- Blackjack With Poker Side Bet
- Are Side Bets In Blackjack Worth It
- In Between Side Bet Blackjack
- Best Side Bets In Blackjack Games
- Top 3 Blackjack Side Bet
- Best Side Bets In Blackjack No Deposit
Table game purists love blackjack because of its simplicity and clockwork nature.
You start with two cards, as does the dealer, and by hitting, standing, doubling down, or splitting along the way, the goal always remains the same – reach a total of 21, or close to it, without going over. By applying the tenets of blackjack gambling strategy – which offers strict guidelines on how to play every possible player total vs. dealer up card scenario – skilled blackjack players can shave the house edge down to under 0.50 percent.
That makes blackjack in its most basic form one of the most favorable games spread on any casino floor. Thus, it’s no surprise to see blackjack reign supreme as the most popular table game offered by Las Vegas casinos for the last 50 years and counting.
Today, you can find the Lucky Lucky side bet offered by more than 2,000 blackjack tables in Las Vegas and beyond. How to Land a Winner on the Lucky Lucky Side Bet. The best possible scenario in blackjack is to wind up with a total of 21 on the deal. The 7 card is a big player in blackjack side bets. Sometimes called Super Sevens bets, this side bet is a proposition wager on whether or not the first card you are dealt is a 7. This bet traditionally pays off at 3-to-1. Another Super Sevens side bet is whether the first two cards you receive are 7s. The Hot 3 side bet is available in Infinite Blackjack and Free Bet Blackjack. Here, you place a wager on either the total or combination of three cards comprising your two first cards and the dealer’s upcard. The theoretical payout of this bet is 94.60%.
A blackjack side bet allows the player to make an additional wager in addition to the bet made on the blackjack hand. Whereas the minimum bet on a blackjack hand in a live casino can be as little as $1 online or $5 in a live casino, the side bet can always be played for a minimum of $1. An Aggressive Approach to Blackjack: the Martingale Strategy. The Martingale betting strategy sits at the opposite side of the spectrum. This is the perfect blackjack strategy for those players.
Along the way, however, clever casino executives and gambling game designers have managed to do the seemingly impossible – improve on blackjack’s fundamental structure. Recognizing that modern gamblers like to have several irons on the fire, so to speak, these innovators have successfully integrated a slew of optional side bets alongside blackjack’s base gameplay.
Blackjack side bets come in all variety of formats, but the all share one thing in common – flexibility.
To celebrate the exciting world of blackjack side bets, I’ve taken to this blog to pen a series on several of the most popular options available in Sin City. You can learn about classics like the “21 + 3” side bet, the iconic “Lucky Ladies”, and its close cousin “Lucky Lucky” by visiting those pages for further insight.
And when you’re done there, bring it back to this page to brush up on one of the more interesting blackjack side bets ever devised – the “Perfect Pairs.”
Introduction to the Perfect Pairs Side Bet
The year was 1999 and Australian blackjack dealer John Wicks found himself growing a bit bored with the basic gameplay at his table.
To keep himself focused on the task at hand, Wicks began mentally tracking various patterns in the randomized deal of his multiple-deck shoe. Eventually, after noticing that players occasionally received paired holdings as their starting hand, Wicks began brainstorming the next big thing in blackjack.
Wicks realized that the eight-deck shoes which are standard in Australian casinos were capable of producing three different versions of a paired player hand.
First off, the player can look down to see a pair of any card rank in differing colors, such as the 7 of hearts and the 7 of spades. Next up were the so-called “colored” pairs, made up of two identical card ranks using the same colored suits (7 of spades + 7 of clubs; or 7 of hearts + 7 of diamonds). And finally, in the rarest combination, the eight-deck shoe could even dispense two identical cards like the 7 of spades + 7 of spades to form a “Perfect Pair.”
Wicks began letting his players know when they received these curious combinations, and inevitably, gamblers became intrigued by a random shuffle’s uncanny ability to make magic happen on the felt. As his players began celebrating the arrival of Perfect Pair combos, the proverbial lightbulb went off above Wicks’ head.
After tinkering with the idea for a while during his spare time – working out the probabilities and devising appropriate payouts – Wicks eventually secured patent protection for his new Perfect Pairs side bet. He convinced his home casino to give the experiment a trial run, and when players provided rave reviews, casino game manufacturing giant TCS John Huxley came calling with an acquisition offer.
Here’s how TCS John Huxley describes the Perfect Pairs side bet to potential casino operator customers:
“Perfect Pairs is both fast and easy to play. It has great player appeal and significantly boosts game turnover without affecting playing strategy. It has been proven to increase both cash drop and win/hold percentages and is extremely popular with players. It is a great enhancement to any Blackjack game.”
Today, the Perfect Pairs side bet is a mainstay in the Australian and Asian blackjack market, but you can also find several casinos in Las Vegas spreading the popular option.
How to Land a Winner on the Perfect Pairs Side Bet
I already went over the three qualifying hands that can trigger a Perfect Pairs side bet payout, but you can review those in the table below:
Perfect Pairs Side Bet Qualifying Hands
| HAND | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Perfect Pair | Any 2 cards of identical rank AND suit (7 of spades + 7 of spades) |
| Colored Pair | Any 2 cards of identical rank AND color (6 of spades + 6 of clubs) |
| Red + Black Pair | Any 2 cards of identical rank but different colors (5 of clubs + 5 of hearts) |
The best part about the Perfect Pairs side bet is that you don’t need specific cards to match up in order to win. Landing a lowly pair of deuces (2s), a pretty pair of Kings, or even an Ace-Ace combo will do the trick.
Now then, on to the good stuff… the sweet payouts awarded when you make a Perfect Pairs side bet winner. As you can see below, Wicks designed his Perfect Pairs side bet to be flexible based on each casino’s preferred payout settings:
Perfect Pair Side Bet Payouts
| HAND | PAY TABLE #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect Pair | 25 to 1 | 30 to 1 | 25 to 1 | 25 to 1 |
| Colored Pair | 12 to 1 | 10 to 1 | 12 to 1 | 15 to 1 |
| Red + Black Pair | 6 to 1 | 5 to 1 | 5 to 1 | 5 to 1 |
Pay table # 1 above is considered to be the standard for Perfect Pairs side betting, but you’ll run into the other three alternatives from time to time.
Blackjack side bets generally require players to wager at least the posted table minimum for the base game, which tends to be $5 in most Sin City table game pits. That means landing a true Perfect Pair can turn a minimum bet into $125 using pay table # 1, or $150 on pay table # 2.
Probabilities and House Edge Rates for the Perfect Pairs Side Bet
When using an eight-deck shoe in blackjack, players obviously have eight of each unique card to work with when trying to land paired starting hands. That is to say, the shoe contains eight different 2 of spades, 3 of hearts, 4 of clubs, and so on up the ladder.
But as the data presented below makes clear, drawing two of the exact same card (rank and suit) is quite rare indeed:
Perfect Pairs Side Bet Combos, Probabilities, and Expected Return Rates
| HAND | COMBOS | PROBABILITY | EXPECTED RETURN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect Pair | 1,456 | 1.69 percent | 0.421687 |
| Colored Pair | 1,664 | 1.93 percent | 0.231325 |
| Red + Black Pair | 3,328 | 3.85 percent | 0.231325 |
| Non-Pair | 79,872 | 92.53 percent | -0.040964 |
| Total | 86,320 | 1.00 | -0.040964 |
As you can see, the probability of landing a true Perfect Pair using an eight-deck shoe stands at just 1.69 percent.
And while you might suspect the odds would double in the player’s favor when it comes to colored pairs, the probability only rises slightly to 1.93 percent. You’ll have a better chance of landing a Red + Black pair at 3.85 percent, but all told, your combined win probability when wagering on the Perfect Pairs side bet is only 7.47 percent.
That means more than 9 out of 10 deals will produce no paired starting hand to speak of, causing your Perfect Pairs side bet to be collected by the house.
However, despite this low win rate, the Perfect Pairs side bet (when using pay table # 1) offers players a relatively favorable house edge rate of 4.09 percent.
Blackjack With Poker Side Bet
That’s well within acceptable parameters for a table game side bet, and even a full-fledged casino game based on chance alone. To wit, double-zero roulette wheels provide the house with an inherent edge of 5.26 percent on every wager placed.
On a final not about house edge rates for the Perfect Pairs side bet, be sure to examine the pay table in use carefully before placing any wagers. When casinos opt for any of the three alternative pay tables, the house edge can fluctuate wildly as a result:
Perfect Pairs Side Bet House Edge Rates (by Pay Table)
| PAY TABLE | HOUSE EDGE |
|---|---|
| #1 | 4.09 percent |
| #2 | 3.37 percent |
| #3 | 7.95 percent |
| #4 | 2.17 percent |
That’s right, the standard pay table used on Perfect Pairs side betting action is actually the third-worst out of four options from the player’s perspective.
You should avoid pay table # 3 like the plague given its 7.95 percent house edge, but pay tables #2 (3.37 percent) and #4 (2.17 percent) provide a better chance of success over the long run.
Traps to Watch Out for When Playing the Perfect Pairs Side Bet
Other than the extremely high house edge rate incurred by playing Perfect Pairs against pay table # 3, the main trap used by casinos to prey on unsuspecting players concerns deck construction.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that a side bet like Perfect Pairs becomes easier to win when more decks are in the shoe. More decks equals more cards of the same rank to work with, making the possibility of finding a pair on the deal much more likely.
Conversely, when the casino opts for smaller shoes containing fewer than eight decks, the player loses valuable variety in terms pairable cards. Check out the table below to see just how drastically fewer decks in the shoe affects your house edge on the Perfect Pairs side bet:
Perfect Pairs Side Bet House Edge Rates (by Pay Table and Number of Decks)
| DECKS | PAY TABLE #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 22.33 percent | 25.24 percent | 26.21 percent | 20.39 percent |
| 4 | 10.14 percent | 10.63 percent | 14.01 percent | 8.21 percent |
| 5 | 7.72 percent | 7.72 percent | 11.58 percent | 5.79 percent |
| 6 | 6.11 percent | 5.79 percent | 9.97 percent | 4.18 percent |
| 8 | 4.09 percent | 3.37 percent | 7.95 percent | 2.17 percent |
Any casino willing to commit highway robbery by using the Perfect Pairs side bet on anything other than an eight-deck shoe doesn’t deserve your business gambling real money on blackjack.
Whenever house edge rates rise above 5 percent, let alone the double-digits, sharp gamblers know instinctively to stay away and preserve their bankroll for better bets.
Conclusion
The Perfect Pairs side bet may not be perfect – what with only three qualifying winning hand types and relatively low payouts up top – but it’s still a fun way to spice up blackjack’s base game. Landing certain pairs like the 6-6, 7-7, or 8-8 can lead to extremely tricky situations for basic strategy players, and usually, these tough totals will result in a base game loser. But when you have the Perfect Pairs side bet in play, finding one of these difficult pairs becomes a blessing in disguise thanks to the supplementary payout subsidizing any potential losses to the dealer.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Are Side Bets In Blackjack Worth It
As far as card games go, blackjack is one of the most popular formats. It is considered a classic casino game with great potential to satisfy both novice players and seasoned bettors. Standard blackjack variant has been among us for hundreds of years and has been the staple of many casino floors around the world. Naturally, the game founds its position among the top games in online casinos, as well, and one of the reasons why it has been able to persevere for so long is the existence of optional bets that players can choose to activate alongside their main bets.
A wider range of available bets makes for a more immersive playing environment, gives room to experiment with and injects new life energy into the regular game format that most blackjack players are already well-accustomed to. Side bets are an enticing option because they allow players to wager on payouts that supersede their stakes and standard betting possibilities.
Live blackjack games have many benefits to them, the first being the presence of real dealers who deal cards in real time and interact with participants during the round. In addition to this, live blackjack providers have gone a step further and introduced side bets to their blackjack products, making the games even more appealing for players who seek out more dynamic blackjack play and new ways to earn payouts. Some blackjack side bets are more popular than others and Casino Bloke will present the most notable ones below in a detailed guide to live blackjack side bets. Enjoy the read!
What Are Live Blackjack Side Bets?
The name itself is indicative of what side bets represent. These are bets made “on the side”, alternative bets, optional bets. Players are free to decide whether they wish to use them or not; nothing obligates them to make any of the side bets offered in the game of blackjack they are playing. Side bets come with different payout structures and some of them have specific moments in the game during which they can be made.
Optional bets promise attractive payouts, but the house edge becomes higher if the player makes a side bet. Undeniably, they add more fun to the game, but they are recommended more to players with above-average bankrolls. It’s not complicated to use side bets when offered. All you need to do is place your main blackjack bet at the round start on the circle/box reserved for the regular bet amount. You will see that there are side bet areas around the box and this is where you will place your side bets, should you choose to do it, at indicated times.
Side bets cover events in the game that are not affected by the main hand play. Therefore, it is important to remember that live blackjack side bets have no impact on the main hand outcome and the success or failure of the main bet. It is also a good idea to have in mind to always check the payout structure for specific live blackjack side bets because different casinos may offer different payouts for the same type of bet.
If you’ve had experience with side bets while playing at physical blackjack tables, the situation is similar in live casino blackjack games. The range of bets is solid, although somewhat smaller than at land-based casinos due to licensing restrictions. Nonetheless, live casino players can select their favourite amount side bets such as Perfect Pairs, 21+3, Lucky 7, Hot 3, Lucky Lucky or Bust It, to name a few.
In Between Side Bet Blackjack
Perfect Pairs – Most Common Side Bet in Live Blackjack
Nearly every live casino blackjack table comes with a Perfect Pairs side bet. To be able to place this bet, you must have staked a regular blackjack bet at the beginning of the round. Perfect Pairs has you wagering on a pair – your first two cards or the dealer’s first two cards must form a pair. The payout is different, depending on the type of pair formed. The possibilities include:
- Different colour, different suits – Red/Black Pair (Mixed Pair)
- Same colour, different suits – Red/Red Pair or Black/Black Pair (Coloured Pair)
- Same colour, same suit – Perfect Pair
In terms of payouts, the closer the cards match, the bigger the payout. Normally, matching numbers will bring a 6:1 payout. A coloured pair of different suits is worth 12:1, whereas a Perfect Pair, a pair of two identical cards, pays 25:1. The area for the Perfect Pairs bet is usually located to the left of the main bet box and it is often marked with PP. The house edge for the Perfect Pairs side bet stands at 0.576%.
21+3 – A bit of Poker-style Flavour
The 21+3 live casino blackjack side bet is based on the player’s first two cards and the dealer’s upcard. The initial two cards dealt to the player and the one card that is assigned to the dealer’s position facing up form a 3-card poker hand. If you place this side bet and the three cards form a valid poker hand, you will win an additional payout. Compared with Perfect Pairs, the 21+3 requires some knowledge about 3-card poker hands and in that sense, it may be a bit more complicated, but it is still among the most popular alternative bets offered in live casino blackjack games.
Should the player choose to take the 21+3 side bet, the winning outcome will happen if the three cards form the following hands, in ranking order from lowest to highest:
- Flush (three cards of the same suit), pays 5:1
- Straight (sequence of different suits), pays 10:1
- Three of a Kind (three same value cards but of different suits), pays 30:1
- Straight Flush (sequence of the same suit), pays 40:1
- Suited Trips (three identical cards, for example, 3 Queens of Diamonds), pays 100:1
The house edge for the 21+3 side bet is 0.576%. The odds differ, depending on the strength of the hand. The chances of getting Suited Trips are 0.024%, whereas the probabilities for getting a Flush are 5.88%. These numbers apply if the blackjack game is played with 8 decks, so you should always check the rules of any specific blackjack variant you decide to play at your chosen live casino.
Lucky 7 – Is Lady Luck on Your Side?
Lucky 7 is a more exclusive bet and you won’t find it as often as 21+3 and PP. The number 7 is the basis of this optional bet. Payouts are built around how many 7s the player has in hand. It is a very simple bet that you can win if you draw at least one 7. You will receive a payout of 3:1. More sevens will contribute to the size of the payout. A pair of unsuited 7s pays 25:1, whereas a suited pair pays 50:1. Ultimately, you can receive a 100:1 payout if you collect three unsuited sevens and maximise the potential of the Lucky 7 side bet with three suited 7s and a 500:1 payout. Certain games consider two cards from the player’s hand and the dealer’s up card for this side bet.
Hot 3 – Like 21+3, but More Specific
Hot 3 is an uncommon live blackjack side bet, but if you want to try it out you can do it by launching Infinite Blackjack by Evolution Gaming. This wager focuses on the player’s initial two cards and the dealer’s upcard. You are wagering on the specific combinations of cards that result in totals of 19, 20 or 21. Scoring 19 or 20 will earn you even money and 2:1, respectively. A total of 21 pays differently, depending on the suited or unsuited nature of the hand. An unsuited 21 pays 4:1 and a suited 21 is worth 20:1. The biggest payout for a Hot 3 side bet is 100:1 for three sevens.
Best Side Bets In Blackjack Games
Evolution’s Infinite Blackjack also comes with an interesting Bust It side bet. If you take it, you will be betting on the dealer going bust.
Top 3 Blackjack Side Bet
Final Thoughts
Best Side Bets In Blackjack No Deposit
Live blackjack side bets are appealing options to make use of if you aim to earn something more than though regular blackjack play. However, most experienced blackjack players would advise to view them merely as a way to have fun. When won, the side bets can make a big difference, but if you rely on them in the long run, the chances of playing profitably will likely diminish. Occasionally, side bets are a favourable supplement, but they rarely enter the long-term blackjack strategy. If you want to see how some of these side bets work in action, check out our selection of top Blackjack casinos.