Blackjack is the king of table games. This casino classic strikes the perfect balance between easy fun and strategic opportunity. Learning the card ranks is simple, and once you know them, building a hand becomes effortless and exciting.
There’s also plenty of room for strategy and optimization. You could spend countless hours dissecting strategy charts and perfecting every move if you wanted. Blackjack can be as casual or complex as you want.
What draws us all in, though, is the excitement of the moment when the dealer’s hand is revealed. That’s when you get to see how you stack up against the house, and get paid if you played your cards right.
While blackjack in its purest form is available in our casino, we also have some fun spin-offs for those who like to spice things up. One of those alternative versions is Perfect Pairs, which you may be familiar with already. We have two blackjack games that include Perfect Pairs side bets in our casino; the original Perfect Pairs has been available for several years now, while the new Blackjack Perfect Pair 21+3 is a recent addition to the Bodog catalogue. Both are available to play with real bets and real payouts.
We’ve created this guide to help you understand how our Perfect Pairs blackjack game works and how it deviates from regular blackjack. We’ve included a breakdown of the various side bets, an explanation of the house edge, including suggestions on how to lower it, and a chart that shows the payouts available in both games. If you’ve been craving a new flavour of blackjack, this game should be on your radar. We enjoyed trialing it and recommend it to all table game enthusiasts looking for a fresh twist on this old classic.
What is Perfect Pairs Blackjack?
There’s no need to learn a new approach to blackjack when you play Perfect Pairs at Bodog Casino. The base game is the exact same as standard blackjack. You and the dealer are dealt a two-card hand, and you must try to outscore the dealer without going over 21 points and busting. The moves are the same; choose to hit, stand, split, double, or surrender in your quest for the superior hand. The dealer, meanwhile, will aim to build a score of at least 17 unless you bust.
Where these games deviate from standard blackjack is when side bets come into play. Perfect Pairs and Perfect Pair 21+3 have side bets you won’t find in any other game. For starters, they both have a Pairs side bet that pays if your two-card hand happens to be a pair. If you get a pair, you’re paid based on how “perfect” the pair is.
The Pairs side bet has three ranked tiers. A regular mixed pair (for example 9c,9h) is the easiest bet to win and pays the least. Meanwhile, a proper coloured pair (for example 10h,10d) pays more. The top payout is reserved for the “perfect pair”: same suit, same rank (for example Qs,Qs). This is possible since Perfect Pairs has a six-deck shoe.
Perfect Pair 21+3 has another side bet on top of the Pairs we just discussed called the 21+3. This bet is based on your hand and the dealer’s up-card combining to form a three-card poker hand. It could be a flush, straight, straight flush, three-of-a-kind or best yet, a suited three-of-a-kind. The payout range for the 21+3 side bet goes from 5 to 1 (for a flush) all the way to 100 to 1 (for a suited three-of-a-kind).
What is Perfect Pairs blackjack? Now you know. You can play these side bets in conjunction with the main game for a little extra fun and opportunity to win. That way, even if you don’t beat the dealer with your blackjack hand, you could still walk away a winner.
Side Bets in Perfect Pairs Blackjack Game
Launch a round of Perfect Pairs, and you’ll find the side bets option located beside the main betting diamond. After putting down your main bet, you can put money on the side bet too. It can be any amount within the game’s betting range and doesn’t have to replicate the original bet size in any way.
In Perfect Pairs 21+3, the side bets are on either side of the main betting circle. The three-card poker hand bet is on the left and labelled “21+3”; the Perfect Pairs side bet is on the right and labelled “PP”. You can place any size bet within the game’s overall range on either of these side bets.
The side bets have tiered payouts depending on the strength of the pair or poker combination that you put together. The higher the rank, the more cash you pocket. With the Perfect Pairs side bet, the highest possible outcome is the same suit, same rank pair (Ac,Ac), known as the perfect pair, while with 21+3, the highest possible outcome is a suited three-of-a-kind (4c,4c,4c).
The best parts of using side bets is that they act as a hedge for the main bet and offer far bigger payouts than what you’d get with the standard blackjack ones, which max out at 3 to 2. Losing a round of blackjack stings a little less if you’ve managed to hit one of your side bets, especially if it pays a premium.
The House Edge
Many players gravitate to blackjack for the low house edge. After all, when you play our six-deck variant and follow basic strategy, which is very easy when playing online, the house edge is a nominal .539%. That’s hard to beat.
But you won’t find that kind of house edge in the blackjack side bets, like Perfect Pairs and 21+3. These bonus bets have higher house edges that are closer to 6%; they’re mainly played for fun and the novelty of it. The payouts are high (up to 100 to 1 with 21+3, up to 30 to 1 with Pairs) and the idea of landing a pair or a winning poker hand is exciting, but since these bets take a bigger bite out of your bankroll, it’s best to sprinkle them in every few rounds, or when you’re feeling lucky.
Another option is to bet in ratios that reflect the house edge of the main bet vs the side bets. For example, if you bet $10 on the main bet every round, you could toss $1 on the Perfect Pairs side bet. That way you can still have fun with the side bets while being mindful of the higher Perfect Pairs house edge. However you choose to incorporate the bets, always practice sound bankroll management when you play blackjack.
What Are the Odds of Perfect Pairs?
Understanding the odds and probabilities behind the Perfect Pairs side bets will help clarify the payouts and house edge, and empower you to make the best decisions possible at the table. That’s why we’re tackling the question: what are the odds of Perfect Pairs?
In an eight deck-shoe, there are 1,456 possible combinations for a perfect pair. That leads to a 1.68% probability of hitting one. For a coloured pair, there are 1,664 possible combinations, meaning a 1.92% probability. The mixed pair, the easiest of the three, has 3,328 possible combinations for a 3.85% probability. But the greatest probability of all is a non-pair; there are 79,872 possible combinations of landing a non-pair for a 92.5% probability.
In all reality, landing those pairs is a rare achievement, which is why they’re side bets. High risk comes with high reward—and you’ll find plenty of that in Perfect Pairs.
Payout
Now we’ll focus on what draws us in to the side bets, and that’s the payouts. In Perfect Pairs, the side bet pays 6-to-1, 12-to-1, or 25-to-1, depending on how close your pair is to being perfect. We’ve broken down the payouts in this Perfect Pairs Payout chart.
Perfect Pairs
Type of Pair Example Payout
Perfect Pair 9c,9c 25-to-1
Coloured Pair 3h,3d 12-to-1
Mixed Pair Jc,Jh 6-to-1
If you landed a perfect pair with a $5 bet, you’d win $125. $5 on a coloured pair would yield $60, and $30 on a mixed pair.
The Pairs side bet in Perfect Pairs 21+3 pays 5-to-1, 10-to-1, or 30-to-1 for the same ranks. We’ll illustrate in a chart.
Perfect Pairs 21+3
Type of Pair Example Payout
Perfect Pair 9c,9c 30-to-1
Coloured Pair 3h,3d 10-to-1
Mixed Pair Jc,Jh 5-to-1
If you landed a perfect pair with a $5 bet in Perfect Pairs 21+3, you’d win $150. $5 on a coloured pair would yield $50, and $25 on a mixed pair.
The poker side bets have six tiers that range from 5-to-1 to 100-to-1.
Perfect Pairs 21+3
Type of Poke Hand Example Payout
Suited 3 of a Kind 10h,10h,10h 100-to-1
Straight Flush Js,Qs,Ks 40-1
3 of a Kind 5s,5c,5h 30-to-1
Straight 7c,8h,9d 9-to-1
Flush 3h,10h,Ah 5-to-1
Perfect Pairs Blackjack Games at Bodog
Now that you’ve learned everything there is to know about Perfect Pairs, it’s time to launch a session. In our casino, you’ll find tabs for all of our games; select Blackjack Games to find all of the blackjack variants available.
Once there, you’ll see two Perfect Pairs blackjack games at Bodog. Both are available to play with real money bets and payouts. Perfect Pairs is the older and better-known version. It has a more traditional layout and design, with the game taking place on a tabletop with the shoe in view. Dragon Gaming created the newer version, Blackjack Perfect Pairs 21+3; this one has a black back drop with minimal graphics. Both are worth playing for different reasons.
The classic Perfect Pairs game with its six-deck shoe and limited side bets lets you play two hands per round. You can bet on the Perfect Pairs side bet using the betting circles beside the main diamonds. All of the standard blackjack options are included; choose to hit, stand, double down, split pairs and surrender early in the round. Some player-friendly rules will help lower the house edge, such as being able to double down on any two cards. This game is available to play risk-free in Practice Play mode and for real money in Real Play.
The Dragon Gaming version, Blackjack Perfect Pair 21+3, is fairly new. Here, you can bet up to three hands per round, and each hand has two side bets available. The Pairs side bet is included, the same one you’d find in Perfect Pairs, and the 21+3 is also included for extra betting opportunities with a special nod towards poker players. Perfect Pair 21+3 is available to play risk-free through Practice Play mode, so give it a try and see if you like it. The mobile version is nicely streamlined, making it comfortable to play on a smaller screen like a phone.
Anyone with an appreciation for blackjack will almost certainly enjoy these variants that stay true to the original game. But the bonus of these games is the option of novel side betting. If you feel lucky and want to take a flier on getting dealt a pair or a great poker hand, you’re free to make that bet and cash in if your instinct proves true. It’s a fun way to get more out of every blackjack round. If you want to sit at Bodog’s Blackjack tables armed full of knowledge, key questions such as what is insurance in blackjack and learn when to split in blackjack will give you the ammo you need.