Blackjack Strategy: The Super 7 Side Bet

When the new era of gambling was taking off in the early 90s, one other thing was beginning to grow as well, and that was the side bet. Casinos realised that they didn’t have to offer only traditional forms of blackjack betting but could also offer blackjack side bets, often at a house edge that were more than favourable towards the casino. Just like that, Super 7s and the Royal Match were born.

How Does the Super 7 Side Bet Work

You may have seen this be called Lucky 7s or Crazy Sevens instead of Super 7s, but the rules are pretty much the same. Super 7s was almost always dealt out of a six-deck shoe. So if your first card is a seven, then you’re in the money. Then, if you get another seven, you’ll win a bit more; also, if the dealer’s up card was another seven, you will even more. Then if they are all suited, you will get a nice payout, depending on the paytable in play. 

An important thing to note is that if the dealer has blackjack, a third card will then be dealt to the player to complete the bet, known as the third card guarantee. If the player decides to split the sevens, the next card dealt to the first split will be used for the bet. 

The most common paytable for this game is a six-deck game with the super 7s side bet was 3 to 1 for the first seven, 50 to 1 for the second seven, and it goes all the way up to 100 to 1 if they were suited. For example, if the casino’s dealer turns over the third seven, it would be 500 to 1. If all three were suited, then the paytable will reach 5000 to 1 payout. This betting system is usually only offered at a £1 level. Players love this system, and the online casinos, due to the increased house edge over the standard game

Taking Advantage of the Super 7 Side Bet

Even if you are a novice player, you will notice certain situations that the super sevens side bet will help you after you’ve placed your stake. 

If you count all cards other than the seven as +1 and every valuable seven that comes out as a -12, it makes counting during the round of blackjack nice and easy. 

We will then know that any true count in blackjack is +4 should be enough to swing things back in the players’ favour, and then you should make the super seven side bet. 

The vulnerability that this type of stake offers when the count goes up might not be clear, especially if you don’t base your game around stats. If you measured it over a billion blackjack games, it would become apparent that 1 in 4 hands would be EV positive, which means that your expected value would be higher than your bet. As the count goes up higher, it could sometimes mean that there are more seven cards sat in the shoe, which means that the edge for the player goes through the roof. 

At a true count of +10, the player’s edge sits around 20%. When the count reaches +20, The advantage is almost 60%. A computer test would show that you should expect to win every 8.5 hands out of 100. When you compare this to blackjack card counters, who would say they would win 1 out of 100 hands. 

The trend of super sevens did die off a little in the 90s, but recently it has made a comeback of sorts in special spots, which will go into in the next section, so you know the option of the super 7 is still there.

How to Find the Super 7 Bet Today?

As we have already mentioned, the super sevens bet has seen a bit of a revival at online casinos in recent years. Blackjack players have been heading to online casinos for several years, and now you are starting to see Super 7 pop up from time to time, but now the cards are shuffled after every hand. Online blackjack is one of the most popular games, so bringing back super seven back is a good way to mix it up, but the rules are slightly different from the original super 7. 

Some online casinos don’t deal a third card if the dealer has blackjack. This may not sound like much, but it does swing the house edge back towards the casino’s favour, so be aware.