21 to the River

A great side-bet also found mostly at Las Vegas casinos, 21 to the River is my favorite side bet of all, probably because it so heavily involves the game of poker, as well. Here’s how it goes. A player makes a standard blackjack bet and, in addition, a standard poker bet separately. The blackjack hand isn’t affected by this side bet at all, the same casino rules (whatever they may be – soft 17, splits, surrender, etc…) apply, and the same rules apply to the dealer.

OK, now if you bust your blackjack hand, a five-card poker hand will be used to determine the value of your side bet. This hand actually uses the cards you busted with, and the subsequent four cards in the shoe. If you don’t bust your blackjack hand, the poker bet is a push. If you split, the first hand that busts (if there is one), initiates the poker side bet. Otherwise, again, the side bet is a push.

So, is this side bet worth playing aside from the amusement factor? That depends on a few things. First, whether you favor the risk/return of your hand busting. And second, whether you can be disciplined enough not to take chances on your blackjack hand (you know, the REAL reason you’re playing blackjack) just to get a poker hand going. However, there is strategy involved. If you’re playing a low bet on the blackjack hand and notice a nice poker hand building, it might very much be worth your while to bust intentionally and take your chances finishing up a power poker hand. As you’ll see when I go through the payoffs, this is a real possibility.

And by the way, there’s about a 13.3 percent chance you’ll bust your blackjack hand even if you’re not trying to.

So, for the poker side bet, here are the returns. A royal flush has such a small probability of hitting, the percentage is more clearly just listed as zero. If you do manage to pull of the miracle, though, don’t expect a massive return. It does pay 500:1, but for the likelihood of that happening, it’s peanuts.

A Straight flush, too, has about a 0.0001% chance of hitting, and that only pays 250:1. Five of a kind takes that 1 and turns it into a 3, and offers 100:1 return. Four of a kind has a 0.022% chance of hitting and pays 50:1. A boat has a 0.049% chance and pays 25:1. A straight pays 10:1 and a flush pays 15:1, yet both have slightly less of a probability of hitting than the full house does – go figure. There’s a 0.6% chance you’ll get 3 of a kind (seems low to me), and that only pays 5:1. Two pair hits 2.3% of the time for 2:1, and guess what? That’s it, no money for jacks or better (or worse). So if you add all that up, it basically comes out to a house edge of 1.3% on each bet. And the odds of your bet resulting in a win or loss is just over 10%. So the overall house edge is almost 12%.

I’ve seen worse in side bets, and like all others, you should know these aren’t designed to help your odds. They’re there as another form of gambling, and when you stack two forms of gambling on top of each other in a casino, it’s only accepted and natural that your odds would continue to decrease.