The Perfect Pairs Blackjack Side Bet: A Guide

They say nothing is perfect, but playing a hand of online blackjack and enjoying the buzz and entertainment at the table comes pretty close.

So, lets take a look Perfect Pairs.

What is Perfect Pairs in blackjack?

Blackjack Perfect Pairs is one of the most popular blackjack side bets available at online casinos. As the name suggests, the bet revolves around pairs. In short, players are betting on whether their hole cards will be a pair. It’s called Perfect Pairs because if a player two hole cards are the same card, both rank and suit, they’ve received a “perfect” pair and win the highest payout.

How to play Perfect Pairs

The rules for playing Perfect Pairs in blackjack are the same as a regular hand. A player takes a seat, places a bet, receives two cards, and can hit, stand, double etc. as normal. The only difference is that the player must also place their side bet.

To play Perfect Pairs blackjack simply follow these steps:

1. Place a main blackjack bet as normal.
2. Place a bet on the Perfect Pairs option next to the player’s box at the table.
3. Two cards are dealt to each player and the dealer.
4. The Perfect Pairs bet is settled.
5. The main blackjack hand continues as normal.

Perfect Pairs odds & payouts

Different casinos will offer different odds for the Perfect Pairs bet. In fact, the same casino might offer different odds at different blackjack games, depending on how many decks are in the shoe and other factors involved.

These, however, would be fairly typical payouts for the Perfect Pairs bet that a player might find at some online blackjack tables:

• Different colours and suits (e.g. 7s-7d): 5/1
• Different suits, same colour (e.g. 5d-5h): 10/1
• Perfect Pair (e.g. Jc-Jc): 30/1

Perfect Pairs house edge

Despite the possibility of a 30/1 payout, the house edge in Perfect Pairs is significant.

In an eight-deck blackjack game, you have 415 cards remaining after being dealt your first. Of these, 7 will complete a Perfect Pair for a 30/1 payout; 8 will complete a same colour pair for 10/1; 16 cards will make a pair for a 5/1 payout.

This means that in total, there are 31 cards that will result in a win of 5/1 or greater. Breaking these down, we can make the following calculations:

• Different colour pair (5x payout): 16/415 (3.86%)
• Coloured pair (10x payout): 8/415 (1.93%)
• Perfect Pair (30x payout): 7/415 (1.69%)

To work out the value of each payout, we simply multiply the percentage by the payout:

• Different colour pair: 5*.0386 = 0.193
• Coloured pair: 10*.0193 = 0.193
• Perfect Pair: 30*.0169 = 0.507

Adding these three values together gives us a total of 0.893, or 89.3%. This means that the house edge on the Perfect Pairs side bet is 10.7%.

Other blackjack side bets

For alternatives to Perfect Pairs here are a selection of other blackjack side bets: