Buster Blackjack Side Bet: How It Pays and All Six Pay Tables
Buster Blackjack is a side bet on the dealer's hand and nothing else. It wins when the dealer busts, and it pays more the more cards the dealer needed to do it: 2 to 1 for a three-card bust on the first pay table, up to 250 to 1 for eight or more cards. That table costs 5.42% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) at six decks with the dealer hitting soft 17. This page sets out how the bet is settled, all six pay tables from the Nevada rules, the house edge for every deck count and both soft 17 rules, and two things the figure does not cover: how the dealer's hand is played out when no player hand is live, and the effect of your own draws on the dealer's shoe.
How the Buster Blackjack Side Bet Works
The wager is placed before the deal, in its own spot beside the main bet. It does not depend on your cards, your decisions or whether you win the main hand. It depends on the dealer completing a hand that goes over 21. Pennsylvania's rule says it plainly: after all action on the players' hands is done, the dealer draws to at least 17 or busts, and if the dealer does not bust the Buster wager loses.
When the dealer busts, the pay depends on how many cards were in the hand at the moment it went over 21. A dealer who busts with three cards, say a 6 and a 10 followed by a 9, pays the least. A dealer who takes six cards to get there pays far more, because that sequence is rare. The rare sequences are where the top of the pay table sits.
Three points of settlement are stated in the Nevada, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania documents and are easy to miss:
- A dealer blackjack loses the bet. A dealer who holds an ace and a ten-value card never draws, so the hand cannot bust.
- The bet stays in action whether or not you bust and whether or not you are dealt a blackjack. Your hand is irrelevant to it.
- Where a casino also pays a fixed cash bonus to a player who has a blackjack and wins a Buster bet on a long bust, that bonus is a separate award. It is outside every figure on this page.
The bet is offered where blackjack is dealt with one, four, six or eight decks in Pennsylvania, and up to eight decks in Nevada.
Buster Blackjack Pay Tables
The Nevada rules print six pay tables, lettered A to F. They agree on a seven-card bust, which pays 50 to 1 on every table, and they differ on the other lines. Table F pays the most on five and six cards and the least on three, so it looks generous at the top while it is the most expensive of the six.
| Dealer's hand | Table A | Table B | Table C | Table D | Table E | Table F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Busts with 3 cards | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 1 to 1 |
| Busts with 4 cards | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 |
| Busts with 5 cards | 4 to 1 | 4 to 1 | 4 to 1 | 4 to 1 | 3 to 1 | 8 to 1 |
| Busts with 6 cards | 15 to 1 | 15 to 1 | 12 to 1 | 12 to 1 | 12 to 1 | 20 to 1 |
| Busts with 7 cards | 50 to 1 | 50 to 1 | 50 to 1 | 50 to 1 | 50 to 1 | 50 to 1 |
| Busts with 8 or more cards | 250 to 1 | 200 to 1 | 250 to 1 | 200 to 1 | 250 to 1 | 250 to 1 |
| House edge, six decks, dealer hits soft 17 | 5.42% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) | 5.48% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 200 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) | 6.21% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 12 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) | 6.27% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 200 / 50 / 12 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) | 8.26% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 12 / 3 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) | 13.22% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 20 / 8 / 2 / 1, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) |
| House edge, six decks, dealer stands on soft 17 | 7.55% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) | 7.59% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 200 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) | 8.25% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 12 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) | 8.29% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 200 / 50 / 12 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) | 10.16% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 12 / 3 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) | 16.05% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 20 / 8 / 2 / 1, 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) |
Read across a row and the tables barely differ. Read the last two rows and the gap is large. The house edge is what the pay list leaves over after the odds of each bust length are applied, and it is the only number that tells the tables apart. Table A, the one printed first in the documents, is the cheapest of the six at 5.42% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) with the dealer hitting soft 17, and table F is the dearest at 13.22% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 20 / 8 / 2 / 1, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.).
The explorer below opens each table, lets you pick the deck count and the dealer's soft 17 rule, and shows the pay, the odds and the chance of every bust length.
Explorer
Buster Blackjack: Pay Tables, Odds and House Edge
The bet wins when the dealer busts, and the pay grows with the number of cards in the busted hand. It stays in action whether or not you bust or have a blackjack, and it loses when the dealer has a blackjack. Fixed cash bonuses tied to a player blackjack are outside these figures.
- Played on
- Blackjack
- Cards that count
- The dealer's final hand
- Settled
- After the dealer has finished the hand
- House edge over every pay table
- 5.38% to 17.13%
Scale from zero to 30 percent. The green tick is the main game at 0.62%, six decks, dealer hits soft 17.
Documented, with no figure
- Nevada live-dealer version, 8 decksNo figureThe live-dealer version adds awards that depend on the player hand, which the calculation does not cover.
Bar length in the outcome table is on a log scale, from 1 in a million to certain, so rare awards stay visible. Bars in the deck count chart start at zero.
Buster Blackjack House Edge
Across all six tables, all four deck counts and both dealer rules, the house edge runs from 5.38% (House edge, lowest of the published versions of Buster Blackjack, every documented pay table: 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 8 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh shoe.) to 17.13% (House edge, highest of the published versions of Buster Blackjack, every documented pay table: 250 / 50 / 20 / 8 / 2 / 1, 1 deck, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh shoe.). The main game costs 0.62% (Comparison rules: 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17, double after split, blackjack pays 3:2. House edge per starting bet: the average loss per round as a share of the bet placed before the cards are dealt, doubles and splits included in the result. Rules: 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17, dealer checks for blackjack with a hole card, blackjack pays 3:2, double on any first two cards, double after split, split up to 4 hands, aces are not resplit, one card to each split ace, no surrender. The player follows the printed strategy chart for these rules from a full shoe, and never takes insurance or even money.) under the comparison rules used on this site. The cheapest Buster figure is therefore a multiple of the main game, and the dearest is larger still.
The chance of a win is the chance that the dealer busts. On table A at six decks with the dealer hitting soft 17 that is 28.58% (Chance of a win, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.), and the split is uneven. A bust with three cards, the smallest pay, comes in 17.30% of rounds, four cards in 8.94% and five cards in 2.05%. A six-card bust comes about 1 in 379 rounds and a seven-card bust about 1 in 4,663. The top prize needs eight or more cards and comes about 1 in 83,715 rounds. Most of the return comes from the frequent short busts, and only a sliver from the headline prize.
Dealer Hits or Stands on Soft 17
The dealer's soft 17 rule matters here more than in most side bets, because the bet is the dealer's hand. A dealer who stands on soft 17 stops drawing on hands that would otherwise still be live, and busts less often. With table A at six decks the edge is 5.42% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) when the dealer hits soft 17 and 7.55% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) when the dealer stands. The chance of a win falls from 28.58% (Chance of a win, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) to 28.19% (Chance of a win, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.).
Every version in the explorer is labelled with the rule it assumes. Table A is calculated for both rules at each deck count, so the effect is visible for the same pay list. Ask which soft 17 rule the table uses before you assume a figure applies.
Deck Count and Buster Blackjack
The deck count changes how the cards run for the dealer, and the effect on the bet is small once the shoe is a few decks deep. The change is largest when you leave a single deck. On table A with the dealer hitting soft 17 the edge is 6.24% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 1 deck, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) for one deck, 5.51% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 4 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) for four, 5.42% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) for six and 5.38% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 8 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) for eight. The last three are close together.
The deck-count chart inside each pay table in the explorer shows the same movement for every table. The direction is the same in each: the single-deck shoe is the dearest, and adding decks lowers the edge with diminishing effect. Every figure is for a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe. Cards used earlier in the same shoe are not removed.
Your Draws Change the Dealer's Shoe
Buster Blackjack is decided by cards that come out of the same shoe your hand draws from. The cards you take, and the cards the other players take, are gone before the dealer starts to draw. The figures on this page treat the shoe as full at the start of the dealer's draw, with the dealer's upcard the first card counted. For a player who draws cards, that is an approximation, and the effect of removing those cards is second order: a small movement in the dealer's chance of busting that is not included in any figure here.
In practice the direction and size depend on which cards the table has just taken, which no fixed pay table can encode. The honest reading is that the printed house edge describes the bet under a full shoe, and a real table sits a little to one side of it in a way this page does not measure. That is also why the page makes no statement about counting cards. A figure conditional on the cards already played would be a different figure.
What the Dealer Does When No Player Hand Is Live
The documents settle two parts of this and leave a third to interpretation. The Nevada and Massachusetts texts say the Buster wager stays in action whether the player busts or holds a blackjack. Pennsylvania says the dealer draws to at least 17 after all action on the players' hands is completed. Neither text says what happens to the dealer's hand when every player hand has already busted or been paid as a blackjack, so that there is nothing left to play against.
One document does say. The Victorian rules for Crown Melbourne, version 29, state that where all player hands have exceeded 21 or achieved blackjack, the dealer completes the hand by drawing in accordance with the rules of the game in play. The figures on this page follow that reading: the dealer hand is always dealt out, so the bet has the same chance of winning in every round, whatever your own hand did. If a casino ended the round early in that case and did not deal out the dealer hand, the bet would not behave this way, and the figures would not apply.
The same Crown rules add a detail that changes the settlement in one related game. In Blackjack Plus, a dealer total of 22 counts as a bust for the Buster wager. This page does not calculate that combination.
Buster Blackjack Versions With No Figure
The Nevada live-dealer rules print a Buster Blackjack version for eight decks that adds awards depending on the player's hand. The calculation here covers only the dealer's hand, so that version carries no figure. It is listed in the explorer under No figure. The fixed cash bonus that Pennsylvania allows for a player blackjack combined with a long bust is excluded from every figure for the same reason. A missing figure is not zero, and it does not mean the version costs less or more than the tables above.
Does Buster Blackjack Change How You Play?
It gives you no reason to change your hand, and your hand gives it no reason to change. The bet is decided by the dealer's cards, so no decision of yours can make the dealer bust. The only link is the one in the shoe section above, which is second order and is not part of the figure. Play the main hand by the rules of the game, whatever you staked on the side.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What is Buster Blackjack?
It is a side bet that the dealer's final hand goes over 21. The pay depends on the number of cards in the busted hand, from a three-card bust up to eight or more. A dealer blackjack loses the bet, and the bet stays in action whether or not you bust.
How does Buster Blackjack pay?
By the length of the busted hand. On the first Nevada table a three-card bust pays 2 to 1, five cards 4 to 1, six cards 15 to 1 and eight or more cards 250 to 1. Five other pay tables move some of those lines up or down.
What is the house edge of Buster Blackjack?
It depends on the pay table, the deck count and the dealer's soft 17 rule, and it is measured against the side bet alone. Over every documented version it runs from 5.38% (House edge, lowest of the published versions of Buster Blackjack, every documented pay table: 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 8 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh shoe.) to 17.13% (House edge, highest of the published versions of Buster Blackjack, every documented pay table: 250 / 50 / 20 / 8 / 2 / 1, 1 deck, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh shoe.). The first table at six decks with the dealer hitting soft 17 costs 5.42% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.).
What are the odds of winning Buster Blackjack?
The bet wins whenever the dealer busts, which on the first table at six decks with the dealer hitting soft 17 is 28.58% (Chance of a win, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) of rounds. Most wins are short busts. The top prize of eight or more cards comes about 1 in 83,715 rounds.
Does the dealer hitting soft 17 change Buster Blackjack?
Yes, and by a lot. A dealer who hits soft 17 busts more often. Table A at six decks costs 5.42% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) when the dealer hits and 7.55% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer stands on soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) when the dealer stands, so the same pay table is dearer against a dealer who stands.
What happens if I bust or have blackjack?
The bet stays in action. The Nevada and Massachusetts rules say so, and Pennsylvania requires the dealer to draw after all player action. The figures assume the dealer hand is dealt out even when no player hand is live, which the Crown Melbourne rules state in words. Your own hand never affects the bet.
What happens if the dealer has blackjack?
The Buster bet loses. A dealer with an ace and a ten-value card holds a natural and never draws, so the hand cannot bust. Every figure on this page counts a dealer blackjack as a loss for the side bet.
Do the cards I draw change the dealer's chances?
Slightly. Cards you and the other players draw leave the shoe before the dealer draws, which changes the dealer's chance of busting in a way that depends on those cards. The figures assume a full shoe at the start of the dealer's draw, so this second-order effect is not included.
Why do the six Buster Blackjack pay tables differ so much in cost?
Because the pays on the mid-length busts carry most of the return. Table F pays much more on five and six cards, and less on three, and it still costs 13.22% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 20 / 8 / 2 / 1, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) at six decks against 5.42% (House edge, Buster Blackjack, pay table 250 / 50 / 15 / 4 / 2 / 2, 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17. Exact count over a fresh, randomly shuffled shoe.) for table A. The house edge shows the total, and the top prize cannot rescue it.
Sources
Rule documents
- Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (58 Pa. Code)58 Pa. Code ยง 633c.13Read
- Massachusetts Gaming CommissionBlackjack Rules (10/08/2020), 205 CMRRead
- Nevada Gaming Control Board (Rules of Play)Buster Blackjack V2 - Rules of Play (image-only PDF, transcribed)Read
- Nevada Gaming Control Board (Rules of Play)Buster Blackjack (original, tables H1-H24 hits soft 17 / S1-S24 stands soft 17; image-only PDF, transcribed)Read
- Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (Crown Melbourne Blackjack Rules v29.0, eff. 20 May 2026)Rule 26 Buster BlackjackRead
- Victorian Gambling and Casino Control CommissionCasino games and rules - version historyRead
- Nevada Gaming Control Board (live-dealer game rules)All Bets Blackjack Live - Buster Blackjack (8 decks, dealer stands on 17)Read