Blackjack - Side Bets

Side Bets

Many blackjack tables offer a side bet on various outcomes including:

• Player hand and dealer's up card sum to 19, 20, or 21 ("Lucky Lucky")
• Player initial hand is a pair ("Perfect pairs")
• Player initial hand is suited, suited and connected, or a suited K-Q ("Royal match")
• Player initial hand plus dealer's card makes a flush, straight, or three-of-a-kind poker hand ("21+3")
• Player initial hand totals 20 ("Lucky Ladies")
• Dealer upcard is in between the value of the players two cards ("In Bet")
• First card drawn to the dealer will result in a dealer bust ("Bust It!")
• One or both of the players cards is the same as the dealers card ("Match the Dealer")
• Player allowed to make optional second hand, and effectively receive the hand of 10,8, or 18 without drawings cards ("Instant 18")

The side wager is typically placed in a designated area next to the box for the main wager. A player wishing to wager on a side bet is usually required to place a wager on blackjack. Some games require that the blackjack wager should equal or exceed any side bet wager. A non-controlling player of a blackjack hand is usually permitted to place a side bet regardless of whether the controlling player does so.

The house edge for side games is generally higher than for the blackjack game itself. Nonetheless side games can be susceptible to card counting, often requiring bespoke counting systems. Most side games do not offer sufficient win rate to justify the effort of advantage play; exceptions are "Lucky ladies" and "Over/Under".

In team play it is common for team members to be dedicated toward counting only a sidebet using a specialized count.