Hypothetical Blackjack Variation

Dealer must hit until his total exceeds that of the highest player total. Blackjack is paid first and does not affect play of the dealer's hand.

Is it possible to determine the approximate advantage (for either house or player) in this game?

I would think that because the dealer's hit/stand decisions are affected by the player's hand, the advantage of this game would change drastically depending on the number of players at the table.

For example, at a full table of six or seven people, the majority of the time at least one of the players is dealt a twenty. In that case, unless the dealer has a natural or is able to hit to 21, the entire table wins. It seems that there there would be a significant player advantage in the case of multiple players.

However, in a game with only one player, I am tempted to say that the house advantage would be higher than in normal blackjack, since the advantage of acting last is greatly magnified.

that game seems similar to extreme 21 where the dealer plays vs. each player individualy but must beat their totals, 21 is auto winner but if you stand on a 20, dealer must hit 19's to hope to get a 2, from what i remember there was no push in the game,

i only saw it at 2-3 casinos a few years back though..

ccl

Does the amount of the bet matter?

Lets say you have 5 players at the table 4 are betting $5 a hand and one is betting $500 the player with $500 has a 17 and one player betting $5 has a 20 the dealer has hard 18 does he have to hit? He is beating the $500 hand if he has to hit and pays on a bust he will have a tremendous disadvantage.