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Lucky 6

Introduction

Lucky 6

The Lucky 6 is a side bet on the commission-free version of baccarat that pays 1 to 2 on a winning Banker total of six. The Lucky 6 pays on just that contingency. I first noticed the Lucky 6 at the Venetian in Las Vegas on September 10, 2019. The same side bet goes by the name of the Tiger on some games.

I have an unconfirmed report that the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas offers the same bet, but titles it the Bank 6.

Rules

Following are the rules as played at the liberal pay table.

  1. If the Banker bet wins with a 2-card total of 6, then the Lucky 6 pays 12 to* 1.
  2. If the Banker bet wins with a 3-card total of 6, then the Lucky 6 pays 23 to* 1.

Meanwhile, the "stingy pay table" pays only 20 to 1 on a 3-card winning Banker total of 6.

Notes:
* The table rules expresses the rules on a "for one" basis, which I converted to "to one," in the interests of consistency with how I write about table games.

Analysis

The following table shows my analysis of the Lucky 6 side bet under the Liberal pay table. I converted the pays to a "to one" basis. It is interesting that the win with the higher probability also pays more. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 11.70%.

Lucky 6 — Liberal Pay Table

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
2-Card Winning Banker 6 12 186,173,936,904,192 0.037247 0.446961
3-Card Winning Banker 6 23 83,058,367,551,488 0.016617 0.382191
All other -1 4,729,165,971,047,680 0.946136 -0.946136
Total   4,998,398,275,503,360 1.000000 -0.116985

The next pay table shows my analysis under the stingy pay table. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 16.68%.

Lucky 6 — Stingy Pay Table

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
2-Card Winning Banker 6 12 186,173,936,904,192 0.037247 0.446961
3-Card Winning Banker 6 20 83,058,367,551,488 0.016617 0.332340
All other -1 4,729,165,971,047,680 0.946136 -0.946136
Total   4,998,398,275,503,360 1.000000 -0.166836

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Written by: Michael Shackleford