This post considers the blackjack side bet called "20 Pays" (20P). As the name implies, this wager wins whenever the player's first two cards total 20. In that sense, it is similar to both Royal 20s and Lucky Ladies. What makes this side bet unique is that it also pays if the player's first card is a Jack, Queen or King, when the second card is not ten-valued.
Here is the most common pay table for 20P:
In the past few years there has been a proliferation of blackjack side bets based on the theme of the dealer busting. Among these side bets are “Bet the Bust,” “Bust Bonus,” “Bust It,” “Buster Blackjack,” and “Dealer Bust 21.” The market probably has room for one of these to be moderately successful: the winner of that battle is still to be determined. Among these, the wager “Bust It” (BI) has been around the longest. It is offered both as an ordinary blackjack side bet and as a side bet for Spanish 21. This article considers the countability of BI for ordinary blackjack.
King’s Bounty (KB) is Shuffle Master's answer to Galaxy Gaming's Lucky Ladies (LL) blackjack side bet. Both wagers pay based on the player’s two cards totaling 20. Both side bets have a special payout for a matched pair. In LL, this pair consists of two Queen of Hearts. In KB, this pair consists of two King of Spades. Both games have a top prize of 1000-to-1 that is paid when the premium pair occurs simultaneously with a dealer blackjack. I have always assumed that KB and LL have about the same vulnerability to card counting, with the Ten Count working for both.
Last week I attended and presented at the Cutting Edge Table Games Conference at Paris Casino in Las Vegas. The turnout this year was strong and the number of vendors who showed off their games spiked up significantly. Along with SHFL and Galaxy Gaming, there were more than 20 other independent table game inventors showing their games. As part of the conference, there was a contest for “Best New Table Game.” In the past, this award has been won by outstanding games such as High Card Flush, War Blackjack, EZ Baccarat and others.
In this blog post, Stephen How described the new Shuffle Master game Raise it Up Stud (RIUS). Stephen was the mathematician for the game and stated that he recently saw it at Pala casino. As far as I know, Pala is the only casino currently hosting RIUS. It will also be shown at G2Ethis year. RIUS is yet another poker hybrid, with the familiar ante/raise/blind structure.
The winner of the “Best New Table Game” prize at this year’s Cutting Edge Table Games Conference was Pick ‘Em Blackjack. This side bet consists of three wagers the player can make in addition to his ordinary blackjack wager. These wagers are:
I've been collecting table game icons for several years. My collection dates back to G2E, 2005, when I made sure to get every rack sheet I could find. My collection now has over 200 icons. Late last year, I created a video showing off my collection. I've used that video at several conference talks to illustrate the problem of game protection in the face of an onslaught of new games. Here is the video:
The table game Racing Card Derby (RCD) is meant to be dealt from a single deck of cards. I explored the “what if” of card counting RCD if dealt from an eight-deck shoe in this post. Card counting works on most games whose probabilities change as cards are dealt from a shoe. Whereas card counting is an after-effect of the rules and procedures of a game, hole-carding opportunities usually arise from sloppy dealing. This post explores advantage play against RCD when a card is known.
