7-14-21 table game one of the better bets

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Updated: November 2, 2011 3:34PM

Based in Northbrook, Leading Edge design has made its name with its creativity in electronic games. It was Leading Edge who designed the Gems Wild Tiles cascading reels game and Multi-Strike Poker, both licensed and distributed by International Game Technology.

But at the beginning of October, Leading Edge was shifting perspective from the slot floor to the table pits. Steven De Mar, the director of business development and brother of founder Larry De Mar, was at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Casino, helping oversee the installation of Leading Edge’s first table game, 7-14-21.

“The Hard Rock is our second install, and it’s very, very exciting,” said De Mar, the director of business development and brother of company founder Larry De Mar. “Our first was the Palms, where we went into field trial in June. It did great there, and that’s what drew the attention of the Hard Rock.”

It’s an easy game to deal and to play. Each player and the dealer get six cards, and must sort them into three two-card hands. The object is to get one hand as close to 7 as possible without going over, one hand close to 14 and one hand close to 21.

You win on any hand that’s closer to the targeted total than the dealer’s hand. Ties push. The house gets an edge because on any hand in which both you and the dealer bust, the house wins. A loss on one hand doesn’t affect the others, though. If you bust on 7 and 14, you still could win the 21 hand. And the player gets a 4-1 payoff on a “perfect hand” in which the three totals are exactly 7, 14, 21.

Dealers make their best 21 hand first, then their best 14 hand, with the remaining two cards as the 7 hand. Players don’t have to follow the house way, and on his wizardofodds.com site, Michael Shackleford details a power rating system that he says takes the house edge all the way down to 0.59 percent. That would make it one of the better bets in the casino, as well as being a fun new way to play.

John Grochowski is a local free-lance writer. His “Casino Answer Man” tips air at 5:18 p.m. Tuesday-Friday on WLS-AM (890).