There’s only one big card game in a galaxy far, far away, and that is Sabacc, the favored game of chance for Lando Calrissian, his fellow rogues and scoundrels as well as casino lovers from across the civilised worlds. It’s a high-stakes game without any direct comparison in real life, although despite only having limited appearances in the literature, fans have painstakingly reassembled the rules into a real game.
With that said, just how much does the most authoritative version of Sabacc compare to real-world card games?
The Basics of Sabacc
To begin with, the game isn’t played with anything resembling a standard 52-card deck but instead draws from the 78-card Tarot deck. In the most basic sense, Sabacc feels somewhat like blackjack, in that the aim is to reach a value of 23 without going over, with a 24 being the equivalent of a bust.
Players are initially dealt two cards in the most common variant, and similar to being dealt a blackjack, a starting hand that reaches exactly 23 is an instant win, although thanks to negative suit values, a total value of -23 is also an instant win. The only hand that can beat a ‘Perfect Sabacc’ is something called the ‘Idiot’s Array’, using the zero-value Idiot card plus a 2 and a 3, with Lando himself managing to pull one out at one point.
Players do have more options than in blackjack, such as exchanging and drawing cards, as well as placing one of their cards in the Interference Field on the table. That field protects that card in the case of a random Sabacc Shift, which scrambles all the suits and values of cards on the table except for those that are protected. It adds a completely random element to the hand, especially as it doesn’t always happen, and it’s controlled by a random number generator, making it a similar mechanic that is seen in slots.
Betting in Sabacc
On the other hand, it also takes heavy elements from other kinds of games, given that it features an ante round and then betting rounds later in the hand, although the exact details of typical betting values are unclear. It is known though to be a high-stakes game, with nothing short of starships like the Millenium Falcon apparently up for grabs. In a casino setting, it is likely that the casino would take a commission on wins much like poker.
Working out exactly how much of a risk is involved in playing Sabacc is tricky. Casinos use RTP, or Return-To-Player, the statistic of any betting game to calculate how much they can expect to take from it. Casino MrQ has a more detailed RTP guide for those who want the fine details, although Sabacc is known to heavily favor the casino. Poker and blackjack both get an RTP between 95% and 99% depending on the variant, whereas Sabacc may only get an 85-90% at best judging by all evidence.
To Sum Up
In short, it’s hard to pin down Sabacc as a game. It has the deck of Tarot, the aim of blackjack, the betting system of poker, and a random element of slots. It’s probably no wonder that we haven’t gotten an official version yet, given the complexity involved in learning it.