Rivers BJ Side Bet

Is anyone familiar with the BJ side bets at the Rivers Casino near Chicago? I want to find out the house edge. There's a 21+3 side bet and a Top 3 side bet. If you play the "21+3" side bet you get 9 times your money on any straight, flush, three of a kind or straight flush when it's your first two cards and the dealer's up card. You can play the second side bet (the "Top 3") simultaneously (but MUST play the first 21+3 bet at the same time) and it pays 90 times on a three of a kind, 180 times on a straight flush and 270 on a suited three of a kind. Anyone know the house edge on these side bets or can calculate it for me? Thanks.

(Also side info: the table I'm playing is a $100 minimum for the BJ bet, $5 - $500 on the 21+3 bet, and $5 a $100 on the Top 3. Don't know if that matters or not.)

Terrible house edge however if you ask them to put lucky ladies in with a 500 max it's a fun side bet

The Wiz has the 21+3 in his side bet analysis page: https://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/appendix/8/

For 6D it looks like the average HE is anywhere from 3.3% - 7.76%... aka pretty bad. The "top 3" side bet sounds even worse. Sure, they give you big payouts but for things that very rarely ever happen. You might think 200-1 is good odds, but you'll be disappointed to hear those things happen 1 in 100,000 hands. Suddenly you're being quite short changed for actually hitting it.

If you're playing 100 min blackjack, you should have a great game already =).

I meant to crunch this out about 6 weeks ago. I saw it at Hollywood STL and watched a buddy play it a bit. Number of decks are important for the answer. I'd assume 6 if you don't know. The regular 21+3 bet isn't bad for 6 decks at 3.24%

As for the top 3 bet: let's see for 6 decks:

Suited 3 of a kind: 312 x 5 x 4 ÷ 6 ÷312 ÷ 311 ÷310 x 6....0.0002074473...times 270...0.0560107873

Straight Flush: 12 x 4 x (6)^3 ÷ 312 ÷ 311 ÷ 310 x 6...0.0020680906...times 180...0.3722563092

Regular 3 of a kind: 312 x (23 x 22 - 5 ×4) ÷6 ÷ 312 ÷311 ÷310 x 6....0.0050409709...times 90...0.4536873768

All other outcomes:
1 - 0.0002074473 - 0.0020680906 - 0.0050409709...times -1...−0.9926834912

Game Return: 0.0560107873 + 0.372256308 + 0.4536873768 − 0.9926834912 = −0.1107290191

House edge is 11.07%. A little bit better than "21+3" extreme. But the hit frequency is so low, you should only hit 3 of a kind or better once every 2 hours or so.

Welcome to Chicago HB. FYI, the Hugo's Frog bar inside the casino is partners with Gibson's Steakhouse in Chicago. Gibson's claims it is the only restaurant in the US to have it's own special ratings for its beef from the USDA. They get all their steaks from Gibson's as the location downtown is right near Gibson's if not right next door. If beef isn't your thing, I do enjoy the Tuna Steak medallions and an appetizer they are known for is the frog legs. If you are playing $100/hand, you probably will have little objection at the price of the restaurant but it is priced like most good steakhouses out there

They have another place opening in philly a couple weeks from now

Thank you all for your responses. I guess what I'm looking for, more specifically, is:

What is the total blended house edge (initial BJ Bet included) to play:

1) BJ plus 21+3 when BJ bet is $200 and 21+ 3 bet is $100. (BJ rules: dealer stands on soft 17, double on any two cards, no surrender, no resplitting aces, BJ pays 3:2) (6 deck shoe)

2) BJ plus 21+ 3 and Top 3 when BJ bet is $200 and both side bets are $100 each (same BJ rules as listed above in #1)

And what would the house edge be just for the 21+3 and then what would the house edge be with both side bets played together with equal bets (and independent of the simultaneous BJ bet).

Thanks in advance!

Hit blonde- are you looking for this for any specific reason? Just asking because no matter how good the blackjack is you will get slaughtered playing those kind of mins at that game

Quote: HotBlonde

Thank you all for your responses. I guess what I'm looking for, more specifically, is:

What is the total blended house edge (initial BJ Bet included) to play:

1) BJ plus 21+3 when BJ bet is $200 and 21+ 3 bet is $100. (BJ rules: dealer stands on soft 17, double on any two cards, no surrender, no resplitting aces, BJ pays 3:2) (6 deck shoe)

2) BJ plus 21+ 3 and Top 3 when BJ bet is $200 and both side bets are $100 each (same BJ rules as listed above in #1)

And what would the house edge be just for the 21+3 and then what would the house edge be with both side bets played together with equal bets (and independent of the simultaneous BJ bet).

Thanks in advance!

So no one knows? I wanted to avoid having to go to the Wizard with this one but I guess I'm going to have to.

I can do it for you but could you elaborate on why you want it for such a bad game?