One Million Dollar Side Bet

I just got back from Atlantic City. I played some three card poker there and Harrah's has a six card side bet, $5 minimum, for the six card hand between you and the dealer. Well they have a promotion if you get a six card diamond royal it pays a million dollars. if you hit any other six card royal it is one hundred thousand. The million dollars has been won twice since September. Also, one person hit it but had nothing on the bonus. Now if that was me I would have vomited right on the table. I mean a million bucks is a complete life changing win. I understand if you are an advantage player or a professional playing these bad percentage side bets will ruin you return. I know they have a pretty high house advantage. However having said that, if I am a recreational gambler on a weekend or even week long trip looking to have fun and hopefully break even or win a little, playing for a couple of hours here and there , why not play them and take a chance on a huge win. Granted it is a very small chance and such a huge win, but it does happen and it has hit three times in four months. The $100,000 bet has hit even a few times more, but I forgot the exact number of times. To me as a recreational gambler having fun, it makes no sense not to play side bets that have huge upsides even if they have a high house advantage(and I am not talking about some of the ridiculous keno all or nothing games). Even if you don't hit the jackpot you can still win a nice amount as my wife hit for $2,500 on a straight flush, which paid our mortgage for two months. If we had lost all of our side bets, it was money we had set aside anyway and it might have cost us running out of money a half or an hour sooner. I was wondering other gamblers thoughts on this.

I don't necessarily disagree with your thinking, at least in part. I'd say if a player was the combination of recreational but also infrequent gambler, why not give side bets a go to a degree. I somewhat fit that bill - recreational and infrequent - but still think you should *really* be trying to just get lucky and throw a buck or so for those kinds of bets a few times a trip. But I absolutely do not think anyone, infrequent or not, should say to themselves "I must not miss a chance" and bet the side bets every time.

If you enjoy this action, then by all means feel free to play it. Personally, I think it is fun to take a flyer on occassion. However, to play it every time out of fear of missing the lightning when it strikes would drain my bankroll too quickly. You dismiss Keno, but I think it is the same concept: High house edge allows potential for big, life changing win.

What is the HE on this million dollar bet? I saw the HE on WoO site for normal 6 card poker bonus at 15%, but that was with the largest payout at 1000 to 1. With the million dollar payout, I wouldn't be surprised if this version of the 6 card bonus HE does approach the 20%+ of a "ridiculous Keno" bet.

I do get the OP's point that it would make you sick to not have a bet in place when you hit that kind of hand and miss out on a $1 million payday event, but once you start talking about 20%+ HE's, you might as well just take those dollars and buy some Keno tixs as your last bet of the day. You can will a million dollars there as well if you get lucky enough!

Quote: hook3670

Also, one person hit it but had nothing on the bonus.

Does that bet have an "Envy" payout? It would be cool if the envy paid to the other players - even if this player didn't bet it.

No it didn't have the envy, although that would be nice. Actually having the six card payout $100,000 and $1,000,000 in addition to the regular payouts it offers should lower the house edge. if there someone much more astute than me on the mathimatical side of this I would love to know what the HE is on the six card bet by adding those two monster bonuses to the already in place payouts.

Quote: Paradigm

What is the HE on this million dollar bet?

I assume a "six card royal" means that between your three cards and the dealer's three cards, there are the 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A of the same suit.

Of the (52 x 51 x 50 x 49 x 48 x 47) / 720 = 20,358,520 possible combinations of six cards, one pays $1,000,000, and three pay $100,000, so, assuming a $1 bet, the casino loses $1,300,000 and wins $20,358,516 over the complete set of combinations, for a house edge of 19,058,516 / 20,358,520 * 100% = 93.6144%.

We had a thread about this before. Here is a link to the Wizard's analysis.

Right but that isnt the only way to win. You also win with three of a kind or more so it is the regualr pay table plus you add the million and hundred thousand payouts to the already in place payout table. The million dollar is not a totally seperate bet, it is incorpwerated into the exisiting six card bet.

Ok thank you I had not realized that. The bet came to Atlantic City a good three or four months after it was introduced in Vegas.

Thanks Miplet for the thread link. Not quite a 20% HE, but bad enough that you might as well just go for the keno tixs.

I agree with Ayecarumba, to a point. Make sure you bring a big enough bankroll to cover all the bets, and understand that your $5 per chance over an afternoon of wagering will most probably wipe out any medium win you might have had otherwise.

Even the $1 bet at games like Let It Ride and Caribbean can chew you up. Be careful. Play smart. What I usually do is buy in, get 10 whites, play until they're gone and cash out. 10 shots at the big boy for $10, that's good fun. But 500 shots for $500, that's not.