Bust It side bet in blackjack

How the Bust It side bet in blackjack works

Bust It is an optional wager placed before the cards come out, next to your main blackjack bet. It ignores your hand completely. The only question it asks is whether the dealer goes over 21, and if so, how many cards that took. A dealer who stands on any total from 17 to 21, or who makes blackjack, loses the side bet for you, even if your main hand loses too.

That last point matters. Many people see Bust It as a hedge: if the dealer busts, the main hand usually wins anyway, so the side bet adds to a good result rather than rescuing a bad one. When the dealer makes a hand, you lose both the side bet and, often, the main bet. The two wagers move in the same direction, so Bust It widens your swings instead of smoothing them.

Evolution lists Bust It as one of four optional side bets at Infinite Blackjack, alongside Any Pair, 21+3 and Hot 3, according to the Infinite Blackjack game page (opens in a new tab). The same four appear at Power Blackjack and in Evolution's Free Bet Blackjack family. Similar bets exist from other studios under names such as Buster Blackjack.

A dealer can't bust with two cards. The highest two-card total is 21, and two aces count as soft 12, so every Bust It win needs at least three dealer cards.

Bust It payouts: the Evolution paytable

Wizard of Odds lists the Evolution paytable used at Infinite Blackjack, and it scales steeply with the number of cards in the dealer's busted hand. Most of the money comes back through the bottom two rows, while the headline 250 to 1 is very rare.

Wizard of Odds also records an older Buster Blackjack paytable, sometimes called version 1: 250 to 1 for eight or more cards, 50 for seven, 15 for six, 4 for five, and 2 to 1 for three or four cards. With six decks that version carries a house edge of 8.25% when the dealer stands on soft 17 and 6.21% when the dealer hits soft 17. Paytables really do change the price, so read the one on your screen.

Bust It odds: how often the dealer busts with each card count

The probabilities below are our own exact calculation for an eight-deck shoe with the dealer standing on all 17s, counting only the dealer's cards and ignoring the cards dealt to players. The result agrees with the 6.18% house edge that Wizard of Odds publishes on its Buster Blackjack analysis (opens in a new tab) for the same rules.

Add up the last column and each £1 staked returns about 93.8p on average, so 6.2p is the house's share. That is the 6.18% edge in plain money. Notice how little the giant payouts contribute: the 250 to 1 row returns a fifth of a penny per pound because it turns up roughly once in 112,800 rounds. The bet lives on three- and four-card busts that pay 1 to 1 and 2 to 1.

The general method is the same one used for any wager, explained on our expected value page: multiply each outcome's probability by what it returns, add the results, and compare with the stake.

What the Bust It house edge costs in pounds

A 6.18% house edge means you should expect to lose about 6.18p for every £1 you put on Bust It over a long run. The main hand at Infinite Blackjack, which Wizard of Odds rates at 0.45% with eight decks and the dealer standing on soft 17, costs about 0.45p per £1 when played with good basic strategy. Put the two together and the side bet changes the price of a session far more than its size suggests.

Those are averages. Over 100 rounds you might hit a six-card bust and finish well ahead, or see the dealer make hand after hand and lose most of your side stakes. Short sessions swing far wider than the average, as our guide to variance explains, but the more rounds you play the closer your result tends to sit to the expected loss.

Worked example: £10 main bet plus £2 on Bust It

Say you play 50 rounds with £10 on the main hand and £2 on Bust It. Across those rounds you stake £500 on blackjack and £100 on the side bet.

• Main bet: £500 at about 0.45% gives an expected loss of about £2.25 with sound basic strategy.
• Bust It: £100 at 6.18% gives an expected loss of about £6.18.
• Combined: about £8.43 expected over the 50 rounds, and roughly three-quarters of it comes from the £2 side bet even though it is only a sixth of the money staked.

On a typical run of 50 rounds you would expect around 14 dealer busts. About 9 of those would be three-card busts paying £2 profit each, around 4 would be four-card busts paying £4, and you would see a five-card bust (£18 profit) roughly once. The 36 or so rounds where the dealer stands each cost £2. Big six-card and seven-card hits are why the bet looks exciting, but on most nights they simply won't appear.

Rules that change the Bust It odds

Dealer hitting or standing on soft 17

When the dealer hits soft 17, some of those hands go on to bust, often with four or more cards. That makes Bust It cheaper for players. Wizard of Odds' version 1 figures show the effect: 8.25% when the dealer stands, 6.21% when the dealer hits. The Evolution figure of 6.18% assumes the dealer stands on soft 17, which is the rule Wizard lists for Infinite Blackjack.

Deck count and removed cards

The number of decks shifts the odds slightly. A bigger change comes in Power Blackjack, where Evolution removes the 9s and 10s from an eight-deck shoe while the picture cards stay in. That alters how dealer hands develop, and no published house edge for Bust It at that table was found, so check the help screen there.

Dealer 22 at Free Bet tables

In Free Bet Blackjack a dealer total of 22 pushes most player hands. How a dealer 22 is treated for Bust It is set out in that game's help screen, so read it before assuming the paytable behaves exactly as it does at Infinite Blackjack.

Bust It against other blackjack side bets

Every side bet costs more than the main game played well, but the price varies a lot. Here is how Bust It sits next to the other wagers you will meet at UK live tables, using the paytables and deck counts named.

Bust It sits in the middle of the pack: dearer than the best 21+3 or Perfect Pairs tables, cheaper than insurance and most Lucky Ladies tables. Our blackjack side bets overview covers the full range, and our list of the worst bets in the casino shows where the expensive ones rank.

How to place a Bust It side bet at live blackjack

1. Open the game's help or paytable screen and confirm the Bust It payouts and the dealer's soft 17 rule.
2. Place your main blackjack bet first; at most tables a side bet needs a main bet in the same round.
3. Put chips on the Bust It spot during the betting window, keeping the side stake within the table's minimum and maximum.
4. Play your hand as normal. Your decisions don't affect the side bet, so keep using basic strategy.
5. Watch the dealer's hand play out. If the dealer busts, the payout depends on how many cards were in that hand.
6. Check your balance and session clock before the next round; UK sites show net spend and time played as you go.

Bust It myths and common mistakes

• Myth: bet it when the dealer shows a 5 or 6. You place Bust It before any cards are dealt, so the up card can't guide the decision.
• Myth: the dealer is due to bust after several made hands. Each round comes from a shuffled shoe and has no memory of the last one; this is the gambler's fallacy.
• Myth: it protects the main bet. It pays when the main hand usually wins already, so it adds risk rather than insurance.
• Mistake: changing how you play your hand. Some players stand on weak totals hoping to leave the dealer more cards. Your hand doesn't affect the dealer's draw in any predictable way, and bad play only raises the main-game edge.
• Mistake: chasing the 250 to 1. Raising the side stake after losses to catch a big hit is chasing, and it raises your expected loss with every round.

Bust It at UK live blackjack tables

Bust It is a table side bet, so the online slot stake limits of £5 and £2 do not apply to it; the table's own limits do. Since 17 January 2025, Gambling Commission rules ban autoplay for all online casino games, live casino included, so you place every Bust It wager yourself. A re-bet button is allowed. Casino games other than slots must also allow at least 5 seconds per game cycle, and you can't play several games at once. Our page on UK rules for live casino sets these out in full, and the Commission's RTS 14 responsible product design (opens in a new tab) standard holds the exact wording.

Treat the side bet as a paid extra on top of the cost of play. Setting a deposit limit before you start, and using reality checks, are simple ways to keep that extra under control. If gambling stops feeling like entertainment, the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133, run by GamCare, is free and open 24 hours a day.

Where to play Bust It, and how our offers fit

Bust It sits on live blackjack tables, while our partner promotions are built around slots, so look at each casino's live blackjack lobby for the game itself and read the bonus terms separately. Casumo gives new customers who opt in a 50% bonus up to £100 on a first deposit of £20 or more; the bonus must be wagered 10x within 7 days, bets are capped at £5 while it is active, and game, play and payment restrictions apply.

10bet offers new UK customers a 100% match up to £25 if they pick the casino welcome bonus at sign-up and deposit within 7 days, with 10x wagering on slots within 3 days, maximum bonus winnings of £1,000, and Skrill and Neteller deposits excluded. Coral, from 1 October 2026 to 1 February 2027, gives new players who deposit and bet £10 or more on slots 100 free spins worth 10p each on selected games, to be accepted within 48 hours and used within 7 days, with no wagering on winnings; Neteller, PayPal, Paysafe, Skrill, prepaid cards and certain debit cards don't qualify. 18+ and terms apply. Table and live games are often excluded or count for less towards wagering, so check the terms; our live casino bonus guide explains what to look for.

18+. Every casino game has a built-in house edge, so over time you should expect to lose what you stake. Set a budget before you play and stop when it’s gone: safer gambling tools and support. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.