If the side bet is won, the player receives a payout and the game proceeds to the standard blackjack action. If, for example, the player gets 3 and 8 and the dealer’s face-up card is anything between 2 and 7, the player will win the side bet. When determining the spread for the side bet, the Aces always carry a high value.

Comprehensive list of all known side bets in blackjack, inclusive of payouts and win odds. When we think of blackjack, we think of the traditional game, wherein players compete against the dealer to achieve a higher total, without exceeding 21. We understand that being dealt a natural, 2-card blackjack is worth a bonus payout. Bet the Set (a.k.a. Pair Square, or Any Pair), is one of the most popular side bets in blackjack. Bettors win if their first two cards are a pair. If that pair is suited, the payout is usually higher. The pay table for this type of wager can vary greatly from one live or online casino to the next. Place a blackjack side bet up to €500 on the side bet areas around the box; Enjoy great payouts if your side bet wins! What is a Perfect Pair in blackjack? When playing the blackjack Perfect Pairs side bet, and your first two cards are a pair, there are three winning scenarios: Mixed pairs (e.g. King of Diamonds and King of Clubs) - 6:1.

Table Of Contents

With simple rules and easy to learn strategies, the game of blackjack is one of the most popular card games in both Las Vegas Casinos and online around the world.

Blackjack side bets add a layer of complexity to the game, though at much greater risk.

In this article we’ll take a look at the different side bet options, how they are structured and what side bets pay.

• What are Blackjack side bets?
• Why play Blackjack side bets?
• Common side bets at most Casinos
• Other side bets to look out for
• Are Blackjack side bets worth playing?

What are Blackjack side bets?

Blackjack side bets are additional bets placed during a standard game of Blackjack. They involve predicting which cards the player, and sometimes the dealer, will receive.

Wagers are made before any cards are dealt and each side bet is based on chance rather than skill, although you can count cards to help you choose the most likely combinations for your best side bets.

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Why play side bets?

One of the most attractive features of the game of Blackjack is the low house edge compared to other games on the casino floor.

Good players will face a house edge of around 0.5%, and even if you play quite badly, that edge only rises to around 2%.

However, while the odds of losing big are low, the odds of winning are also poor.

Blackjack is mostly an even money game, rising to 2:1 at best if you are dealt a Blackjack.

Side bets offer you the chance to play much longer odds for higher player wins – as much as 5,000:1 in one case.

However, it must be noted that the house edge rises significantly for Blackjack side bets, with most bets carrying a house edge of 10% or more.

In other words, side bets make it a lot easier to lose money on blackjack.

Common side bets at most Casinos

There are a number of common side bets that you will find at most Blackjack tables.

These are clearly marked with the odds either printed on the Blackjack tables or available as a hand out or a side menu in the online version.

You should check the pay outs carefully before placing your bets as they can vary considerably between different Casinos or online sites.

The three main Blackjack side bets are:

• Insurance
• Perfect Pairs
• 21+3

Insurance – this is the most common Blackjack side bet and allows you to cover yourself against Blackjack if the dealer has an ace face up.

This bet involves half of your original stake and pays out at 2:1 if the dealer has Blackjack. The insurance bet reduces the overall house edge.

Perfect Pairs – this side bet uses the player’s cards only, and pays out if you are dealt two of a kind as follows:

• Mixed pair (two of the same value but different suit and colour) – pays 5:1
• Coloured pair (two of the same value and the same colour) – pays 12:1
• Perfect pair (two of the same card) – pays 25:1

The returns can vary between different Casinos and different pay tables and the house edge will depend on both the pay out and the number of decks used and can range from just 2 or 3% up to 11% or more.

21+3 – this side bet involves the player’s two cards and the upturned card of the dealer. It will pay out for a number of different combinations:

• Flush – (all cards are suited) – pays 5:1
• Straight – (all cards consecutive) – pays 10:1
• Three of a kind – (not the same suit) – pays 30:1
• Straight flush – (consecutive cards same suit) – pays 40:1
• Suited triple – (three of the same card) – pays 100:1

The house edge for the 21+3 side bet will vary depending on the number of decks used, standing at 8.78% for four decks, 7.81% for five decks, 7.14% for six decks and 6.29% for seven decks.

Other side bets to look out for

The Casino industry is highly competitive, and so new side bets are being invented all the time to try and attract new Blackjack players.

Some of these will flourish and become widely available, while others remain niche and can only be found in selected Casinos. Here are a few examples:

• Royal match – pays 5:2 for any suited player’s cards and 25:1 for suited king and queen
• Over/under 13 – pays even money for correctly predicting the sum of the player’s cards as less than or greater than 13. In most cases, exactly 13 will lose, but some Casinos will allow bets on exactly 13.
• Super sevens – this bet pays out if one or more sevens are dealt in the player’s cards. One seven pays 3:1, two unsuited sevens pays 50:1, two suited sevens pays 100:1. If the third card dealt is also a seven, then the bet will pay 500:1 unsuited and 5000:1 suited. However it is important to make sure that the Casino will still deal a third card if the dealer has a Blackjack, as some Casinos will not do this.
• Lucky ladies – this bet pays out if the player’s cards add up to 20, with an unsuited 20 paying 4:1, a suited 20 paying 10:1, a matched 20, same rank and suit pays 25:1, two queens of hearts 200:1 and two queens of hearts when dealer has Blackjack 1000:1.

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Are Blackjack side bets worth playing?

Blackjack side bets do not involve any skill and you are simply betting on the luck of the draw.

What’s more, the returns do not reflect the odds of each bet coming in, which gives the house a significantly larger edge.

Conclusion

Blackjack side bets are best viewed as a bit of extra complexity that adds up to a session at the Blackjack table.

However, you should not make them the main focus of your gameplay or your wagering, and you should be aware of the significantly increased house edge.

Now that you know all about Blackjack side bets, how about a game?

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Most blackjack players who’ve played for any length of time understand that rules for the game vary from casino to casino. In fact, they vary from one table to another.

The obvious example is the size of the payout for a blackjack (a 2-card total of 21).

The standard for decades is for a blackjack to pay off at 3 to 2 odds.

But recently, many casinos started offering blackjack games that pay off at 6 to 5 odds.

What does this do to the house edge?

Blackjack In Between Bet Payouts

It increases the house’s advantage by 1.5%.

That might not sound like much, but a basic strategy player at a standard blackjack player faces a house edge of only 0.5%.

This means that the house’s mathematical edge quadruples because of what seems like one small rules change.

In this post, I look at some of the rules changes and what stakes they happen at.

6/5 Blackjack Versus 3/2 Blackjack

Some casinos offer 6/5 blackjack at their lower stakes tables while offering the standard 3/2 payouts at their higher stakes tables.

Let’s take a hypothetical Las Vegas casino and look at what happens to their profits when they implement this rules change at lower stakes.

They might offer the standard 3/2 payout on their $25 minimum tables. An average blackjack player might play 80 hands per hour at such a table, putting $2000 per hour into action.

Assuming perfect strategy on the part of that player, you’re looking at a house edge of only 0.5%, which means that a player at this table will lose an average of $10 per hour at this table. A table full of these players might generate $60 per hour for the casino.

The players at the $5 table are only putting $400 per hour into action.

But with the 6/5 payout in effect, the house edge increases from 0.5% to 2%.

This means that the players at this table are losing $8 per hour – almost as much as the players gambling 5 times as much per hand at the other table.

Casinos want to encourage action at the higher stakes tables because they make more money from gamblers who are betting more per hand.

But the payout for a blackjack isn’t the only rule a casino might change.

Hitting and Standing on a Soft 17

Everyone knows that the dealer has to hit any total of 16 or less.

It’s better for the player if the dealer has to stand on all totals of 17 – even soft totals of 17.

But in lower stakes games, the dealer hits a soft 17.

What does this do to the house edge?

It increases it by 0.2% — which sounds like a minor increase, but it’s a bigger increase than you might think.

Suppose a casino has a game where the minimum bet is $50, and the dealer has to stand on all 17s. The house edge for such a game might be 0.5%.

At 80 hands per hour, the gambler is putting $4000 per hour into action. The expected loss per hour for that player is $20.

That same casino might have a game with a minimum bet of $25, but the dealer hits a soft 17. This increases the house edge from 0.5% to 0.7%.

The gamblers at this table are putting $2000 per hour into action, but now they’re losing $14 per hour instead of the $10 per hour you’d expect.

The casino STILL makes more money from the higher limit table, but by just changing one small rule, they come closer to getting the same kind of hourly win rate.

The Worst Blackjack Rules in Las Vegas Are at the Strip Casinos

80% of the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip are owned by the same 4 companies. They all have similar blackjack rules – and those rules aren’t as favorable to the players as you’d hope.

Your best bet as a blackjack player is to just avoid the blackjack games on the Strip altogether. You can find better games elsewhere in the city.

For one thing, it’s almost impossible to find blackjack for less than $10 per hand on the Strip.

You’d think that such casinos would offer terrible rules for players, but you’d be surprised.

For example, I’ve read reports about the $3 games at Arizona Charlies. You can double down on any total there, and you can even double down after splitting. Good luck finding those generous rules at one of the Strip casinos.

You can also play $5 blackjack at Arizona Charlies from a 2-deck shoe, which is practically unheard of elsewhere in Vegas. And, if you didn’t already know it, the more decks you have in use, the higher the house edge becomes.

Blackjack In Bet Payouts Real Money

Single deck blackjack has the lowest house edge, everything else being equal.

You can find $5 blackjack at a host of locals casinos, especially in Downtown. Some of the casinos offering $5 blackjack include Boulder Station, El Cortez, and the Orleans.

In fact, any of the Stations casinos offer good rules for low stakes blackjack players.

If You ARE Going to Play Blackjack on the Strip

Treasure Island is your best bet for $10 blackjack on the Strip, but those tables are usually crowded, and there aren’t many of them. The game does have good rules, though – you can even find a game there sometimes that’s dealt from just 2 decks.

But, if you’re going to play blackjack on the Strip, you’re probably going to need to wager $25 prer hand or more. Any of the MGM properties are good for this level of play.

These include Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor, Mirage, Monte Carlo, and New York New York,

Comparing Rules Variations in Blackjack

For the most part, the rules variations in blackjack involve giving the player more options or fewer options. In any given blackjack situation, having more options is better than having fewer options.

For example, in some casinos, you can only double down on a 9, 10, or 11.

In other casinos, you’re allowed to double down on any total.

In some casinos, you’re allowed to double down after splitting.

In others, you can’t double down after splitting.

These are all examples of how having more flexibility in your choices increases or decreases the house edge.

Blackjack In Bet Payouts Odds

You always want to decrease the house edge when you can.

And don’t make the mistake of thinking the 0.1% or 0.2% doesn’t matter.

When you’re dealing with something like the house edge, every tenth of a percent matters.

What if You Want to Count Cards?

If you want to count cards, one of the first things you want to do is find a casino that isn’t using a continuous shuffling machine. You can’t get an edge counting cards if the discards get shuffled back into the deck immediately.

Card counting works because some higher value cards are no longer in the deck, or some lower value cards are no longer in the deck. When the composition of the deck becomes favorable to the player instead of to the house, the card counter raises the size of his bets.

You can’t do that if you’re getting cards from a freshly shuffled deck every hand.

Also, the fewer decks being used, the better it is for the card counter. Every card dealt from a single deck affects the house edge.

But the value of each card is diluted in a pack of cards made up of multiple decks.

Here’s an example:

If 4 aces have been dealt out of a single deck blackjack game, it’s now impossible to get dealt a blackjack before the cards are shuffled again. This is advantageous for the casino, and the card counter knows it and lowers his bet accordingly.

But if you’re playing in an 8-deck game, you have 32 aces in the deck total. The elimination of 4 of those aces doesn’t make nearly as much of a difference.

Conclusion

Tiny differences in the rules have a major effect on the math involved when playing real money blackjack. Generally, you’ll find more flexibility in the games with lower stakes.

You’ll have a hard time finding a combination of low stakes and good rules variations on the Strip in Las Vegas, especially. Try to stick with the casinos Downtown or on Boulder Highway if you’re a low roller looking for a game with good odds.