Black Jack

Hello,

I would like to ask you a question about BlackJack, perfect pairs. I like to play perfect pairs, it is harder to win with 6 deck or 8 deck? Why?

Thanks

Hi nenas, and welcome to the forums.

Like all other side bets, the perfect pair side bet is a bet that comes with a bit of a house edge. Depending on your casinos particular pay table, the side bet could be anywhere from 2% to 8%! The reason you don't hit them very often, is they're quite difficult to hit. Take a look at the Wizards section on blackjack side bets (Ctrl-F or scroll down to the Perfect Pairs section):

https://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/appendix/8/

From here you can see that you only win the bet 7.5% of the time you place it. Thus, in 100 hands where you bet it you'll only win 7-8 hands (on average). Sure one night you might hit it 15 times, but another night you might hit it 0 times. On AVERAGE you'll hit it 7-8 times out of every 100 hands you bet it on. That's just how the side bet and probabilities for it are set up.

but what is your advice, play with 6 decks or 8 decks??

For most pay tables, it appears that 8 decks is a better game for the player than 6 decks. If you look at the link that Romes provided above and scroll down to Perfect Pairs, you'll find the house edge for multiple pay tables using various decks.

The more decks in play, the easier it is to make a pair.

Quote: nenas

Hello,

I would like to ask you a question about BlackJack, perfect pairs. I like to play perfect pairs, it is harder to win with 6 deck or 8 deck? Why?

Thanks

I see from the Wizard's side bet page that the return on the Perfect Pairs bet is worse on a 6-deck table than an 8-deck table assuming the same pay table for both.

The reason for this is "effect of removal" and is easy to understand with an example. Suppose your first card is the 3 of clubs. The probability of your getting another 3 of clubs as your 2nd card is: 5/311 = 1.608% for a 6-deck game and 7/415 = 1.687% for an 8-deck game. (The corresponding probabilities of getting a 3 of spades or a red 3 are actually larger for 6 decks than for 8 decks but the absolute differences are not as great as for the perfect pair. Plus, the payout for a colored pair and a red/black pair are less than for a perfect pair.)

The difference in return for 6 and 8 decks is due mostly to your decreased likelihood of getting a perfect pair and is approximately, for a 25:1 pay table, 25 * ( 1.608% - 1.687% ) = -2%.

(I might play Perfect Pairs for fun but I would avoid playing the Perfect Pairs bet against pay table C in an 8-deck game. And I would avoid playing it against pay tables A, B, and C in a 6-deck game.)

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

The more decks in play, the easier it is to make a pair.

For this reason alone, MGM Detroit went from 8 decks down to 6 on all of their blackjack games. Most of their tables have the 30/10/5 Perfect Pairs bet. The house edge on this sucker, err, side bet went from 3.3735% to 5.7878%. And is even worse at Greektown. They use a 4 deck CSM and have the 25/12/6 pay table for a house edge of 10.1449%. Ouch!!!

Thank you all for your responses!