pushes count as losses” rule drops the player return by roughly 8.38%, which is an enormous decrease for a blackjack game. That lost RTP is then partially compensated by the more player-friendly rules:

• Five Card Charlie adds around +1.46%
• Automatic 21 payouts add around +0.54%
• The 2:1 blackjack payout adds roughly +2.27%
• Doubling on two and three cards improves RTP slightly
• Hitting after split Aces also gives a small RTP increase

The boosted 3:1 and 5:1 blackjack payouts help a bit, too, but these situations are extremely rare because both the player and dealer need blackjack at the same time.

So yes, some of the RTP loss is technically recovered through these rules, but nowhere near enough to fully offset how damaging the “ties lose” rule actually is, so based on my calculations, the real-world RTP is somewhere around 96.50%.

Also, since you have to be more aggressive all the time, the variance in Blackjack Challenge is also much higher than regular blackjack.

I wanted to see whether Blackjack Challenge actually feels as “player-friendly” as The Star makes it look, so I sat down for a 100-hand test session with a A$1,000 bankroll and kept the wagers at A$10 per hand.

This time, I followed the modified Blackjack Challenge strategy instead of the regular blackjack basic strategy because the “pushes lose” rule practically requires you to do so.

The game felt like a standard blackjack game for the most part – except that you’re losing more often. Truth be told, I hit multiple 2:1 blackjack payouts early, and I even landed a few automatic 21 wins, so I understand why casual players enjoy this variant so much.

The funny part is that I never actually hit any of the big blackjack bonus payouts like 3:1 or 5:1 during the entire session. What I did notice very quickly, however, was how common pushes actually are in blackjack.

You normally don’t think much about ties because in standard blackjack, they simply return your wager. After some time, this becomes noticeable, and you just lose more often.

By the end of the 100-hand session, my bankroll had dropped from A$1,000 to roughly A$660, meaning I finished down around -A$340, which is not exactly a great result for a blackjack game.

The math behind Blackjack Challenge is bad, and there’s no way around it. I can’t give you some magical tips that will make the game better than it actually is because, at the end of the day, you really can’t escape the fact that the house edge is almost 4% (and yes, even the claimed house edge of over 2.50% is high enough to ruin a blackjack game).

Nevertheless, here are my tips if you absolutely want to play Blackjack Challenge:

• Don’t fall for the marketing alone: The 2:1, 3:1, and 5:1 blackjack payouts look incredible, but you should always check the actual RTP of the game first. There are many better blackjack options available at both land-based and online blackjack casinos with a much lower house edge.
• Consider the modified strategy before you play: Blackjack Challenge is much more aggressive than standard blackjack because pushes count as losses, so you’ll have to be more aggressive when you have a total between 12 and 17.
• Keep your wagers small: This is not a very player-friendly blackjack game mathematically, and the higher variance means you can lose more than you planned if you’re not careful. Plan your bankroll accordingly and keep the wagers very small.

There’s simply no real reason to play Blackjack Challenge unless you genuinely have no other blackjack option available or you’re just curious to try it once for the experience at The Star.

Yes, the game looks attractive at first, and all the ‘extras’ like the boosted blackjack payouts, automatic 21 wins, and Five Card Charlie rules create the impression that players are getting amazing value compared to regular blackjack.

The reality is that this is a subpar game that has this rule that “all pushes result in a loss for the player”, which means that the game really is designed to benefit the casino.

Mathematically, every standard blackjack game is better, and even if you’re an experienced player who understands blackjack strategy or card counting, Blackjack Challenge still doesn’t become particularly attractive because the constant reshuffling and higher house edge remove most of the potential advantage anyway.

So, if you’re looking for a good blackjack game, just stick to regular blackjack instead and avoid Blackjack Challenge.