Blackjack Side Bets

What blackjack side bets are and how they work

A side bet is a small, optional wager you place next to your main blackjack bet, in its own marked circle on the felt. It is settled on its own terms, usually from the cards you are dealt in the first moments of the round, and it has no effect on how you play your blackjack hand. You can win the side bet and lose the hand, or the other way around⁷.

The mechanics are simple. You put your main wager in one circle and, if you want the extra action, a second stake in the side bet circle before the deal. Once the cards are out, the dealer checks whether your first two cards, and sometimes the dealer's own face-up card, form whatever combination the bet is looking for. If they do, you are paid at the posted odds. If not, the stake is collected and the round continues exactly as it would have anyway⁸.

Casinos like side bets because they add color to a slow game and because they carry a higher house edge than the main wager, so operators present them as entertainment on top rather than the core bet⁶. Players like them because a single dollar can return $25 or more when the right cards appear.

The menu varies by table and by casino, but the bets you will see most often across Asia are:

• Perfect Pairs, which pays when your first two cards are a pair⁹
• 21+3, which pays when your two cards plus the dealer's up card make a three-card poker hand⁹
• Match the Dealer, which pays when one or both of your cards match the dealer's up card⁴
• Blazing 7s, a progressive bet that pays according to how many 7s appear in your hand and the dealer's hand¹⁰
• Insurance, offered when the dealer shows an Ace⁷

Some tables offer one of these, some offer several, and high-limit tables often offer none at all. The paytable is always printed on the felt or on a card at the table, and it can differ from casino to casino even for the same bet, so it is worth reading before you put money down.

Perfect Pairs: payouts and house edge

Perfect Pairs is the most widely offered blackjack side bet and the easiest to understand. It looks only at your first two cards. If they form a pair, you win; if not, you lose the stake and the hand carries on⁹.

There are three levels of pair, and the payouts differ sharply between them:

Not every casino uses this exact ladder. Deltin's blackjack tables in India, for example, pay 25 times the betting amount for a pair of the same value and suit, but only 5 times for a mixed pair². FB88's live blackjack rules pay a perfect pair at 1 to 25, the same top line¹². Newport World Resorts in Manila runs a variant called Suiter Blackjack that pays 100 for two suited pairs, one in the player's hand and one in the dealer's, and 20 for a player perfect pair, so the ceiling can be much higher at specific tables¹³.

The house edge on Perfect Pairs is high compared with the main game. A perfect pair needs two identical cards out of a shoe, which is rare, and the paytable does not fully compensate. The practical way to think about it: a $5 side bet loses most rounds, wins $30 to $50 occasionally, and hits the 25 to 1 line only once in a long stretch of hands. Over a session, that drains more per dollar staked than the main bet does.

21+3: the poker-style side bet

21+3 borrows its winning hands from three-card poker. You take your first two cards, add the dealer's face-up card, and see whether the three cards together make one of the qualifying poker hands. If they do, you win at the posted odds⁷.

The standard paytable used in the Xtreme 21+3 version, which is the one you will meet most often, looks like this:

Note the oddity in that table: the flush pays more than the straight flush at this paytable, which is unusual, so always read the felt rather than assuming³. Some versions simplify things dramatically. In Monaco, the approved rules for the 21+3 bet pay every winning combination, flush, straight, three of a kind or straight flush, at nine times the stake, a flat structure that is easier to remember but worse value for the big hands¹⁴.

Because the bet uses the dealer's up card, you can win it with cards that are useless for your blackjack hand. A 2 of Hearts and a 7 of Hearts are a terrible start to a hand of blackjack, but if the dealer turns over a 9 of Hearts you have a flush and a 50 to 1 payout³.

Match the Dealer: payouts and house edge

Match the Dealer is a bet on your cards matching the dealer's face-up card. You win for each of your initial two cards that matches the dealer's up card, and a match in both rank and suit pays more than a match in rank only⁴.

The payouts depend on how many decks are in the shoe, because more decks make suited matches more likely. With six decks, the paytable is:

With eight decks, the top event pays 24 to 1, then 15, 12, 6 and 3 for the lower events⁴. The Spanish 21 version of the bet, which you can also place at Spanish 21 tables, pays 3 to 1 for one non-suited match, 6 to 1 for two non-suited matches, 12 to 1 for one suited match, 15 to 1 for one of each and 24 to 1 for two suited matches, with a $1 minimum and a maximum equal to your original bet up to $50⁵.

Match the Dealer is one of the better-value side bets, though "better" is relative. The house edge runs about 2.99 percent with eight decks and about 3.06 percent with six decks⁴. That is several times the edge of the main game, but it is modest next to some of the flashier bets on this page.

Insurance and other side bets you may meet

Insurance is the side bet built into standard blackjack. When the dealer's face-up card is an Ace, you are offered the chance to bet that the dealer's face-down card is a 10-value card, which would give the dealer blackjack. The bet pays 2 to 1, meaning two dollars for every dollar staked, and it is treated independently of your main wager⁷. We cover the full odds and whether it ever makes sense in our page on blackjack insurance.

Over 13 and Under 13 are a pair of older side bets that wager on the total of your first two cards. Under 13 wins if your first two cards total 12 or less and loses if the total is more than 12; Over 13 wins on 14 or more and loses on 13 or less. Each pays even money, except that Under 13 pays 7 to 1 if your first two cards are both Aces. You can only place them alongside a blackjack wager, for no more than that wager¹⁷.

Any pair appears on the approved Macau blackjack rules: besides the original bet and the insurance bet, players may bet on "any pair" in one or more of the boxes at the table, a local flavor of the pairs idea¹⁸.

Blazing 7s is a progressive side bet, meaning a slice of every stake feeds a jackpot that keeps growing until someone hits it. The bet pays out depending on how many 7s are in your hand and the dealer's hand, with more 7s meaning bigger wins, and each player must still place a standard blackjack bet each round to take part¹⁰.

Suited blackjack in diamonds appears in Super Fun 21 in the San Diego county casinos, where the side bet pays 300 to 1 on a suited blackjack in diamonds, but only on the first hand after a shuffle¹⁹.

Match bets in Blackjack Switch are approved in Japan, where the rules allow a side bet on the first four cards dealt to a pair of betting areas forming a specified combination²⁰.

Bonus Wager paytables of the kind used at City of Dreams Manila pay 25 to 1 for a suited Ace and King, 20 to 1 for a suited Ace and Queen or suited Ace and Jack, 15 to 1 for an unsuited Ace and King, and 5 to 1 for an unsuited Ace and Queen or Jack²¹. If you enjoy this kind of high-payout extra, the same logic runs through baccarat side bets, which offer a much wider menu.

Side bets versus the main game: house edge and RTP

The main blackjack game is one of the best deals in the casino. Played with correct decisions, it carries one of the lowest house edges on the floor, roughly 0.4 percent, and the return to player is around 99.5 percent if you know the ideal move in every scenario³. Vietnamese casino guidance quotes the same picture: a house edge under 1 percent with basic strategy and an RTP of 99 to 99.5 percent, dropping to 95 to 97 percent if you play randomly²³.

Side bets sit far above that line. They typically carry a higher house edge than the main game, which is why operators describe them as entertainment on top, never as the core bet⁶. For comparison:

One more comparison worth knowing: the payout structure of the main game matters too. A table that pays blackjack at 3 to 2 is better for you than one paying 6 to 5, and that difference alone meaningfully raises the house edge over a session⁶. Some live tables quote a single blended figure; one mobile infinite blackjack game, for instance, lists a house edge of approximately 0.83 percent depending on side bets, meaning the side bets you add push the number up from the base game²⁴.

The honest summary: for every dollar you put in a side bet circle, the casino expects to keep several times more than it keeps from a dollar in the main circle. The trade-off is that side bets offer the big one-off payouts the main game cannot, since a natural blackjack tops out at 3 to 2.

Where you will find side bets: online and live tables

Side bets are easiest to find at live dealer studios. The 888casino live blackjack game includes optional Perfect Pairs and 21+3 side bets alongside the main wager¹¹, and CoinPoker's live tables offer the same pair: its Live VIP Blackjack carries Perfect Pairs and 21+3, and its Blackjack Fortune VIP adds both as extra action²⁵. One Blackjack, an Ethereum-optimized version, offers 21+3 and Crazy 7s with bets from $1 up to $5,000 per hand, while Power Blackjack runs from $1 up to $500 per hand or side bet²⁶.

Stakes are flexible online. Betway's live blackjack tables range from 50p up to $10,000, and side bets sit within those same limits²⁷.

In the Philippines, the regulator's approved game list shows live dealer blackjack and titles like All Bets Blackjack Live registered with version numbers, which is the approval step any new side bet has to clear before it appears on a licensed table²⁸. We explain how that process works in who sets casino game rules.

On the casino floor, availability depends on the house. Macau's approved blackjack rules provide six or more betting spots per table, and the side bet menu is set by each casino³⁰. Deltin's tables in India deal from a shoe of six pre-shuffled decks with seven boxes, and pay their pair bet at 25 times for a same-suit pair². FB88's live blackjack uses eight decks and pays a perfect pair at 1 to 25¹². The pattern is consistent: the more decks in the shoe, the more generous the pairs paytable can afford to be, and every casino posts its own version.

Side bets and basic strategy: what changes

Nothing changes, and that is the whole point. Basic strategy tells you how to play your blackjack hand: when to hit, stand, double or split, based on your cards and the dealer's up card. A side bet is resolved before any of those decisions matter, so it has no place in the strategy chart and no influence on it. You can find the full chart in our page on blackjack basic strategy.

Two practical consequences follow. First, because side bets are graded independently, your hand can bust while your side bet still pays. PokerJack, a hybrid game that deals both a blackjack hand and poker side bets, states this directly: your blackjack hand can bust, but the poker side bets may still pay out³¹. Second, mastering blackjack involves a detailed set of decisions, and none of those decisions involve the side bet circle³². The skill element that makes blackjack special, the ability to improve your odds through correct play, applies only to the main wager.

So the sensible approach is to treat the two parts of the table as separate games. Play the main hand with basic strategy, where your decisions genuinely matter, and if you enjoy the side bet, stake it small and treat the payout as a pleasant surprise rather than a plan. The main game is where the good odds live; the side bets are where the occasional big receipt comes from.