Blackjack Side Game

[Northern Monkey]

Was playing a Blackjack table last night where you could make a side bet on the three card hand made up of your two initial cards plus the dealers face up. Pays 9-1 for any of flush, straight, 3 of a kind etc.

My question is does anyone know what the house's edge is on this. It was strangely compelling even though my instinct told me I was wasting money.

[harry2]

Flush is about 6.0% chance, straight is about 2.3% and three of a kind 0.5% chance assuming four decks.

True odds about 10 1/2 to 1. About the same as 87% payout.

[Northern Monkey]

Cheers H. Had a sneaky feeling you would know the answer. What's the payout on blackjack assuming you play a perfect game?

[Firefox]

im gonna plum for between 94-96% without looking it up on the internet.

[JG]

I'm going to mystery cherry for 98.8% at a pure guess, but it's a small house advantage, very small.

[harry2]

Perfect startegy is about 99.45% (looked this up on t'internet).

Unless you are a card counter, which is impossible to do these days.

[Northern Monkey]

Cheers- think I will give the side bet a miss in future alhough very easy to rack up some quick big wins when the cards fall right-I had 2 back to back hands where I drew KA and the dealer made the blackjack even sweeter by completing the set with a Q.

[NoChatter]

Some sites and/or casinos offer different rules, like splitting Aces or pairs or even two picture cards. Also whether the dealer sticks on soft 17 (Ace+6) as well or only hard 17. Etc.

Casino's don't allow crib sheets but online you can play a better strategy, but the rules don't offer over 99%. Remember they are working off volume and skimming a profit. Bit like the Poker sites taking a rake,...

Did that make sense? Hope so and enjoy you card games, I do,...preferred playing cribbage with my Grand-father GRHS

[sigoth]

Ive seen these aswell, Not a great bet in the long run alltho first time i sat down at a blackjack table i allways put 5 quid on the nose and 3 on the pair plus or whatever its called, came in about 2-3 times over say 10 hands and i made a tidy profit, but like most things, will drain your winnings in the long run.

[Cf]

Perfect startegy is about 99.45% (looked this up on t'internet).

Unless you are a card counter, which is impossible to do these days.

And why is that? In casinos that use an automated shoe fair enough. But many use a manual shoe.

[blackmogu]

Perfect startegy is about 99.45% (looked this up on t'internet).

Unless you are a card counter, which is impossible to do these days.

And why is that? In casinos that use an automated shoe fair enough. But many use a manual shoe.

Most casinos will use 6 decks, and then cut the combined deck to the approximate depth of 1 deck. This means approximately 52 cards are never played out of a shuffled shoe.

That's enough to spoon your counting edge.

[Mystery_Plum]

I think the house edge on that 21+3 Blackjack side bet is 3.24%, assuming 6 decks. At least that's what I got when I bothered to work it out a while back. It's probably on the net somewhere.

Which is better than that Perfect Pair bullshit, which comes in at 5.79% for 6-decks, and over 10% with 4 decks.

You're better off learning the basic strategy and losing half a bet per hour. You can probably get it down to practically an even money game if you buy other people's doubles off them, or if the dealer makes the odd mistake, or if you keep half an eye on the shoe.