odds on player and dealer getting Blackjack

I was at a casino where they had a blackjack game that you could do side bets if your first 2 cards tie with the dealers first 2 cards. For blackjack the payout was 400-1. It seems like that payout is high to me. On another table called blackjack high tie the odds were 50-1. can anyone tell me why the payout was so high on the first one?

What *exactly* constitutes a tie? BJ vs BJ? Same rank for the ten card? Suited BJ vs BJ? Or exactly the same rank AND suit?

Also, how many decks are they using?

The odds of both player and dealer having blackjack in a 6-deck game is about 1 in 461. If the only payout is for a tied blackjack, the house edge is derived from the difference between the true odds and the payout (1 in 400 in your case).

The 50:1 payout is lower because that game also has secondary payouts such as simply being dealt a blackjack yourself.

The wizard analyzed this side bet called blackjack high tie . In the side-bet he mentions the payout (on a 6 deck game was:
Blackjack tie 50
Suited blackjack 15
Suited pair 10
Blackjack 6
Pair 3
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As stated earlier if the only payout is only for a blackjack tie then the casino can easily afford to give 400:1 for this outcome. Since the true odds are 461.4 : 1 that gives the casino a healthy 13.2% house edge (much larger than the less than 1% house edge it has against excellent blackjack play. Now you see why casinos love side bets. A table may make more on side bets then on the main game. It should be noted that the game mentioned above with five different payouts has a house edge of 6.2% (less than half of the 400:1 game).
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But some people just get such a thrill out of side bets. As long as you know what you are doing then it's OK. Many people end up playing on a slot machines that retain 13% of the money. In the side bet all the money comes back in one lump sum. I watched a woman hit three royal matches in one evening. It made her whole weekend. I figure that millions of people play the lottery where the state government keeps half the money. Whatever you do can't be dumber than that. No commercial casino in the world is legally allowed to offer a game where they keep half the money.

any 21, first 2 cards only. you can bet on any tie 17-21. The ties are only numbers not suited

great info and thanks for the posts

To make this more favorable I would do a count of Aces as the shoe is played. In a six deck shoe, the odds become favourable when the ratio of cards remaining / Aces < 12.31. You could do a count of aces available to quarter decks. So you would start with a count of 1 (24/24). As soon as the aces available are two more than the number of quarter decks played, you would start betting the side bet.

For example, say there are 16 quarter decks left with 18 aces to be played. The expected return is then 4 x 18/208 x 4/13 x 4/13 x 17/207 = .002691 * 400 = 7.66% PA.