In recent months the high paying high risk 21 + 3 blackjack side bets have taking much of the online live casino industry by storm.

Many online casino players often apply minor bets on the twenty-one plus three side bets.

The idea of the game is to create poker hands using only three cards. The three cards in question will be both your cards and the dealers first card.

The payouts can be huge if the right combination comes in with your ultimate being the three of a kind suited which pays out a staggering hundred to one but with such big odds are less likely to hit.

The other hands though seem to come in from time to time, having played a no more than fifty to sixty hands I hit the side bet on twenty-one plus three about six to tens times, many of which being the suited hand however still worked out for a decent payout.

I found the best trick on that being the bet vs side bet ratio and often decided to play a decent amount of blackjacks hands with the focus being the side bet and not the standard blackjack and assess what the payout was like.

I started the game with five hundred euros and closed after about two hours play at around three thousand five hundred euros. The idea I used on this was to create a bet ratio where the standard blackjack play would pay out enough to cover both side bets and allow for a small profit when winning hand with the actual intention being the side bet win. Each bet was based on around one hundred euros with fifty to sixty euros on the main blackjack bet and the remainder on both side bets. I would do around thirty euro on the twenty-one plus three and remaining twenty euros on the perfect pairs. I noticed in the event when you win big on the perfect pairs option it created a huge multiplier with the three of a kind and had a number of scenarios where this hit together. Some hands reeled in nearly two thousand euros.

After a number of game rounds having peaked at around five thousand euros, I was left with around three and a half thousand.

This form of blackjack though not played often did have a good few players on the table using a similar strategy and did pay out nicely when they hit though not often. I believe it would be important not to overexpose the main blackjack bet and focus on smaller side bets allowing for less risk as in hands when the dealer did hit higher numbers and no twenty one plus three or perfect pairs came in the loses would in fact be nearly double of the standard blackjack bet.

I have below placed an example of the potential wins when the actual bet come in on three of a kind as this also multiplies the perfect pairs and makes for very decent winnings.

Potential wins on 21+3 Blackjack

The rounds I played on where in fact based on Evolution gaming live casino which currently hold a great position in the live casino market. The games appeared to have more options than others and allowed for different levels of betting starting at some low ten-euro tables all the way up to five hundred-euro tables. I did choose however to play the games on the speed blackjack option and enjoyed the diversity in the betting pattern, there is an essence of speed however also both luck and timing play a crucial part when playing on these tables.

Speed blackjack works on timing by choosing the time you wish to hit your next card and often provides a sense of satisfaction when having that card win the hand, this doesn’t affect side bets however as both cards required to complete a side bet in both perfect pairs and twenty one plus three have already been played. This combined with the dealers first card closes all side bets and will determine the win for the rest of the hand. That however does open the door to a unique multiplier feature which is quite interesting to more seasoned blackjack players.

Winning on the 21 + 3 Side Bet

To explain further the hands in question on side bets close when both the players cards and the first dealer card is drawn. In the event of such a draw the side bet win of loss has already been determined however in the event of a win this will allow the player to then revert attention back the normal blackjack hand and give a little more room for any risk appetite. In a number of hands often when a suited hand came up in a side bet such winnings far outweighed the standard win of any blackjack hand including when hitting actual blackjack. This allow me to often double up or split cards against tougher hands where standard play would suggest to either hit or take a defensive stand approached and hope that the dealer busts. However, when a hand has already paid out on perfect pairs or twenty-one plus three, I was able to push the risk appetite and as stated above split cards or double up more riskier options of play. This did in fact come in on a number of occasions and made some great return for a single hand of play. One does however need to keep in mind such play will always be riskier and the basic blackjack rule is always going to be risk appetite as the house advantage will always be based on the fact the player goes first meaning regardless if whether the dealers busts or not the player who busts first still loses and the house ultimately wins on all those hands. Above is an image of such a play where I managed to initially go in with a strong bet, take both double up and both side bets with a three of a kind win of trip nines, perfect pairs and ultimately winning the hand against the dealers nine, four and queen bust.