Bet the Bust

This is a side bet I noticed at the Palace Station today. It pays if the dealer busts and the odds vary according to the dealer's up card.

I wrote up my analysis on my Odds site. Please have a look. I welcome all comments, corrections, and questions.

Opens in Firefox with the text missing from the rightmost two inches of the screen.

Why do you start out with telling people when the bet is made instead of starting out telling them what the bet is?

>It is not difficult to see that this side bet would be very countable.
It is also not difficult to see that this side bet would be utterly of no use to card counters. After all them tables, I'm seeing red. Any textual summary? Why is it easy to count? Would we be looking for high cards to be remaining or low cards to be remaining? What was the max on the side bet?

FleaStiff, I could be wrong but it appears to me that we are looking for high cards since it's called "bet the bust".

Quote: RogerKint

FleaStiff, I could be wrong but it appears to me that we are looking for high cards since it's called "bet the bust".

Ah, but a dealer is most likely to bust if his Upcard is 2 thru 6. So we would a low Upcard and a remaining deck full of high cards.

Quote: FleaStiff

Ah, but a dealer is most likely to bust if his Upcard is 2 thru 6. So we would [look for] a low Upcard and a remaining deck full of high cards.

Exactly.
What I dislike about the bet is that a number of payouts (busting on Ace, 2, 3, and 7) are partial/fractional payouts. This causes change-making and "dealer math," with a resulting reduction in hands-per-hour and increased dealer errors. The bet should have been configured with a combination of even money payouts and non-fractional payouts (1:1, 2:1, 3;1, etc.) That could have been done, and that should have been done.

Also, there is the "bust it" bet, and the "dealer-bust-21" bet. A crowded field, dealer bust side bets for BJ. Plus, it's countable.

Oh I get it... this has nothing to do with a female blackjack dealer's anatomy. I must have been thinking of those rich hotties.

Fractional payouts and dealer math... wow, next thing you will tell me is that it will soak up the chips that are most often used as Tokes and the dealers will really be mad.

Reduction in hands per hour... that is good for the non-counting player, his comps are not being reduced because his theo remains the same.

I would have expected to also see a table showing the dealer bust probability for S17.

I don't know how valuable the 8 deck return table is, unless you're sure that the payouts will never change. Instead, or in addition, I would have provided a simple formula to calculate that.


Note: For those of you that don't know how to calculate it, here's the formula: ( Pay + 1 ) * Probability - 1 = Return



Why is your picture, from another casino, showing a typo, on that page?

Oh, wait. I just realized that this page has a LOT of side bets on it. In that case, I'd put extra space before each bet's heading, as well as space and a header above the photo.

Quote: Paigowdan

The bet should have been configured with a combination of even money payouts and non-fractional payouts (1:1, 2:1, 3;1, etc.) That could have been done, and that should have been done.

The only way to do that would be to offer the bet PRIOR to dealing, and let some of the paylines have a slight player advantage, (but negative overall), or have VERY unfavorable house edges on the lines that are now fractional.

I'm kinda surprised they didn't opt for the former, but even more surprised they didn't opt for the latter.....

And in addition to Palace Station, I believe I saw this bet at Sam's Town in Tunica, MS. I COULD be mistaken on this, so if anybody else could confirm this that would be great.

Quote: FleaStiff

Oh I get it... this has nothing to do with a female blackjack dealer's anatomy. I must have been thinking of those rich hotties.

Fractional payouts and dealer math... wow, next thing you will tell me is that it will soak up the chips that are most often used as Tokes and the dealers will really be mad.

To be honest with you, you're right. Dealers do try to kill off any game or bet where they fear or mistakenly believe that'll hurt tokes. This is exactly how some of these morons think, I kid you not. Seen it, hate it, don't do it. In some places, the inmates run the asylum. Annoying, shocking.

Quote: FleaStiff

Reduction in hands per hour... that is good for the non-counting player, his comps are not being reduced because his theo remains the same.

Yes it is. But some games adjust their HPH (hands per hour), so the disadvantage is built back into the game. Casinos do consider this.