Blackjack players need strategy for this Attack

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Updated: October 13, 2011 12:30AM

Blackjack players feel pretty good about their hands when the dealer has a 5 or 6 face up. Some even refer to the them as “bust cards,” though even with 5 or 6 up, the dealer still makes hands of 17 or better more often than not.

What if the dealer got his or her up card first, before dealing to players? Would you be willing to go on the attack and double your bet without seeing your cards?

That’s the premise of Double Attack Blackjack, a game I spotted recently at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind. You begin play by making a bet and have the option of making an additional Bustit wager, a side bet that the dealer will bust in three cards.

The first card dealt is the dealer’s face-up card. Once you’ve seen that card, you have the opportunity to raise your bet to the amount of the original wager. If you’ve started with a $10 blackjack bet, you can wager up to an additional $10. Then you get your first two cards.

There are some pluses and minuses among other rules. On the plus side, the dealer stands on all 17s, players may double down on any number of cards, including after splits, and late surrender is offered. Offsetting all that are a couple of negatives: Player blackjacks pay only even money and the game uses a 48-card “Spanish” deck, with the 10-spot cards removed.

Michael Shackelford’s website, wizardofodds.com, says the house edge is 0.62 percent with a specially adapted basic strategy. For starters, it’s best to raise your bet whenever that opening dealer up card is anything from 2 through 8. You’ll wind up pressing the attack 58.3 percent of the time.

Getting the most out of the game also requires basic strategy adjustments after you’ve seen your cards. One difference from regular blackjack: You’ll hit hard 14 vs. a dealer’s 2 or 3, as well as 7 on up, and hit 12 or 13 against any up card. That’s because of the decreased chance of busting with fewer 10-value cards in the deck. The Wizard of Odds site has a complete strategy table.

As for the Bustit bet, it pays 3-1 when a face card as the third card causes the dealer to bust, 6-1 on a 9, 8-1 on an 8, 10-1 on a 7, 15-1 on a 6, 50-1 when the dealer has 8-8-8 of the same color, and a 200-1 bonanza on 8-8-8 of the same suit. The house edge is 8.01 percent.

I’d avoid the Bustit bet and play the main Double Attack game only after spending a little time on the basic strategy chart. It’s a fun variation with a relatively low house edge, but a blind attack is likely to backfire.

John Grochowski is a local free-lance writer. His “Casino Answer Man” tips air at
5:18 p.m. Tuesday-Friday on WLS-AM (890).