Pontoon World Championship

The Pontoon World Championship is a variant of the card game Pontoon (Blackjack). It is a popular game with its players because of the attractive lure of having the honour of the title ‘Pontoon World Champion’, and the interesting rules and scenarios that the rules throw up along with the meddling of the Pontoon World Council in games.
History of the Pontoon World Championship
The Pontoon World Championship was first devised by the Pontoon World Council in August 2007 in Penzance, United Kingdom. It was instantly popular with the players. Due to low publicity the game still is widely unknown in the world, this is mainly due to the secretive nature of the games governing council who keep their identities hidden, but also because the game is still young.
Rules
Each game of Pontoon World Championship has a number of rounds, and this number is dictated by the number of players. Always the number of rounds played is calculated by summing the number of players and adding 1 to that total. Each round is simply what would be normally viewed as a game of Pontoon to an outsider; cards are dealt to each player and then players aim to collate a total of 21 cards in their hands of cards. The winner of each round receives a point and the player with the most points after the completion of all the rounds is crowned Pontoon World Champion. If there is no clear result after all the rounds have been played, then extra rounds are played between all the competitors until a winner can be crowned.
Games begin when the champion is challenged by another competitor. This has to be done by saying the words 'I challenge you to the Pontoon World Championship!' Under the rules of the championship the champion is not allowed to decline a challenge from an opponent. Any number of opponents are allowed to challenge the current champion. However once the dealer says 'Hands out' no more players are allowed to challenge for the championship.
Licence
Only venues granted a licence to play the World Championship will have their results recognised, otherwise games held are invalid.
Other Rules
The Pontoon World Council reserve the right to change or adapt rules whenever they judge intervention to be necessary. This has lead to criticism in the past because the actions of the council are likened to decisions made by dictators like Stalin.
Pontoon World Championship Xtra
In September 2007 the Pontoon World Council introduced a new rule, which allowed the Pontoon World Champion to challenge another player or players to the 'World Championship Xtra'. Players could accept or decline the challenge, but players accepting of the challenge would then play a game of the same rules to the ordinary championship, with the exception that if the World Champion was the victor of the game they would be crowned 'Pontoon World Champion Xtra' and would be allowed the privilege of being allowed to decline challenges to their title for the remainder of the day.
Air Pontoon World Championship
First devised in March 2008, Air Pontoon World Championship is a similar game to Pontoon World Championship but it is played over the phone and in German. It lacks some of the formal rules of the ordinary championship, and is only played between a representative of the World Council and the player on the other end of the phone line. Because it is played over the phone, the player on the end of the phone cannot see the cards and thus it cannot be verified that the telephone operator is telling the truth about which cards are in the game. There is no Air Pontoon World Championship Xtra.
Pontoon World Council
The Pontoon World Council are the regulatory authority of the Pontoon World Championship. They are based in Europe and communicate via telephone. They meet to discuss decisions and rules, but also oversee all games in progress. It is not known how they can view all games, and because of this they are perceived to be like a Big Brother figure.
The council are notorious for issuing warnings to players which often prohibit people from playing Pontoon World Championship. If a player receives two warnings they are not allowed to play for any games for the entirety of the day. Often warnings are issued for petit things like playing slowly, but can be issued for more serious 'offences' like speaking out against the rules of the game or speaking out against the World Council.
External References

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See Also

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