Magic jacks side bet - spoiler, it's bad

I recently visited a casino in CA, and found a side bet I haven't seen before they called Magic jacks that pays if your hand + dealer up card has one or more jacks (very similar to blazing 777)
I thought this might be side countable if the initial HE isn't too bad. I guess that was naive.
The game is played with 6 decks and they added a little twist, half the jacks are "one-eyed" and half aren't. Odds-wise, it's similar to a bigger payout for "red - heart/diamonds" for example.

The pay table is as follows:
1 jack => 1 to 1
1 one-eyed jack => 3 to 1
2 jacks => 8 to 1
2 jacks with 1 one-eyed => 12 to 1
2 one-eyed jacks => 40 to 1
3 jacks => 100 to 1
3 one-eyed jacks => 500 to 1

I haven't found any data one this side bet online so if one of the math gurus of this forum would like to analyze it that'd be great.
Although by roughly comparing with blazing 777, it seems like the paytable is too bad.

Quote: tyler498

I recently visited a casino in CA, and found a side bet I haven't seen before they called Magic jacks that pays if your hand + dealer up card has one or more jacks (very similar to blazing 777)
I thought this might be side countable if the initial HE isn't too bad. I guess that was naive.
The game is played with 6 decks and they added a little twist, half the jacks are "one-eyed" and half aren't. Odds-wise, it's similar to a bigger payout for "red - heart/diamonds" for example.

The pay table is as follows:
1 jack => 1 to 1
1 one-eyed jack => 3 to 1
2 jacks => 8 to 1
2 jacks with 1 one-eyed => 12 to 1
2 one-eyed jacks => 40 to 1
3 jacks => 100 to 1
3 one-eyed jacks => 500 to 1

I haven't found any data one this side bet online so if one of the math gurus of this forum would like to analyze it that'd be great.
Although by roughly comparing with blazing 777, it seems like the paytable is too bad.
link to original post

I get a house edge of only 5.10% for the first hand of the shoe.

I assumed that 3 jacks containing one or two one-eyed jacks pays 100 TO 1. Also, all the pays are based on "TO 1."

If the player would always bet $5 on the side bet whenever the side bet's EV is positive, I find the player would make from the side bets an average of about $1 per hand when one deck remains. At the level of two decks remaining, his average side bet profit per hand would be about $0.60. (The averages are not over the number of side bet made but over all hands played.)

The side bet is countable, but like a lot of side bets, it probably has a low maximum.

wow thanks for the analysis.
And you are correct, I forgot to mention the bet limits are 1$ to 25$.
Interesting that the initial HE is so low.

Here is a table for a 6-deck shoe showing the maximum number of cards remaining in the shoe where the bet is an AP.
The numbers along the top are the number of two-eyed Jacks remaining in the shoe.
For example, if there are 10 one-eyed Jacks and 8 two-eyed Jacks remaining in the shoe, then the bet is an AP if there are 234 or fewer cards remaining in the shoe.

One-Eyes	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0
12	299	292	284	277	270	262	255	248	242	235	228	222	215
11	282	274	266	259	252	244	237	230	223	216	210	203	197
10	264	256	249	241	234	226	219	212	205	198	191	185	178
9	246	238	231	223	216	208	201	194	186	180	173	166	160
8	229	221	213	205	198	190	183	175	168	161	154	148	141
7	212	204	196	188	180	172	165	157	150	143	136	129	123
6	195	186	178	170	162	155	147	139	132	125	118	111	104
5	178	170	161	153	145	137	129	121	114	106	99	92	86
4	161	153	145	136	128	120	112	104	96	88	81	74	67
3	146	137	128	120	111	103	95	87	78	71	63	56	49

I see I have a page on Jack Magic in my class notes for my old class at UNLV. This one has a different pay table. I plan to make a page on it soon.

Here is my new page on Magic Jacks. I welcome all comments.

"Under version 1, the house edge with five decks is 20.06% and with eight decks is 19.20%."

Not sure you meant 5 decks? Directly under Analysis and under Version 1 Return Table. The same thing is under the 2nd table too.

If it was intentional, my mistake. Also enjoyed: "...including the topic of card counting (shut up Wiz!)." =D

Quote: Romes

"Under version 1, the house edge with five decks is 20.06% and with eight decks is 19.20%."
link to original post

Unless I'm not seeing something, that is what I intended to say, the house edge under five and eight decks. You might say you don't see five-deck blackjack games very often, but for a while some shufflers took five decks. I'm still in the habit of calculating side bet odds with that many, as long as I went through the fuss of analyzing it with six. I just change one cell and the spreadsheet updates everything.

I do see four and five deck games out in the wild.
I usually don't see a sidebet on four decks, and many five deck games only offer TriLux.

Thanks for the interesting article.

Don’t forget the 3 deck games found pretty much only around Tucson. 4 deck games not uncommon in the upper Midwest, I think five deck games can be found here and there mostly in the western time zone native casinos and card rooms, sometimes from CSM’s.