From time to time new variants of blackjack are developed that go beyond tinkering with rules and offer something innately different. Eventually these new blackjack games are picked up for play at online casinos by software developers. Lucky 13 Blackjack is one such new blackjack variant that is not yet available at online casinos, but will be sooner or later.

Lucky 13 Blackjack was developed by an Australian gaming company in 2014 and is available at a few land based casinos. It is played with decks consisting of 64 cards. Apart from the usual cards there are 11s, 12s and 13s, which are not picture cards but have pips equal to their face values. The objective of the blackjack game is the same and so are many of the rules. The payouts are also the same. The rules that are materially different are explained below.

If the player gets a pair of 11s, 12s, or 13s, then he has to split. Otherwise his hand value will exceed 21 and he will bust and lose the bet. The dealer has to stand on a hard 16 or above and a soft 17 or above. There is no hole card for the dealer. The house edge under these rules is between 1.3% and 1.4%, depending on the number of decks used, which is slightly more than for the standard online blackjack variants. This will come in the way of Lucky 13 Blackjack becoming popular. Perhaps, eventually some of the rules will be tweaked in favour of the player to reduce the house edge.

Because the extra cards are valued at 11 to 13, the chance of the player busting on the dealt cards is higher. For example a dealt hand of 11 and 12 is an automatic bust. Therefore a Protection Bet is available, which pays if the player busts on the first two cards. If the total of the first two cards equals 22 to 25, the payout is 5 to 1. If the first two cards are both 13 then this bet pays out at 40 to 1. In addition, if the dealer face up card is 13 then these payouts are multiplied five times. If the player does not bust in the two cards then the Protection Bet loses. The house edge is about 8%. Lucky 13 Blackjack also offers a side bet called the Pairs Bet, which is similar to the side bet other online blackjack variants.