Boss Media software review

Last update: Apr. 16, 2009

Disclaimer: Let it be known that I have served as a consultant to Boss Media. While this review was originally written before they engaged my services I do update it from time to time. This review attempts to be unbiased and mostly sticks to the game rules, odds, and strategy. While I feel comfortable there is no conflict of interest I think it is appropriate to disclose the relationship.

Boss Media, based in Sweden, is one of the largest and oldest software providers. Their software provides a realistic feel that comes about as close as you can get to a real casino. Both multi-player and private tables are available. An easy to access record is kept of every bet going back 30 days. There is also a transaction record that shows every deposit, bonus, and withdrawal, going back as far as you want. When you open an account a PIN will be sent in the postal mail that is required for withdrawals of over $500.

I don't know how they do it but Boss Media picks its casino owners very well. All of them all solid organizations. As far as I know the number of Boss Media casinos that have gone bad is zero. If you are looking for a safe place put put your money you can't go wrong with a Boss casino.

Version 3 offers a cash back program. The following is the cash back rate according to the game.

0.0%: Single deck blackjack
0.1%: Craps, Baccarat, Blackjack (6 deck), Roulette, Casino War.
0.2%: Pai Gow Poker.
0.3%: Sic Bo, Video Poker, Caribbean Stud Poker, Gold Pirates Slots, Killer Whale Slots, 4 Reels Drive Slots, Jack In the Box Slots, Aladdin's Lamp Slots, Haunted House Slots, Bonus Madness Slots, Temple of Isis Slots.
0.5%: Keno, Money Wheel.

Following are the games offered in Version 3, the rules, strategy tips, and house edge.

Be careful to pay attention to the time limits when playing at Boss Media casinos. Once the cards are dealt in blackjack the player has so many seconds to make a decision. If no decision is made the dealer will assume the player wishes to stand. Once I had a total of seven on my first two cards, got distracted, and I was forced to stand on seven. The dealer ended up getting an 18 and I lost a $60 bet. The manager at Casino.Net kindly gave me half of it back.

Baccarat

Six deck are used. The house edge is 1.06% on the banker, 1.24% on the player, and 14.44% on the tie.

Blackjack

Following are the blackjack rules:

Six decks
Dealer stands on soft 17
Player may double on any first two cards
Player may double after a split
Player may not resplit
One card to split aces
Dealer always peeks for blacjack (U.S. rule)

Yes, Boss Media finally did away with their European no-peek rule completely with version 3.

Following is the basic strategy for the six deck game.

Key to tables:

H: Hit
S: Stand
D: Double if allowed, otherwise hit
Ds: Double if allowed, otherwise stand
P: sPlit

The house edge is 0.46%.

Single Deck Blackjack

For years some Boss Media casinos offered a single-deck blackjack game with a small player advantage. As fas as I know, the number that have it now is zero. The single-deck blackjack game had the same rules as the six-deck except only one deck is used. This game had a player edge of 0.11%, using the total dependent basic strategy below. To bring the advantage up to 0.15%, see my composition dependent basic strategy.

Here is the basic strategy, should it ever return.

Caribbean Poker

This is the same game as Caribbean Stud Poker, with the conventional pay table. The house edge under the standard rules is 5.22%. There is also a side bet with the following pay table.

Boss Media Caribbean Poker Side Bet
Hand	Pays
Royal flush	100% of meter
Straight flush	10% of meter
Four of a kind	$500
Full house	$100
Flush	$50

The house edge of the side bet is 63.76% less 2.92% for each $10,000 in the meter. When I checked on March 30, 2003, at Pharaoh's Casino the meter was at $110,795 for a house edge of 31.36%. For the side bet to have no house edge the meter would need to reach $218,047.

I get asked a lot about the possibility to collude with other players in multi-player mode by exchanging information about the cards held. According to Stanley Ko, in order to gain an advantage you need at least six total players. Boss Media as only five seats, so you colluders will be wasting your time at this game.

Casino War

Six decks. The game follows the bonus rule where both the ante and raise win in the event of a tie after a tie. Correct strategy is to always go to war on ties. The house edge is 2.68%.

Craps

The Boss Media programmers did a fine job with craps, which is a difficult game to do well. They offer two times odds on all points. The combined house edge on the pass line and the odds is 0.606%. The don't odds are correctly relative to the amount the player can win (a rule few Internet software companies get right). The combined house edge on the don't pass and laying odds is 0.455%.

Buy and lay bets only charge the 5% commission only on winning bets and always based on the amount won. Place to win and proposition bets are offered according to the usual rules. The field bet pays 2:1 on both 2 and 12. Following is the house edge on some of the unique Boss Media bets:

Buy on 4,10: 3.33%
Buy on 5,9: 3.00%
Buy on 6,8: 2.73%
Lay on 4,10: 1.67%
Lay on 5,9: 2.00%
Lay on 6,8: 2.27%

Warning: When laying the odds after a don't pass or don't come bets, which should be in increments of $6, winnings are shortchanged 10 cents. This seems to be true regardless of the bet amount, as long as it is divisible by $6.

Keno

Version 3 has the same stingy pay table as version 2. The following table shows the expected return according to the number of marks.

Boss Media Keno
Pick	Return
2	68.04%
3	69.38%
4	67.39%
5	67.57%
6	70.64%
7	69.56%
8	67.47%
9	64.53%
10	69.61%

Killer Whale

Mathematically speaking this is the same game as 'Five Deck Frenzy' or what Starnet calls 'King of the Deck.' In this game there are 5 spinning reels, each with 52 stops, one for each card. The player may hold any given card on the first spin and then respin the discards. On the second spin the player can not get the same card back on the same reel. In other words it is the same thing as video poker with one deck for each card position. .

I do not know the return for this game.

Money Wheel

This is the same thing as Big Six, with the Vegas rules that pay 40-1 on the joker and logo. The following table shows the house edge on each bet.

Boss Media Money Wheel
Bet	Pays	Number on Wheel	House Edge
$1	1-1	24	11.11%
$2	2-1	15	16.67%
$5	5-1	7	22.22%
$10	10-1	4	18.52%
$20	20-1	2	22.22%
Joker	40-1	1	24.07%
Logo	40-1	1	24.07%

Not all version 3 casinos offer this game. As far as I know the only ones that offer the Money Wheel are Pharaoh's, Player's Club and Jamaica Bay.

Pai Gow Poker

Boss Media is the only brand to feature player banking in a mutli-player game. The turn to be banker zig-zags between the players and the dealer, the dealer banking every other hand. If a player declines to bank or there is nobody in a seat the banker will revert to the dealer. There are five player positions at the table. So the player will have a chance to bank once every 10 hands. While not banking the house edge is 2.85%, and as banker in a one on one game the house edge is 0.08%. The more the other players the less the house edge as banker. In a one on one game the average house edge is 2.57%.

A nice feature is a house way button to arrange your hand, although once clicked the action is irreversible. The player does not have a chance to see the house way first before deciding to take it. A2345 is the second highest straight. The house way used is the strategy found in Optimal Strategy for Pai Gow Poker by Stanford Wong.

Roulette

A single zero wheel is used for a house edge of 2.70% on all bets.

Sic Bo

Player's Club casino exclusively offers Sic Bo. The payoffs are better than some and worse than others. See my Sic Bo online section for a comparison to other software brands. Of special note is the 6-1 payoff on a 2-number combination, resulting in a house edge of 2.78%, much better than the usual 5-1 payoff with a 16.67% house edge.

The following table shows the payoff and house edge for all bets.

Boss Media Sic Bo
Bet	Pays	Prob. Win	House Edge
Small, Big	1-1	48.61%	2.78%
4, 17	60-1	1.39%	15.28%
5, 16	30-1	2.78%	13.89%
6, 15	17-1	4.63%	16.67%
7, 14	12-1	6.94%	9.72%
8, 13	8-1	9.72%	12.50%
9, 12	6-1	11.57%	18.98%
10, 11	6-1	12.50%	12.50%
Triple	180-1	0.46%	16.20%
Any triple	30-1	2.78%	13.89%
Double	10-1	7.41%	18.52%
Two die combination	6-1	13.89%	2.78%
Any number	(1/2/3)-1	42.13%	7.87%

The lowest house edge bets are on big, small, and any two number combination, all at 2.78%.

Not all version 3 casinos offer this game. As far as I know the only ones that offer the Money Wheel are Pharaoh's, Player's Club and Jamaica Bay.

Slots

A nice variety is available. Boss Media features some wide area progressive games, meaning all the Boss Media casinos feed into the same progressive jackpot. This allows large jackpots to get built up faster.

Video Poker

At most casinos only Jacks or Better is offered with a 5/7/20 pay table. With optimal strategy the expected return is 95.48%. The following table shows the probability and return of each hand.

Jacks or Better
Hand	Payoff	Number	Probability	Return
Royal flush	1000	553693344	0.000028	0.027777
Straight flush	50	2181883836	0.000109	0.005473
4 of a kind	20	46927098840	0.002354	0.047084
Full house	7	228888423720	0.011483	0.080379
Flush	5	220234644540	0.011049	0.055243
Straight	4	226131938628	0.011344	0.045378
3 of a kind	3	1477703531280	0.074133	0.222398
Two pair	2	2569008096000	0.128881	0.257761
Jacks or better	1	4252431465432	0.213334	0.213334
Nothing	0	10909169741580	0.547286	0.000000
Total		19933230517200	1.000000	0.954828

Pharaoh's Casino has a nicer selection as follows and I'm told all Boss Media casinos will move to the following games by the end of 2004.

Jacks or Better
Hand	Payoff	Number	Probability	Return
Royal flush	800	493512264	0.000025	0.019807
Straight flush	50	2178883296	0.000109	0.005465
4 of a kind	25	47093167764	0.002363	0.059064
Full house	9	229475482596	0.011512	0.103610
Flush	6	219554786160	0.011015	0.066087
Straight	4	223837565784	0.011229	0.044917
3 of a kind	3	1484003070324	0.074449	0.223346
Two pair	2	2576946164148	0.129279	0.258558
Jacks or better	1	4277372890968	0.214585	0.214585
Nothing	0	10872274993896	0.545435	0.000000
Total		19933230517200	1.000000	0.995439

Tens or Better

Hand Payoff Probability Return

Royal flush 800 0.000026 0.020546

Straight flush 50 0.000103 0.005141

Four of a Kind 25 0.002358 0.058958

Full house 6 0.011497 0.068984

Flush 5 0.010654 0.053270

Straight 4 0.012357 0.049429

Three of a Kind 3 0.074265 0.222795

Two Pair 2 0.129007 0.258013

Tens or Better 1 0.254251 0.254251

Nothing 0 0.505482 0.000000

Total 1.000000 0.991388

Joker Wild

Hand Payoff Probability Return

Natural Royal Flush 800 0.000025 0.019682

5 of a kind 200 0.000093 0.018644

Wild Royal Flush 100 0.000104 0.010418

Straight Flush 50 0.000581 0.029028

4 of a Kind 18 0.008538 0.153676

Full House 7 0.015656 0.109589

Flush 5 0.015663 0.078315

Straight 3 0.016805 0.050414

3 of a kind 2 0.133659 0.267317

2 Pair 1 0.110745 0.110745

Kings or better 1 0.141544 0.141544

Nothing 0 0.556589 0.000000

Total Return 1.000000 0.989372

Deuces Wild

Hand Payoff Number Probability Return

Natural royal flush 800 451963644 0.000023 0.018139

4 deuces 200 3745487652 0.000188 0.037580

Wild royal flush 20 35864159688 0.001799 0.035984

5 of a kind 15 62385447048 0.003130 0.046946

Straight flush 9 99367373148 0.004985 0.044865

4 of a kind 4 1225731582828 0.061492 0.245967

Full house 4 522145872600 0.026195 0.104779

Flush 3 408462003072 0.020492 0.061475

Straight 2 1152851681184 0.057836 0.115671

3 of a kind 1 5348224877136 0.268307 0.268307

Nothing 0 11074000069200 0.555555 0.000000

Total 19933230517200 1.000000 0.979714

Double Bonus Poker

Hand Payoff Number Probability Return

Royal flush 800 414973476 0.000021 0.016655

Straight flush 50 2255533176 0.000113 0.005658

4 aces 160 4364665980 0.000219 0.035034

4 2-4 80 10446064476 0.000524 0.041924

4 5-K 50 31969127784 0.001604 0.080191

Full house 9 211872080016 0.010629 0.095662

Flush 7 303428337828 0.015222 0.106556

Straight 5 299409572148 0.015021 0.075103

3 of a kind 3 1452555860172 0.072871 0.218613

Two pair 1 2370561008868 0.118925 0.118925

Jacks or better 1 3921754413384 0.196745 0.196745

Nothing 0 11324198879892 0.568107 0.000000

Total 19933230517200 1.000000 0.991065

Note: Pharaoh's Casino incorrectly calls the above game Bonus Poker.