Raise the roof - Dealer required to draw to 17?

Hey everyone,

The dealer normally does not draw to 17 if all players at the table have either busted or surrendered their hands. With the raise the roof sidebet active and all player hands are either busted or surrendered, does the dealer draw to 17 anyways?

Thanks

Quote: yeehaw

Hey everyone,

The dealer normally does not draw to 17 if all players at the table have either busted or surrendered their hands. With the raise the roof sidebet active and all player hands are either busted or surrendered, does the dealer draw to 17 anyways?

Thanks
link to original post

I don’t know what you are talking about specifically but I’m nearly certain your intuition is correct.

If someone bets a side bet, the conditions have to normally be fulfilled.

In my opinion based on what you said.

You can read the explanation and rules of the Raise the Roof sidebet here.

Raise the Roof

The rules clearly state "If the player busts, any Raise the Roof wagers will still remain live." The rules then go on to state
"The dealer will then play out his hand. If the dealer has a total of 17 to 21, then all Raise the Roof wagers, both initial and raises, will lose.

So, I interpret that the dealer must hit until 17 or higher (or until H17/S18 or higher, dependent upon the rules) even if all the players have busted.

Generally the outcome of the dealer's hand being irrelevant is what leads to it not being played out (with U.S. hole card rules that means that all hands were either blackjack, busted, or surrendered AND no side-bets dependent on the dealer's played-out hand are on the table). If a side-bet where the outcome matters is in play then it ought to be played out (otherwise the side-bet odds would be dependent on the number of players/hands in play).

You could say “all players busting and/or surrendering is rare, so why not just push?” is a fair argument - at a full table.

But at a table with only one player? It’s way more common.

The ‘cost’ of burning cards to resolve the side bet (and the resulting more frequent time consuming shuffle), is nothing compared to the house edge of that side bet.

So, yeah, they’re gonna resolve it every time.

Ya know what?

Some casinos might have the dealer play out his hand even if no players have live hands and none made the bet.

Why?

To show what might have happened. Gambler’s Fallacy and all…