Blackjack Side Bets, Explained: A Guide to Rules and Payouts
A standard blackjack table is more than just the main betting circle. Blackjack side bets are extra wagers that pay on specific card combinations, from “your first two cards form a pair” to mini poker-style hands that use the dealer’s up-card.
Side bets offer bigger listed payouts than the regular 3:2 for a natural, but they come with higher house edges and sharper swings.
How Do Blackjack Side Bets Work?
Blackjack tables in regulated US markets treat side bets as separate, optional wagers placed before any cards hit the felt. Players choose a main stake, then may place a smaller or equal amount in one or more side-bet circles.
Once the first two player cards and the dealer’s up-card are out, side bets resolve immediately according to their own paytables, win or lose, even if the main hand later pushes.
Traditional blackjack under favorable rules and correct basic strategy can bring the house edge close to 0.5% in some formats, so these extra wagers sit on a very different footing from the core game.
What Are Side Bets in Blackjack?
Side bets fall into a few recurring families across US tables and online blackjack lobbies. Names and graphics change, but the structures stay similar.
Pairs and Suited Combinations
These pay when the first two player cards share the same rank, color, or suit. Perfect Pairs is the best-known format, often paying 25:1 for a perfect pair, 12:1 for a same-color pair, and 6:1 for a mixed pair.
Hit rates usually sit around 7–8% of hands in multi-deck games, so most rounds lose the side wager, with occasional spikes when a matching start appears.
21+3 and Poker-style Combinations
This family blends blackjack and three-card poker by using the two player cards and the dealer’s up-card. Paytables reward flushes, straights, three of a kind, straight flushes, and suited trips, with top prizes often set at 30:1.
These bets land more often than pure-pair wagers, yet their house edge still runs several times higher than the main game because much of the return sits in rarer hands near the top of the ladder.
Progressive and Jackpot-Linked Wagers
These side bets attach a small extra stake to a growing jackpot meter funded by a slice of each qualifying wager. Payouts usually follow a ladder of fixed prizes for specific card combinations, with the top tier unlocking the progressive pot.
More top-heavy versions like Blazing Sevens can need jackpots close to or above $100,000 at $1 and $500,000 at $5 before the math reaches 100% RTP.
On a Blazing-style schedule where the base game returns roughly 92–94% of stakes before jackpot contributions, the meter adds the remaining return as it grows, then resets after a jackpot, which is why most floors never offer this side bet in a truly player-favorable state.
Blackjack Side Bets’ Payout Structures and House Edge Impact
Side-bet paytables usually follow the same shape: frequent small hits, less common medium payouts, and rare top prizes. A pairs table might list 6:1 for mixed pairs, 12:1 for colored pairs, and 25:1 for perfect pairs. Many 21+3 versions climb higher, listing 30:1 for suited trips or straight flushes.
A main blackjack hand with favorable rules and solid strategy can sit under 1% house edge. Common side bets run far higher. Many Perfect Pairs formats fall roughly in the 4–11% band, depending on decks and exact payouts. Poker-style options such as 21+3 often land between 3% and 10%.
On an eight-deck Perfect Pairs table using a 25/12/6 paytable, Michael Shackleford’s Wizard of Odds analysis lists a house edge of 8.05%. A common 21+3 schedule paying 5:1 on flushes, 10:1 on straights, 30:1 on three of a kind, 40:1 on straight flushes, and 100:1 on suited trips carries a house edge between roughly 6% and 9%, depending on deck count.
Progressive wagers in blackjack tables can climb beyond those figures once the contribution to the meter is included. In many Blazing Sevens implementations, the base paytable without the jackpot returns roughly 92–94% of stakes, and each extra dollar in the meter nudges the RTP upward until it crosses 100% at very high jackpot levels.
Floors reset the meter far below those break-even points after a hit, so across the full jackpot cycle, the realized house edge on Blazing Sevens lines up with the 8–12% range shown in the table instead of the temporary +EV spikes that only appear at extreme meter levels.
Comparison Table: Blackjack Side Bet Odds
Side bets appear under many brand names, yet the math behind them falls into familiar patterns. The table below gives a snapshot of how some well-known wagers are priced in practice.
These house edges translate to roughly 75–97% RTP, which sits well below the ~99.5% often achievable on the main blackjack game under favorable rules.
Perfect Pairs and Royal Match usually sit in the low- to mid-90% RTP range, 21+3 can reach the mid-90s on its better paytables, Lucky Ladies often drops into the high-70% to low-80% band, and Blazing 7s tends to hover in the low- to mid-90s at typical jackpot levels.
| Side Bet Name | House Edge (Approx.) | Typical Payout (Headline Example) |
|---|---|---|
| Perfect Pairs | ~4% to 11% depending on paytable and decks | 25:1 for a perfect pair, 12:1 for same-color pair, 6:1 for mixed pair |
| 21+3 | ~3% to 10% depending on the paytable | 30:1 for suited trips, 10:1 for straight flush, 5:1 for flush/straight in many versions |
| Lucky Ladies | ~17% to 25% depending on rules and blackjack bonus | Up to 100:1 for two queens of hearts with dealer blackjack in some formats |
| Royal Match | ~3% to 7% depending on decks and side rules | 25:1 for king–queen suited, small win for any suited starting hand |
| Blazing 7s | ~8% to 12% at typical jackpot levels | Progressive jackpot or 200:1 for 7-7-7 in many linked versions |
*Estimates for Blazing 7s assume a typical progressive level and the base paytables that return roughly half of all side-bet stakes before jackpot contributions. Procedure and payout details follow the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s blackjack side-wager rules, including 58 Pa. Code §§ 633b.20–633b.21 on Blazing 7s and related progressive structures.
Side Bets Strategy
Side wagers sit at a different risk level than the core game, so it helps to plan around their expected cost.
- Decide when side bets are in play: Limit them to defined windows such as a single shoe, a progressive meter above a personal threshold, or short test runs of 20–30 hands. Live casinos often have easy-to-adjust limits for side wagers.
- Set a hard cap for side-bet spend: Choose a total dollar figure for side wagers per session and stop placing them once that amount is reached, even if the main blackjack bankroll still has room.
- Keep side bets small relative to the main wager: We suggest holding side stakes around 5–10% of the core bet size, so a $10 main wager would sit next to a $0.50–$1 side bet rather than a full $10 mirror.
- Treat big side-bet wins as padding, not a signal to ramp up risk: When a rare high payout lands, consider locking a portion of that result away and returning main and side stakes to their usual levels instead of increasing both.
Managing Risk
A main game that runs near 99.5% RTP at a $10 stake creates an expected long-view loss of about $0.05 per hand. A $5 Perfect Pairs wager with a house edge near 4.5% carries an expected loss of roughly $0.23 per round, which means about $23 over 100 such bets.
Higher-edge options change the picture further. A Lucky Ladies side bet with a house edge above 20% at the same $5 stake would average about $1 lost per round over time, or around $100 over 100 hands, even though the occasional big win can pull a short session in the other direction.
A simple way to see the impact is to look at expected loss over 100 hands at typical stakes:
| Setup | Main Bet per Hand | Side Bet per Hand | Assumed House Edge | Expected Loss Over 100 Hands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main-game blackjack only | $10 | $0 | 0.5% | ≈ $5 |
| Main-game + Perfect Pairs (low side bet) | $10 | $1 | 4.5% | ≈ $5 (main) + ≈ $4.50 (side) = ≈ $9.50 |
| Main-game + Perfect Pairs (matched stake) | $10 | $5 | 4.5% | ≈ $5 (main) + ≈ $22.50 (side) = ≈ $27.50 |
| Main-game + Lucky Ladies ($1 side bet) | $10 | $1 | 22% | ≈ $5 (main) + ≈ $22 (side) = ≈ $27 |
| Main-game + Lucky Ladies ($5 side bet) | $10 | $5 | 22% | ≈ $5 (main) + ≈ $110 (side) = ≈ $115 |
These numbers use mid-range house edges for Perfect Pairs and Lucky Ladies and assume 100 hands played with consistent stakes.
Exact figures shift with local rules and paytables, yet the pattern holds: even a small side bet can add more expected loss than the main wager, so it belongs in a separate, capped part of the session budget rather than as a second main game.
Blackjack Side Bets in the Long Term
Viewed over hundreds of hands, blackjack side bets act as a cost multiplier on what is usually a low-edge table game. Common side bets in the 90–97% RTP band can add roughly $20–$100+ in extra expected loss per 100 $10 hands once stakes move beyond token levels.
The practical takeaway is simple: treat the main hand as the primary game and cap side bets at a level that fits your tolerance for extra loss.
Decide on a fixed side-bet budget for the session, keep individual side wagers small relative to the core stake, and stop placing them once that budget is used, even if the main stack still has chips for regular blackjack.
Always gamble responsibly. Call or text 1-800-GAMBLER if control starts to slip.