Bovada Blackjack House Edge

For those of you out there who follow Blackjack variants, the name of Geoff Hall might ring somewhat familiar. Geoff Hall is an excellent and well-known Table Games inventor who works primarily with coming up with variations to the game of Blackjack. His most well-known game and those of you who are familiar with him have probably heard of, is Blackjack Switch, a game in which a player is dealt two hands and may swap a card from one hand to the other hand.

While the game simply known as, ‘Switch,’ for short is Geoff hall’s claim to fame, he also managed to invent another unique and compelling Blackjack game invoking his trademark, ‘Push on a Dealer 22 Rule.’ Much as with Blackjack Switch, Geoff Hall made it his mission to create an interesting blackjack game with a unique rule set, unique playing options and coming up with novel ways for the casino to make up its house edge to offset the player-favorable aspects of the game.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the Rules of Zappit Blackjack, which is available at both Bodog and Bovada casinos:

Bovada’s Live Casino is currently home to 19 Visionary iGaming tables playing blackjack, roulette and baccarat. Standard 7-seat blackjack plays at as many as 13 with table limits of $5-$100, $10-$500, $15-$750, $25-$1,000 and $100-$2,500. When there are no seats available, one can make bets on other player’s hands by using back betting feature. Two blackjack variants with a house edge under 0.2%; Bovada's Online Poker. Bovada uses its own poker software which has been widely hailed as excellent. It has a great interface, slick graphics and is really easy to use. The best thing is, they have a weekly $100,000 poker tournament (yes, that's $100K EVERY WEEK). Blackjack with their rules has a house edge of.7% meaning if you play 20000 required you would lose 7 bucks for every 1000 you bet or 140 for 20000 bet.if you think Bovada is GIVING YOU 110 cash. Roulette, Blackjack and Slots at Bovada. Seen as how we’re a roulette website, we’ll start with the roulette games. They offer both European and American roulette with table limits of $1 – $1,000. European is the game you should play because it has a lower house edge (2.7%) than the American game (5.26%). The house edge works in blackjack in just about the same way it works in every other game, that is to say, it works for the house and against you. Learn some blackjack strategy, take free gambling lessons at some of the bigger casinos, learn what you can learn from watching the pros, but ultimately, if you want to beat the house edge, learn to.

The Rules:

As was already mentioned, the main rule that benefits the dealer is the, ‘Push on Dealer 22,’ mechanism by which any bets left standing push instead of win on a dealer bust totaling twenty-two. With exception to that rule, the game plays fairly similarly to the standard game of blackjack with minor customizations to the rules available to suit the needs and house edge desires of the operator.

The rule that most benefits the player is the fact that the player may, ‘Zap,’ any hand totaling from 15-17 (or 15-18 depending on the rules) and exchange it for two new cards. The difference between being able to, ‘Zap,’ a total of eighteen or not zap it is not that great, with respect to the house edge, because it is not a hand that a player would zap very often even if he/she were able to. The player would only, ‘Zap,’ a total of eighteen against a nine, ten or Ace, and if not allowed, the player would generally stand (but would split nines).

The player is not permitted to Zap a hand that the player received after zapping, nor may the player zap a hand after splitting.

With respect to the Bovada game, the following specific rules are used which result in a house edge of 1.15%:

• Six decks.
• Hand totals of 15-17 may be zapped.
• Player may zap before dealer checks for Blackjack.
• A Natural before zapping pays 3:2.
• A natural after zapping wins immediately and pays even money.
• The player may surrender. That would, of course, only ever apply after a player has zapped.
• Player may double after splitting, but may not Zap a hand that started from a split hand.
• Split aces each get one card and cannot be hit, zapped or resplit.
• Dealer hits soft 17.

The ultimate result is a house edge of 1.15% with perfect strategy which, of course, would be worse than Bovada’s other Blackjack offerings.

Conclusion:

While I greatly admire Geoff Hall and think that both this and Blackjack Switch are incredibly innovative and novel games, my overall opinion of this game is not positive due to the house edge being in excess of one percent, which is awful for a Blackjack variant. In fact, casinos powered by Playtech software often offer the superior Blackjack Switch, and while that game is much more difficult to play optimally, the house edge is an incredibly low 0.14%, which makes that game created by Geoff Hall Playtech’s best offering!

Granted, hand totals of fifteen and sixteen are universally reviled by players, and even seventeen, which is considered a somewhat tolerable hand, should always be zapped. However, the ability to exchange those hands for new ones is the game’s only hook and there is obviously no guarantee that the new hand is going to be much better. In my opinion, it is simply not worth eating so much extra house edge to get out of having to play an inferior hand every now and then. Granted, the ability to Zap such hands increases the win rate of the game, but playing the game long enough will decrease the money in your wallet faster than a standard blackjack game will, regardless of how skillfully you play Zappit.

Software Providers that have Zappit Blackjack

Other Online Blackjack Variations

Here we will focus on the blackjack games offered by Bovada casino. Which one is the most unique and exiting? Which has the lowest house edge and so forth. If you are looking for overall details then please check our complete Bovada online casino review.

Bovada Blackjack Games

In total, Bovada has 6 blackjacks for you to choose from. In terms of quantity that’s not huge, but in terms of quality and winning odds, Bovada is one of the best blackjack sites one can find. We will review them in order of their winning odds – from lower to higher.

One last thing before we start: Bovada is an instant play casino, therefore you don’t need to download any software in order to play any of the 400 casino games they have to offer. You can also play on the go using your smart phone or tablet, but on mobile the number of games is lower, about 150 in total.

* On a side not, this review is also relevant to Bovada’s sister Ignition Casino.

Zappit Blackjack

Extraordinary varaition of the blackjack which can be found online only at Bovada casino group. This is one of the newest additions, invented only in 2009 by the same guy that stands behind Blackjack Switch. The special rule here is that you can zap (through away) hard hands of 15, 16, 17 and receive a new set of cards. Obviously, there is a price to pay: when the dealer busts with 22 and you have 21 or lower, it is considered a push. Overall Zappit is truly fun and unique game, but the winnings odds are lower than average.

Odds: 98.85%

European Blackjack

European no hole card multi-hand game. The dealer receives only one card face up and therefore doesn’t check for blackjack, which increases the risk. Additional rules:

• Played with 6 decks.
• Dealer stands on soft 17.
• Double on 9 to 11. No double after split.
• Split up to three hands. No re-splitting Aces.
• Split aces receive only one card.

Odds: 99.25%

Blackjack

Although it goes under the name blackjack this is actually an Atlantic City Blackjack game which allows late surrender on any first two cards.

• Six decks
• Dealer hits on soft 17.
• Double on any 2 cards. You can double after split.
• Split up to three hands. No re-splitting of aces.
• Surrender any first two cards.
• Split aces receive only one card.
• A split ace and a ten-value card is not a Blackjack.

Odds: 99.46%

Perfect Pairs

The only side bets blackjack on the list. The basic rules (and the odds) are similar to the game above; the only difference is that you can choose to place a side bet on whether your first two cards will be a pair: 7-7, Q-Q, etc. Side bets payouts are as follows:

• Mixed pair: 6 to 1.
• Coloured pair: 12 to 1.
• Suited pair: 25 to 1

Odds: 99.46%

Side bet odds: 93.9%

Double Deck

#4 on our list of lowest house edge games. Two decks obviously, favorable rules; unlike the games above the minimum bet is $5.

• Dealer stands on soft 17.
• Double on any 2 cards and after split.
• Re-splitting to three hands
• Split aces receive only one card. No resplitting.
• A split ace and a ten-value card is not a Blackjack.

Odds: 99.76%

Single Deck

Bovada Blackjack House Edge Definition

With 99.92% odds and just 0.08% house edge, this is The best blackjack game you can find online. The drawback is that it’s definitely not a low stakes game. To enjoy these amazing odds you will have to pay $25 per hand.

Bovada Blackjack House Edge Chart

• 1 deck.
• Dealer hits on soft 17.
• Double on any 2 cards and after split.
• 1 split only. Split aces receive only one card.
• A split ace and a ten-value card is not a Blackjack.

Bovada Blackjack House Edge Calculator

Odds: 99.92%