House Money

Introduction

House Money is a blackjack side bet by Shuffle Master/Bally Gaming. Wins are based on the player's initial two cards. If the player does win, he may collect his original bet and winnings or parlay them to the blackjack bet.

I first heard of placements for this side bet in England in 2013. Later, in 2019 I heard of a placement at the Jackson Ranchera casino in northern California.

In 2021, Rival Gaming announced the same game with the same pay table, calling it Rolling Stack Blackjack. Internet casinos offering Rolling Stack Blackjack include Paradise 8, Cocoa Casino, This is Vegas, and Davinci's Gold.

Rules

1. The House Money side bet is an optional wager to be placed at the same time as the blackjack wager.
2. After dealer each player and himself two cards, the dealer shall adjudicate House Money wagers according to each player's initial two cards according to the following pay table:
   • Suited ace-king — 9 to 1
   • Two-card straight flush — 4 to 1
   • Pair — 3 to 1
   • Two-card straight — 1 to 1
3. If the dealer has a ten or ace up, he shall peek for blackjack and expose it if he has one.
4. If the House Money bet won and the dealer does not have a blackjack, then the player has the option to collect his winnings and original wager or parlay both over to the blackjack wager.
5. The player may parlay the winnings from a blackjack.
6. The rest of the hand shall play out normally.

Strategy

The following table shows when to parlay House Money winnings to the blackjack wager.

With the highest win for suited ace-king, this side bet is obviously countable. The details on doing that is left as an exercise for the reader.

Analysis

The following analysis is based on the following blackjack rules: six decks, dealer stands on soft 17, dealer peeks for blackjack, double after split allowed, re-splitting aces allowed.

That said, it is difficult to show my usual breakdown of wins/losses by probability, because there are so many possibilities if the player parlays his House Money winnings to the blackjack side bet.

What I can say is given the rules above, the house edge of the House Money bet is 2.79%. The hit frequency is 22.83%. The probability of a parlay, assuming a House Money win and the basic strategy above, is 46.92%.

External Links

• Jackson Ranchera — Announcement about a 2019 placement of House Money.
• Discussion about House Money in my forum at Wizard of Vegas.