Here’s a side bet that’s found more abroad than in the United States, but it’s just a slight variation on any “pairs” side bet you might find here. Basically you’re betting on whether you’ll get a pair on your first two cards, and the payoff depends on the type of pair you receive.

There are three online black jack possibilities here, starting with a perfect pair. The perfect pair pays 25:1, and it’s described as any pair of the same card, same suit. So, for example, in order to win this payoff, you’d have to be dealt a pair of 8’s, both hearts. The odds of getting a perfect pair in a standard, eight-deck game is somewhere around 1.6%. Not great, but certainly nowhere near the horrible odds we’ve seen for other side bet payoffs. Also worth noting, there are 1,456 combinations here.

The next payoff down the line is called a colored pair, which is the same card value but of different suits of the same color. For example, a Queen of hearts and a Queen of diamonds. The payoff on this drops more than half to 12:1, and the probability of receiving this hand jumps only marginally to 1.9 percent. There are 1,664 combinations here.

Finally, an off-suit pair, or red/black pair, pays either 6:1 or 5:1, depending on the casino, such as the Golden Nugget, with achievable odds at 3.8 percent. An example of this hand would be a three of spades and a three of diamonds.

Here’s the interesting part, the house odds are significantly (almost out of character) lower than other side bets when you get into the higher decks, giving the player the rare opportunity to actually hit a payoff without gambling on your return hinging on hitting something with a likelihood of fractions of decimal points. In an eight-deck black jack game, the house edge is just 4.1%. Six decks is just more than 6 percent. Four decks jumps to 10 percent, and a two-deck game vaults to over 22 percent. Obviously, you want to find this offered in the highest deck game possible.

This might be the first side bet that I wholeheartedly endorse. It’s simple, fun to play (who doesn’t like getting pairs in blackjack, even the bad ones, right!) and gives you a legitimate chance of winning with a nice payoff. When even the random pair nets you a 5:1 return on your side bet, I’d say it’s worth the risk if you’re intent on playing side bets to begin with.