Blackjack: 2 through 6
Another fairly simple side bet pays you off different amounts per value of your up cards. The only catch is, in order to qualify for the payoffs, the dealer’s up card must either be a 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 – except in one situation. The house edge is only about 7.5% on this one with a standard 6-deck game, so it’s definitely worth playing if you’re into the side bets.
The few casinos online that offer this allow you to bet usually up to $50. Taking that into account, here’s the breakdown of hands, their probability and how much they’ll pay if they hit.
The best combination is Ace, King of hearts, which nets you 40:1. Yeah, this isn’t a huge payout side bet, but with such a small house edge, that’s the trade-off. Still, the odds of pulling this one are a slim 0.1 percent. After that, a standard blackjack is next on the list. You have a 1.7 percent chance of getting this, and it pays 8 to 1. After these two hands, you’re doing a little math. If your two up cards total of 9 through 11 (also including a soft 19 or 20), then you get paid off five to one. The odds of this are 5.6 percent. If your first two cards total 17 to 21, you get 2 to 1. The odds there are nearly 10 percent.
Here’s where you get a bit of a break. If you get a blackjack at goldencasino and the dealer has a 7 through A (yeah, the rest of the cards) you’ll still get paid off 2 to 1 (on top of your other blackjack 3 to 2 on the regular bet).
So, is this one worth it? I’d say yes, and recommend it if you can find it, which might be the hardest task. The older casinos in Vegas tend to support it, like the Four Queens and Golden Nugget, at least as of a year ago. As with all side bets, you have to weigh whether it’s enjoyable to play, and if the payoff is enough to bring you into the game, because you’re always going to be hurting yourself as far as house odds go.