(EV of $1.9 - 0.50) / Total wager of $150 = +0.93% combined player edgeĪs I said, Wong clearly states that the 3.8% player advantage on the side bet assumes normal BS, not modified BS.Īnd assuming the 3.8% figure is correct, the corresponding 1.4% HA needed to arrive at the Wizard's -0.5% combined HA would have to exist with the player using normal BS, which would require the game to be 6:5 or some other outrageous set of rules. What one would expect to see is something more akin to the following: So in calculating the 3.8% edge, basic strategy was assumed, and thus the HE on the regular bet would not be increased by deviating from BS, since no deviations were used in determining that figure. In fact, that would be impossible, because CBJN goes on to say: 'You can do slightly better with selected deviations from basic strategy.' The Wizard does not state what the edge on the side bet alone is, but I find it difficult to believe that it could be as high as +3.8% if the combined total (bet + side bet) is, in fact, -0.33% as he claims ($-0.5 EV / $150 total bet = 0.33% HE).

I finally looked at the Wizard of Odds page on the Tie bet (couldn't find it at first) and there seems to be some serious discrepancy between what he is saying and what is stated in CBJN.įrom WofOdds: 'The combined house edge of the blackjack wager and the side bet is about 0.5% of the blackjack wager.'įrom CBJN: 'From page 94 of Basic Blackjack, basic strategy yields ties 9.44% of the time, so the player has an edge of 3.8% on the side bet, with huge variance.'

Push your luck blackjack side bet