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Poker Bet on Blackjack

Introduction

I spotted the Poker bet at some blackjack tables in the Zurich casino on March 12, 2018. It is the same thing as the 21+3, except it pays 8.5 to 1, instead of 9. Following are the full rules.

Rules

The Poker bet pays based on the poker value of the player's initial two cards and the dealer's up card. If the three cards form a straight, flush, straight flush, or three of a kind, the bet pays 8.5 to 1.

Analysis

The following table shows my analysis for six decks. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 8.08%.

Poker Bet — Six Decks

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
Straight flush 8.5 11,408 0.002276 0.019342
Three of a kind 8.5 25,272 0.005041 0.042848
Straight 8.5 155,520 0.031021 0.263682
Flush 8.5 292,896 0.058424 0.496600
Pair -1 977,184 0.194918 -0.194918
Loser -1 3,551,040 0.708321 -0.708321
Total 5,013,320 1.000000 -0.080766


The house edge with four decks is 9.03% and with eight decks is 7.60%.