Suit Em Up 21 Rules and Strategy Charts

How to Play Suit Em Up Blackjack – Finally, a 21 variant with a comparably decent side bet, edged as low as 2.67%.

Suit Em Up Blackjack is a variant of 21 that exists in both live and online casinos. It’s been popping in and out of select Vegas properites for almost a decade, and has been digitized by several internet gaming software brands, including Felt Gaming and RealTime Gaming (RTG). The Vegas and RTG versions are identical, and far more preferable, in today’s casinos, so those are the rules, odds and strategies we’ll be focusing on today.

The game itself isn’t all that spectacular. You can find better paying blackjack games at online or walk-in casinos. What makes it unique, however, is its side bet. don’t get me wrong – like all side bets, this one is a sucker bet. It just happens to suck less than most of them. That is, if you can find the right rules applied.

Judging a Game by its Shoe Size

The problem with this game is that it’s been offered in three formats; as a double-deck, six-deck and eight-deck game. Normally, I would always recommend playing with fewer decks, is it decreases the overall house edge. On a 2-deck Suit Em Up Blackjack table, the base game edge is just 0.34%. However, the side bet edge increases to 9.41% Ouch!

As a six-deck offering, the standard game rises to 0.54% RTP, while the side bet falls to 3.41%. Finally, with 8 decks in play, the game’s edge rises a bit higher to 0.56%, while the side bet reaches its best mark of 2.67%. See the table below for an easy comparison.

That being said, if you want to place the Suit Em Up side bet, you need to find a game with 8 decks. The most common rules feature 6 decks, so be vigilant. If you don’t care about the side bet, the 2-deck games have a pretty good RTP, on par with the industry average.

How to Play Suit Em Up Blackjack

The basic rules of Suit Em Up 21 are detailed below:

Specific Rules of Play

• Decks: 2, 6 or 8
• Soft 17: Dealer Hits
• Doubling: Yes, on any two cards
• Splitting: Yes, 2x (up to 3 hands)
• Double after Split: Yes
• Resplit Aces: No
• Draw to Split Aces: No
• Surrender: Yes
• Dealer Checks for Blackjack: No
• Against Dealer Blackjack: Only original bet lost
• Blackjack Pays: 3 to 2

Suit Em Up Pay Table

The Suit Em Up side bet is a wager that the player’s first two cards will be of the same suit. If they are, the bet is won. If not, the bet is lost.

Certain suited hands pay better than others. For instance, where any suited hand is worth 2 to 1, a suited hand totaling 11 is worth 3 to 1. A suited pair pays 5 to 1, suited blackjack 10 to 1, and best of all, a pair of suited Aces pays 60 to 1. See the pay table below for complete payout rules.

Suit Em Up 21 Strategy

For your convenience, I’ve taken the time to create two separate strategy guides. The first is for 2-Deck Suit Em Up, and the second for 6-8 Deck Suit Em Up. The last chart will apply to a 4-Deck game too, if you happen to find one.

These charts will guide you through every possible hand situation. There are three charts for each deck size below. The three charts are divided into the following sections – hard hands, soft hands, or paired hands. Choose the chart for your hand type, select your current hand value from the left side, then follow the instructions in the right column based on the dealer’s up-card.

2 Deck Suit Em Up Strategy

How to Decide a Hard Hand

How to Decide a Soft Hand

Conditions for Splitting Pairs

Proper pair splitting is critical to achieving optimal RTP. In this last section, you’ll learn how to handle all splitting situations. The rules allow for splitting up to two times. Odds are you won’t get the exact same pair enough times in a row to even consider a third split, but if this occurs, you won’t be able to do it. Instead, you’ll need to refer to the hard/soft hand totals above for the correct action.

4-6-8 Deck Suite Em Up Strategy

How to Decide a Hard Hand

How to Decide a Soft Hand

Conditions for Splitting Pairs

Again, splitting at the right time is critical to reaching the highest RTP. This last section shows you how to play Suit Em Up Blackjack with any pair. If unable to split due to rule restrictions, refer to the hard/soft hand charts above.