3 Card Blitz Strategy?

So this game popped up in the Foxwoods "Play it First" section as a brand new game in one of their casinos. As far as I saw they have 1 table open right now and decided to see what Wizard of Odds said about the house edge and strategy on this game. To my surprise this game is not listed.

So can the Wizard add this to the Odds page after doing his magic?

Game can be played direct Online from the Foxwoods webpage to practice even before going to the casino.

Essentially both you and the dealer are given 7 cards and you need to make your best 2 or 3 card combo of all one suit. Ace is worth 11points, J-K are worth 10, and all numbers are worth their value just like in blackjack. So 31 is the maximum score you can earn which is considered a Blitz. You choose to make a Play bet equal to the ante/blind bet you started with or you can fold. Whoever has the higher score wins and a tie is a push.

The Ante and Play bet pay 1to1 and the Blind bet pays out:

Double Blitz: 50 to 1
Royal Blitz: 8 to 1 (AKQ of suit)
Any Blitz: 4 to 1
27 or Better: 1 to 1
Winning Hand: Push

If this game is already on the odds page under something else, please let me know but I don't believe I saw anything like this on there. I would love to know what score is the optimal you should have to make a play bet. I'm sure there can even be a more complicated strategy especially as you can have sort of "blockers" from the dealer getting good cards if say you have all the aces.

It's from In Bet Gaming and can be plyed for free at their website as well. They also make Dragon Poker and Criss Cross Poker (also free at the website) both of which are fully analyzed at WoO. So, since 3 Card Blitz is now in a casino, chances are decent he'll at least take a look.

I find the game "Take It Or Leave It" to be their most interesting offer.

P.S. 3 Card Blitz is a 31 type game (with a dash of High Card Flush) so you might check out Money$uit over at WoO.

I noticed the strategy for the game was not available at wizard of odds, so I did my own analysis, available at probabilitysports.com/blitz.html . You are right about blockers, and the value of having higher cards besides the one you use for your score. You should always play 20+, and always fold 17-. 18 you fold most of the time, but if your other cards are very high, you should play. 19 you play most of the time, but if your other cards are low, you should fold. The lists of hands to play and fold are linked from the main analysis page under "19(Play)", "18(Play)", "19(Fold)", and "18(Fold)". On each of those pages, "T" represents any 10-valued card.

3 Card Blitz just started a field trial at the SLS on May 7. I'll have to move an analysis up in priority.

Quote: Wizard

3 Card Blitz just started a field trial at the SLS on May 7. I'll have to move and analysis up in priority.

This game is quite popular at Foxwoods. One of my carnival games.

General strategy for us is always play 19 or higher. Sometimes 18 if a lot of face cards are out (they have no Problem with sharing hands) but never less than 18

We play the flush bet every hand for $5/$10 but never play the progressive

I have gotten a couple of 6 hand flushes. Never seen a 7 card flush or double blitz

Quote: MrBrain

I noticed the strategy for the game was not available at wizard of odds, so I did my own analysis, available at probabilitysports.com/blitz.html . You are right about blockers, and the value of having higher cards besides the one you use for your score. You should always play 20+, and always fold 17-. 18 you fold most of the time, but if your other cards are very high, you should play. 19 you play most of the time, but if your other cards are low, you should fold. The lists of hands to play and fold are linked from the main analysis page under "19(Play)", "18(Play)", "19(Fold)", and "18(Fold)". On each of those pages, "T" represents any 10-valued card.

I started thinking about this game before I noticed your nice analysis at probabilitysports.com/blitz.html.

The proposed strategy I came up with (without doing massive calculations) was:

20+ Always PLAY
17 or less Always FOLD.

18 Count the number of high cards, here defined as 9-A. FOLD. except PLAY with 4 high cards in your 7 card hand. With 0-3 High Cards in your hand, FOLD.

19 PLAY, except FOLD with 0 High Cards (T-A) in your 7 card hand.
************************************************************************

This proposed strategy is not perfect but I think it will be pretty good. A better strategy might keep track of 2's as well**, and/or perhaps take into account player's suit distribution.

Here are examples of two hands that score as 18 that I expect will have very different EVs:

(High EV) Spades: A-7 Hearts: A-7 Diamonds: A-7 Clubs: A
(Low EV) Spades: 7-6-5 Hearts: 5-4-3-2

Clearly, an 18 will be beat by any two card flush with two high cards 9-A and almost always will lose or tie to a 3 card (or longer) flush with at least one high card. So, high cards seem like a valid concept on which to define a strategy that accounts for 'blockers.'

**Note that 2's are nearly a worthless card - sort of a poison pill. In a 3 card flush, a 2 is very weak. In a two card flush it can never contribute to a hand that is higher than 13, and in a 4 card (or longer) flush it is literally worthless - never used. So, you would love for the dealer to have some 2's. When you have one or two 2's in your hand, you materially improve the dealer's prospects.

Quote: Gialmere

P.S. 3 Card Blitz is a 31 type game (with a dash of High Card Flush) so you might check out Money$uit over at WoO.

I'd be curious to hear everyone thoughts on the games vs one another. I will likely start a poll thread on that shortly.

Mainly for my own benefit, here is a link to the demo game.

Quote: Zizos

Double Blitz: 50 to 1

Is a Double Blitz two blitzes in the player's hand or one in the player's and one in the dealer's?

I can't confirm but assume it would have to be two blitzes in the player's hand.

Does anyone know what happens with the progressive bet if the player has a Royal Blitz AND a Double Blitz? Or two Royal Blitzes?

Quote: MrBrain

I noticed the strategy for the game was not available at wizard of odds, so I did my own analysis, available at probabilitysports.com/blitz.html .

I have to say, very impressive work there! As a new member, you can't post links, so let me do it for you: MrBrain analysis of 3 Card Blitz.

I see you use a different pay table for the progressive than they have at the demo game. Is yours what they are running at Foxwoods?

My page on 3 Card Blitz is ready for comments. I hope y'all like my Wizard basic strategy. The house edge of which is 0.024% higher than the optimal strategy of MrBrain.

Speaking of whom, my high compliments of doing a combinatorial analysis of the game. That is 6,071,092,494,667,200 possible combinations. While short cuts could be made, I think my code would have taken days or weeks to cycle through them all. So I punted and did a simulation.

My thanks to all for their contributions.

It's probably not worth your guy's time but, if enough players flashed their cards, how many penalty points would make playing on 18 possible?

Quote: Gialmere

It's probably not worth your guy's time but, if enough players flashed their cards, how many penalty points would make playing on 18 possible?

I show knowledge of each extra card to be worth about 0.01%. I assume they "dragon off" a hand, leaving only 5 player hands, or 35 known cards. Based on an educated guess only, I don't think that would overcome the house edge.

I hope to investigate the game in person at the SLS as soon as I can find another excuse to go out that way.

Quote: Wizard

I show knowledge of each extra card to be worth about 0.01%. I assume they "dragon off" a hand, leaving only 5 player hands, or 35 known cards. Based on an educated guess only, I don't think that would overcome the house edge.

I hope to investigate the game in person at the SLS as soon as I can find another excuse to go out that way.

At least at Foxwoods they do not reserve a hand. A full table will have 3 cards left in the holder.

Quote: GBAM

At least at Foxwoods they do not reserve a hand. A full table will have 3 cards left in the holder.

Very interesting! In that case, I think a full table of colluders, who used the information perfectly, could destroy the game (shut up Wiz!). Perhaps just knowing the total points among the ten remaining cards would be enough, ignoring the distribution of suits, would be enough.

Quote: Wizard

Very interesting! In that case, I think a full table of colluders, who used the information perfectly, could destroy the game (shut up Wiz!). Perhaps just knowing the total points among the ten remaining cards would be enough, ignoring the distribution of suits, would be enough.

I raised this issue with some other folks recently. I was curious to see a collusion analysis. The biggest hurdle is the transfer of full information...

Since you brought it up, wouldn't simply propping the large cards up in your hand from the rest be an easy way to relay perfect "big" card information to the other team members?

Quote: mrsuit31

Since you brought it up, wouldn't simply propping the large cards up in your hand from the rest be an easy way to relay perfect "big" card information to the other team members?

I don't know much about the fine points of such sharing of information, but if just a number wanted to be conveyed, I think simple hand gestures would be enough. I wonder if Stephen How knows about this game.

I took a quick look at collusion possibilities in this game about a month ago. My take was that 3-Card Blitz was not beatable by collusion; not by keeping track of high cards (which seems to me is the reasonable and correct approach).

For collusion to be effective there must be a reasonable percentage of player decisions that are "close calls." In 3 Card Blitz it is only the 19s and 18s that are close calls. Additionally, the amount of leverage on the 3 Card Blitz decisions is low -that is, only one extra unit bet being wagered or not wagered when you already have two unit bets wagered at the outset of the game. That's pretty weak leverage.

And of course, the fraction of time that the cards you see will be favorable for going against basic strategy will always be less than 50%, and usually is only 5-30%. And the amount of advantage you gain by doing this is usually modest, say 1- 20%.

If you could literally keep track of every card and know whether the dealer was likely to get certain cards in the same suits -that might help to make a difference. But that would require perfect knowledge of all the cards in player hands and math-savant-like skills to process the information.

So, I disagree with Wizard - I do not think that this game can be beat (or "crushed") by collusion without the collusion team using an electronic computer device and optical card readers that are hidden on the bodies of the collusion team players. So, I stopped grinding away at 3-Card Blitz on my computer.

I'd welcome other opinions, though. Maybe I missed something?

Quote: gordonm888

So, I disagree with Wizard - I do not think that this game can be beat (or "crushed") by collusion without the collusion team using an electronic computer device and optical card readers that are hidden on the bodies of the collusion team players. So, I stopped grinding away at 3-Card Blitz on my computer.

I respect anything you say. I was going off just an educated guess in my remarks and easily defer to your actual work on the subject.

Quote: Wizard

I hope to investigate the game in person at the SLS as soon as I can find another excuse to go out that way.

Have you had a chance to go check the game out?

Does anyone know how this is doing at Mohegan sun or Foxwoods.

At Foxwoods the game has two tables and usually not empty but never a line to play. Definitely one of the friendlier table experiences

(See next post, which includes original quote from the Wizard)

Quote: Wizard

I have to say, very impressive work there! As a new member, you can't post links, so let me do it for you: ml]MrBrain analysis of 3 Card Blitz.

I see you use a different pay table for the progressive than they have at the demo game. Is yours what they are running at Foxwoods?

Thank you very much! I believe that my progressive analysis matches the demo page, which also matches the amounts put into the five meters at MGM National Harbor (0.20 into royal flush, 0.25 into each royal blitz). When a player gets a double blitz, they can also win one or two jackpots for a royal blitz if one or both of their blitzes are AKQ. RB represents the average of all four royal blitz meters, so when you win any one of them, the expected value is RB. Looking at the payouts in my progressive table, they all match the values on the demo game. Is there anything in particular you see that doesn't match the demo?