- One of the best casino win bets is the Perfect Pairs side bet in blackjack.
- Another great casino win bet is the Super Match side bet found in Caribbean Stud.
- Other good casino win bets include 3 Card Rumble’s Three-of-a-Kind and Dragon Bonus.
Win bets are often overlooked by gamblers but they can be some of the most lucrative wagers at the casino. Whether you are betting on a casino poker game or a tile game from China, there are a lot of spot where adding a win bet can boost your returns mightily.
For those that don’t know, a win bet is exactly what it sounds like: a bet on the player’s hand winning in some fashion. The standard win bet is simply betting on whether you will win the hand or not but casinos offer many variations on this theme to add an extra wager (and extra vig) to your favorite games.
All of the win bets featured here have one thing in common: they provide the player with a significant advantage when the right strategy is used. So if you want to take your next trip to the casino to new heights, make sure you know about these great win bets and how to beat them.
By the way, all of these games can tried out for free (outside of the win bets of course) at some of the .
Perfect Pairs
Perhaps the best win bet of all time can be found at the blackjack table and it is called Perfect Pairs. As blackjack players know all too well, splits can be profitable or disastrous depending on the starting hands.
To give players another chance to win, Perfect Pairs was introduced and has since become one of the best win bets in the business from a pure expected value standpoint.
Perfect Pairs pays out based on what type of pair a player receives with their starting cards. A “Perfect Pair” is defined as two cards of the same rank, suit and color (example: two red Aces). This hand pays out 25-1.
betrivers online casino review michiganOne step down from a Perfect Pair is a “Colored Pair,” which is simply receiving two cards of the same rank and suit but different colors. This hand pays out 10-1.
The final type of hand is a “Mixed Pair,” which is just receiving any old pair (suit and color need not match). This hand pays 6-1 and is also known as the “accessory hand” because it is basically the dealer’s hand on environmental scans in .
It is worth noting that some versions of Perfect Pairs pay 5-1 for a Mixed Pair but the expectation doesn’t change much so any form of a Mixed Pair payout is fine by me.
So how does one go about winning at this bet? Well, the math shows that Perfect Pairs offers the player a +EV play due to statistics. There are 54 cards dealt per hand and 1,308 ways to choose two unique cards.
Of those 1,308 combinations, 271 of them are pairs. And of those 271 pairs, 63 are Mixed Pairs, 146 are Colored Pairs and 62 are Perfect Pairs. That comes out to roughly 17.2% of all hands being a pair of some kind and 4.9% being a Perfect Pair.
Assuming the most favorable payouts of 6-1, 10-1 and 25-1 respectively, Perfect Pairs carries a house edge of 1.83%. Even with less favorable payouts, Perfect Pairs still provides the player with an advantage. For example, even payouts of 5-1, 8-1 and 20-1 only gives the house a 2.33% edge.
Given that insurance pays 2-1 and has a house edge of 7.5%, Perfect Pairs is obviously the superior bet in this scenario. Of course insurance has a much lower variance so it is possible to go on long insurance winning streaks that more than offset the higher house edge.
As far as win bets go, Perfect Pairs is king and any payouts of 6-1, 10-1 and 25-1 should be played whenever available.
Super/Mega Progressive
If a player is looking for even more upside than Perfect Pairs, they should seek out Caribbean Stud and its super (or mega) progressive version of the paired hand bet. Whereas the expected value of Perfect Pairs is 1.83%-2.33%, the super/mega progressive pairs bet has an EXP of -1.43%.
In other words, this is a positive expectancy bet.
Naples Casinos That'll Make Your Florida Getaway UnforgettableNow you may wonder why a casino would offer a bet with a negative house edge. Well, it isn’t common for casinos to offer suicide, but every once in a while a rogue sheet of paper falls out of the time machine Delorean and causes this very thing.
Joking aside, a negative house edge doesn’t guarantee profit thanks to the law of large numbers but the casino’s expected win is less than the player’s expected win. Over a large sample size, the player is bound to come out ahead when all variables (vig, tax, etc.) are considered.
So where can a player find this miracle bet? Well, it goes by different names depending on the casino but it is essentially the same wager. Some casinos call it a “Super Progressive” while others refer to it as a “Mega Progressive.” In either case, this bet pays out based on whether the player receives a flush or better on their first five cards.
Here are the payouts for both:
Super Progressive
Mega Progressive
As you can see, the payouts are almost identical except for the “Greater than a Royal Flush” category. Some casinos cap the bonus at 100-1 while others pay out 1% of the progressives jackpot for each of the suits represented in the hand.
How in the world does this bet offer the player an edge? Well, a full 9.46% of all 25 card hands consist of a straight or better. Breaking that number down further, 1.22% of all hands are flushes or better while 2.20% are straights or better and 4.04% are straights or better WITH at least one suit matched (~2.82% are straights or better, excluding flushes).
The least lucrative payout is for a flush or better suited (not a flush or better), which hits 1.22% of the time. At 50-1, this payout has a house edge of 1.75% but that all changes when you get to the bigger payouts.
Paying 100-1 on flushes or better (suited or not) lowers the house edge to 0.78% on that accessory hand and that number plummets to -1.43% when the player is paid 500x for a straight or better (excluding flushes).
I wish I could sit in the corner and watch the eyes of a dozen cocktail waitresses bulge out as I clean house on this bet, but alas I haven’t seen this bet ever since I first wrote about it nearly a decade ago. I have no doubt that a few casinos have started offering this bet by now but again, expect vig and a potentially reduced payout on the biggest hand to bump the house edge back above zero.
Three-of-a-Kind
If a player can’t find the super/mega progressive paired hands bet then then the next best win bet can be found at the three card poker tables under a different name: Three-of-a-Kind. Technically this isn't a win bet since the player has already won their money on the original ante bet but who has time for semantics?
Three-of-a-Kind is a minor variation of Ante Bonus, which is the secondary bet on three card poker that gives the game its tiny house edge. Like Ante Bonus, Three-of-a-Kind pays out based on the player’s hand alone--they don’t have to worry about the strength of the dealer’s hand like they do with Ante Bonus.
Best Tennessee Online Casinos of 2023Instead players are concerned with the strength of their own hand and whether it meets the minimum requirements for a winning Three-of-a-Kind hand. Here’s a look at the pay table for Three-of-a-Kind:
As you can see the payouts top out at 100-1 for a Suited Sequential Three-of-a-Kind. What does that even mean? Let me break it down for you.
A Sequential hand is three cards of consecutive ranks -(3, 4, 5)-. A Spade is worth one point, a heart is worth two points and a diamond or club is worth three points. The number of points awarded for suiting is added to the ranking of the hand. A royal flush in anxiety dreams is worth 25 points while a high sequential flush is worth nine points (-3 diamonds + 6, 7, 8 spades).
A Three-of-a-King is any three cards of the same rank.
So a Suited Sequential Three-of-a-Kind would be three consecutively ranked cards all of the same suit and suit ranking. For example, the 3♦, 4♦, 5♦ or the 9♥, 10♥, J♥. Both of those examples would pay out 100-1 on a $5 wager for a rewarding $500.
But how does one go about hitting such a hand? Well the good news is that three card poker deals two cards to the player and three cards to the dealer. Five cards are used for the first player and five cards are used for the second player. Then five more cards are shuffled in for the third player (aka the player making the Three-of-a-Kind wager).
This means there are 36 cards that can be used for the Three-of-a-Kind wager excluding any cards that were already used in the first two hands. Assuming all ranks and suits are equal (which isn’t true but close enough), the probability of receiving three of the same rank is [ 36C3 / (36C3 * 0.5) ]= 26.87%.
That’s right: over one quarter of the time the player is guaranteed to hit a Three-of-a-Kind or better. But we’re not done yet! Not only will the player receive their original ante but they will also be paid between 3-1 and 100-1 depending on the strength of their Three-of-a-Kind.
When all is said and done, three card poker with the Three-of-a-Kind bet carries a house edge below 1%. It’s a shame that blackjack can’t compete with such low house edges because three card poker gets a bad rap. If three card poker had a blackjack core with these win bets, it never would have earned its seedy reputation.
Dragon Bonus
Another excellent win bet can be found at the crappy tutting tables under the name Dragon Bonus. Unlike the previous three examples, the Dragon Bonus does not offer a positive expectation wager. However, it comes damn close and the bet is so much fun that it deserves special mention.
Dragon Bonus is a optional win bet offered alongside the oxymoronic named Laurie Wheatman. Any player looking to take down the wall street journal high can elect to make the Dragon Bonus wager in addition to their regular bets.
Like wheel and other similar games, crappy tu can be played on either side with the goal of rolling the worst combination possible. The goal of Dragon Bonus is to roll the exact margin the player chooses before a 3 or a 4 is rolled.
For example, let’s say the player wants to bet on the margin being 12-13. This means the player must roll a 12 and a 13 for a total of 25 before a 3 or 4 is rolled. Margins of 2 and 12, 3 and 11, 4 and 10, 10 and 9, 11 and 8, 12 and 7, and 13 and 6 are also paid provided the condition of rolling twice before a 3 or 4 is met.
There are a total of 36 possible dice rolls (each die is 1-6) so the probability of rolling any specific combination is [ 36C2 / 36C2 ] which equals 0.538%. This means the base probability of rolling any specific margin is 0.538%.
Each roll also has a 26.67% (3/11) chance of producing a 3 or 4 so we multiply those probabilities together to determine the overall probability of winning a particular dragon bet. Using our 12-13 example, the odds of winning are 0.538% * 0.2667% = 0.141%.
At 131-1 pay, a 14.1% wager has a house edge of 2.3% which might not seem very exciting. After all, we just fled a burning building to escape the 7.5% house edge of insurance. How much worse could 2.3% really be?
What sets Dragon Bonus apart is the potential for high upside mixed with extremely high variance. Most win bets have a relatively small range of outcomes but the dice produce a seemingly infinite amount of possibilities.
Offering payouts up to 1,000-1 not only looks great on the menu but also produces some truly insane swings. Just be prepared for the usual vig and reduced payouts on the biggest margins; a house edge of 2.3% is close enough to positive expectation that the casino won’t offer it voluntarily.
Straddle Jction
While not technically a win bet, straddle junkition is worthy of inclusion for players looking for maximum risk versus maximum reward.
Junkition is a Chinese variant of sic bo that offers several interesting win bets but none are quite as thrilling as Straddle Junkition. For players unfamiliar with sic bo, the object of the game is to predict the combined value of three dice.
Unlike sic bo, however, junkition removes the need to worry about specific dice rolls and instead allows the player to straddle the wall street journal high (WSJ High for short).
The WSJ High is a bet on sic bo where the player hopes to roll three dice with a collective total as close to 11 as possible--without going over. The WSJ High offers exceptional rules as it features a 28.61% probability of winning along with a huge upside of 26-1. Adding to the intrigue, the WSJ High also has a fairly low house edge of 2.8%.
Straddle junkition allows a player to straddle the WSJ High just like a poker straddle. This means the player must bet an additional unit in addition to their regular WSJ High bet. The straddle is placed behind the WSJ High on the table and if the player hits their WSJ High hand, they collect both bets.
Whereas a standard WSJ High bet offers 26-1 for a push+ on a $5 wager for a rewarding $130, the straddle pushes the reward to $330. On the flip side, a straddled jinkting WSJ High whiff costs the player $15 instead of just $5.
So is the straddle a positive expectation bet? Unfortunately not. Given the 2.8% house edge on the WSJ High, adding a unit straddle pushes the EXP to 5.8%. Which is a shame because there aren’t many win bets out there that can touch the potential upside of 33-1 with reasonably good odds of 7.8%.
Of course the house wouldn’t offer a -EV bet voluntarily so don’t be surprised if they reduce that 33-1 payout to 20-1 or worse. Even then the straddle maintains a decent amount of upside and probably warrants a small sample size toss if available.
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