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Reason #3 why the Wizard likes Bovada:
Excellent Odds
In my opinion many online casinos are too stingy when setting the odds on their games. They think they will make more money that way but I believe they are misguided, because when players lose too quickly it’s not fun, and those players might not come back.
Bovada is one of the few casinos that understands this. They offer generous odds to let you play longer and get you a better chance of winning. Among their generous offerings are Full-Pay Jacks or Better returning 99.54%, six other video poker games paying over 99%, single-zero roulette, and my favorite, Pick ’em Poker, returning 99.95%!
Kudos to Bovada for not being afraid to give their players a good gamble.
Three Way Action
Last Update: Jan 14, 2004
Three way action is three games in one. The player may make any number and combination of them. There is also an optional blackjack side bet. The game is played with a single deck of cards that is shuffled after every hand. Following are the betting options:
- Blackjack: Normal single-deck blackjack rules except the player the player may only split aces and player automatically wins with a seven-card hand of 21 or less (7-card Charlie). Assuming the dealer hits a soft 17, double on any two cards, and double after a split the normal house edge would be 0.18%. Not splitting any pair except aces adds 0.35%. The 7-card Charlie rule helps almost nothing. So the overall house edge in the blackjack portion is 0.53%.
- Combat: Player's first card against Dealer's up card, highest card wins. A player win pays even money. Dealer wins half on a tie. House edge of 2.94%.
- Seven Card Showdown: Additional cards are added to player's and dealer's final blackjack hands to make seven each. The best poker hand wins. Dealer must have at least an ace high to qualify. If dealer doesn't qualify then the players wins 1/2 his bet, otherwise a win pays even money. Following are the possible outcomes of this bet according to a random simulation.
| Seven Card Showdown - Seven Card Showdown | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hand | Total | Probability | Pays | Return |
| Dealer doesn't qualify | 7058671 | 0.077398 | 0.5 | 0.038699 |
| Player wins | 38775791 | 0.425173 | 1 | 0.425173 |
| Dealer wins | 45306542 | 0.496782 | -1 | -0.496782 |
| Tie | 58996 | 0.000647 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 91200000 | 1 | 0 | -0.03291 |
The lower right cell shows a house edge of 3.29%.
There is also a side bet titled Bonus Action based on the player's final seven cards. The following table shows the winning hands, their probability, what they pay, and the return.
| Three Way Action - Bonus Action | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hand | Combinations | Probability | Pays | Return |
| Royal flush | 4324 | 0.000032 | 1000-1 | 0.032321 |
| Straight flush | 37260 | 0.000279 | 100-1 | 0.027851 |
| 4 of a kind | 224848 | 0.001681 | 25-1 | 0.042017 |
| Full house | 3473184 | 0.025961 | 7-1 | 0.181727 |
| Flush | 4047644 | 0.030255 | 5-1 | 0.151275 |
| Straight | 6180020 | 0.046194 | 3-1 | 0.138581 |
| 3 of a kind | 6461620 | 0.048299 | 3-1 | 0.144896 |
| 2 pair | 31433400 | 0.234955 | lose | -0.234955 |
| Pair | 58627800 | 0.438225 | lose | -0.438225 |
| Nothing | 23294460 | 0.174119 | lose | -0.174119 |
| Total | 133784560 | 1 | -0.128632 | |
The number in the lower right hand corner shows the house edge is 12.86%.
There is also a similar game called Triple Shot.
Michael Shackleford, ASA
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