Funtazee 21

Saw a flyer for this new game which combines Blackjack and Pai Gow poker elements. What do you think?:

Standard 52 card deck, no joker.
Card values as in standard BJ.
Each player makes a Main bet, and has the option to make a Bonus bet.
Players receive five cards each, which must be set as a two card front and three card back.
The object of the game is to set each of two hands as close to 21 as possible without going over, and beat both the dealer's hands. Main bet bonuses are available, and are paid according to a schedule when both the front and back hands total 21 (e.g., T, J, K, A, A), or the five cards total 21 without an Ace.

The total of the two card front hand must be equal or less than that of the three card back hand, or the hand is foul.
If no combination of three cards will be 21 or less, the hand is busted.
Surrender is allowed as long as the hand is not "busted"

Surrendered and "busted" hands are still eligible for the Bonus bet payouts.
Bonus bet eligible hands cannot contain an Ace.

Main bet pay schedule:
Win one + lose the other = Push
Win both, or win one + tie the other = Even money
Double 21 = 6:5
Five card 21 (no ace) = 3:2

Bonus bet pay schedule on five card total (no ace):
11 = 500:1
12 = 200:1
13 = 60:1
14 or 15 = 30:1
16 or 17 = 20:1
18 thru 20 = 10:1
21 = Lose (but win 3:2 on the Main)
22 thru 41 = Lose
42 thru 44 = 2:1
45 thru 47 = 3:1
48 or 49 = 5:1
50 = 30:1

Sounds like it could be entertaining, I would be real interested to see the breakdown of odds and strategies.

I must have a braino and/or typo somewhere. I get a house edge of 52.8294395 % for the side bet. 18.7905932 % if we count hands with an Ace as a push.

There must be something missing, because I see a +EV on the main game.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

There must be something missing, because I see a +EV on the main game.

You bust about 10% of the time. (259696/2598960) , but you get a double 21 only 1/2% of the time (13456/2598960) and a 5 card 21 with no ace 1/3% of the time (9048/2598960)
Of course this assumes I have no brainos and/or typos.

That's what I was missing.

I was putting too much emphasis on the Pai Gow similarity, and was wondering if there was a commission, or qualifier or something. The 10% bust rate is the 'something'.

Over the past 24 hours, I whipped up a super-simple Funtazee 21 flash game.

You can bet 10-90 in multiples of 10, and bet 0-9 on the bonus.
If your hand cannot be set legally (bust or lo is always greater than hi), the program takes care of that.
The dealer's strategy is to make the best hi hand possible.

I'm hoping all of the rules and payouts are correct; I am going by the original post's information, which had a few gaps here and there.

p.s. When setting, if you mis-click your first card, go ahead and set a second card... then click "RESET?" to start again.

Dween -

Nice job.

The graphics suck, but I'm sure you knew that.

One change: Do NOT clear the screen after the hand is over. FAR too many times I was trying to figure out what happened, when it disappeared.

If the card values are the same as in standard Black Jack, why does it sometimes count the Aces as only 1 instead of 1 or 11? I had a hand of A Q A K 10 where I put A Q in the low and A K 10 in the high and it counted them as 11 for low and 21 for high instead of 21 for both. Shouldn't the player get the benefit of the 1 or 11 for the Aces automatically?

I have updated the Funtazee 21 game. The new version will have "v 1.01" in the bottom left when you start.

I could NOT duplicate the 11/21 problem. I had 3-ten values and 2-aces, and every combination I put up gave me 21/21. Let me know what the cards are exactly if you see it again.

I made the game stay on-screen until you click, so you can look over the results. I made sure the win/lose messages were all correct as well.

Thanks for being my beta-testers! Let me know if you find any more bugs, or any other corrections need to be made.

Thanks for putting that together Dween. What bits of info are missing? I only have the flyer to refer to, but can double check it if there is anything unclear.

The game is challenging in that like PGP, you sometimes have to decide which way to maximize your hands. 17/18 or 16/19 what is the best play? I played 30 hands, and lost 25 of them, pushed 3, and won 2, including a five card 20 which paid a bonus. The bonus bet appears to be a typical black hole.

I'm glad you all are enjoying the game. I wanted to make it as quickly as I could while the subject was still fresh.

I assumed the following:

WIN
win + win
win + push

PUSH
win + lose
push + push (this was not explicitly in the rules, so I assumed)

LOSE
push + lose
lose + lose

I believe a Double-21 and a 5-card-21 are automatic wins, which I believe is the way I programmed it.
Bust vs Bust is a loss for the player.

I think those were the only questions I had... everything seems to fall into place nicely.

Quote: Dween

Over the past 24 hours, I whipped up a super-simple Funtazee 21 flash game.

You can bet 10-90 in multiples of 10, and bet 0-9 on the bonus.
If your hand cannot be set legally (bust or lo is always greater than hi), the program takes care of that.
The dealer's strategy is to make the best hi hand possible.

I'm hoping all of the rules and payouts are correct; I am going by the original post's information, which had a few gaps here and there.

p.s. When setting, if you mis-click your first card, go ahead and set a second card... then click "RESET?" to start again.

Thanks for pointing out the low always greater than hi part. I missed that and in occurs 4.5% of the time (118104/2598960) . This brings the hands that cant be played to 14.5 % (377800/2598960).
One question I have is can you count Ace Ten for the low as 11? You do in your program, but what about the real game? Hands like A,A,A,2,10 can be set:
A,A,A and 2,10 (13,12)
A,2,10 and A,A (13,12)
A,A,2 and A,10 (14,11)
A,A,10 and A,2 (12,3)
The last 2 would be fouled hands if the Ace had to be counted as 11 (of course the last one is the worst since the other hands have both hi and low as higher hands).

I tested the hand you proposed (A A A 2 10), and all four combinations came up as you surmised. (A 10) totaled to 11, and (A 2) totaled to 3. As to the question, "Will the casino allow it?", I can't answer that. I would hope it's allowable.

My program first determines if the HI hand has an Ace in it. If it does, it checks to see if the hand is worth 11 or less (Ace is currently worth 1). If it is, it will add 10 to it (Ace becomes 11).

Then, it will check if the LO hand has an Ace in it. If it does, not only will it check if the hand is worth 11 or less, but it will also ensure that adding 10 won't put the value above the HI hand.

Quote: Dween

I'm glad you all are enjoying the game. I wanted to make it as quickly as I could while the subject was still fresh.

I assumed the following:

WIN
win + win
win + push

PUSH
win + lose
push + push (this was not explicitly in the rules, so I assumed)

LOSE
push + lose
lose + lose

I believe a Double-21 and a 5-card-21 are automatic wins, which I believe is the way I programmed it.
Bust vs Bust is a loss for the player.

I think those were the only questions I had... everything seems to fall into place nicely.

Push+Push is a push.

Note that the flyer does specify that an Ace in the two card hand is always 11. Sorry for overlooking that, but I couldn't think of a case where you would not want to count it as 11 when I was typing up the original post.