Ante Up 21

Anyone ever heard of this game?

http://www.anteup21.com/rules/index.php

It's at the Fremont In Downtown LV according to their website. Supposed to be a blend of BJ and regular Poker but sounds a little like 3CP.

Seems like it could be profitable at a high enough count, although dealer would be more likely to have a good poker hand too. Dealer has to have Queen high to qualify or player wins ante bet. Would this make it worth anything at a negative count ( I know, I shouldn't be playing a negative count anyways)? Would it be a low enough house advantage to have any value as a cover play?

Just curious.

Homeschool

This game will almost certainly be played with one deck that is reshuffled each hand.

If they do that, a counter at third base will have a slight advantage at a full table, significant if it is a DAS game. But they don't clarify that rule, nor do they state that it's a 3:2 game.

I played it briefly. One big problem is that the dealer often has three or four cards to choose from, while you generally have two or three. When the dealer busts, it increases his chances of winning the poker portion. I played about fifteen minutes one on one and didn't care for it. I was down, won a poker bet to break even and bailed on it.

Gee, if only we had a resident expert on the subject of new, strange games and how to obtain an edge in those games...

We do, it's just a lot more details are needed. Even better, every detail. The game spec sheet is surprisingly sparse, so I guess that means the casino has a lot of options as to how to deal it. The only thing they stipulate is that the game must be H17 and the dealer must finish his hand if all players bust, but it doesn't say that the dealer must finish his hand if all players bust except for one, who has a natural.

Being you have twice as much money down on the poker hand as the BJ hand the poker bet is going to affect the BJ play dramatically.

Fair enough, that wasn't intended as a sleight to any of the resident carnival game experts here, but I'd be surprised if ExhibitCAA hadn't already cracked this game, or at least given it a good hard looking at. Anyway, it sounds interesting. Shadroch, was it one-round and reshuffle? Hand-dealt? What do you remember about the rules?

Here is what I recall- About a year ago, perhaps longer, someone posted about this game-either here or on the LVA forum. The next time I was downtown, I wandered in and found an empty table. Played a few hands and it seemed the dealer had a big edge. I won a hand that got me even and I got out of Dodge. I don't remember much except it seemed the dealer almost always had more cards to make his poker hand than I did. Sticking with a nine, ten vs a dealers 6 isn't so great when the dealer gets at least two more cards and the poker bet is more valuable then the BJ bet.

Understandable, you probably weren't looking to decode it as an advantage opportunity right then when you saw it. A 10,9 is not a hand you'd want to raise your poker bet on unless you had some information that indicated the dealer would probably not qualify. A 3,2 would be a better hand because you know you're going to get at least 4 cards to play poker with.

The hook I can see is that although it's like 3CP, the dealer doesn't always get 3 cards, and you always see one ahead of time. Counting can certainly be used to switch the advantage to the player on some hands, the only question being do such hands occur often enough to offset the house advantage.