21+3
21+3 is a side bet that reads the player's first two cards and the dealer's upcard as one three-card poker hand. It pays on five hands: a flush, three cards of one suit; a straight, three ranks in a row; three of a kind; a straight flush; and suited three of a kind, the same card three times over. Dealt 9♣ 10♣ with the dealer showing J♣, the bet pays a straight flush.
The bet is decided before anyone acts, and the dealer's hole card plays no part in it. Its price next to Perfect Pairs, Lucky Ladies and the rest is on the blackjack side bets page.
Play 21+3 Blackjack Free
Blackjack 21+3 and its multihand sibling carry the poker bet by name, and Blackjack Trilux under a title of its own. Leave the bet off for the first rounds, then turn it on and see how seldom anything above a flush or a straight lands.
The Five Winning Hands and Their Odds
Each deal is counted once, at its highest hand, so a straight flush is not also counted as a flush or a straight. Taken together, the five winning hands come up 9.68% of the time from six decks; the rest lose the stake.
Four Pay Tables by Deck Count
Pays are to one. The two tiered schedules list suited three of a kind, straight flush, three of a kind, straight and flush in that order. The flat schedule pays 9 to 1 on all five hands, and 30/20/10/5 pays a straight flush 30, any three of a kind 20, a straight 10 and a flush 5. Figures are house edges: what a 21+3 bet loses on average, as a share of the stake.
Where the Value Sits in Each Table
The flat schedule is the cheapest at every deck count, 3.24% on six decks and 2.74% on eight. It pays 9 to 1 on a flush, the most common winning hand, and the flush carries most of what the bet returns. The tiered schedules hand that value to the rare hands at the top: suited three of a kind pays 100 to 1 but comes only about once in 4,820 six-deck deals.
Among the tiered schedules, three of a kind is the line that sets the price. Paying it 30 rather than 25 is the whole difference between 4.62% and 7.14% on six decks. The 30/20/10/5 schedule drops the large top award without paying more lower down, and at 13.39% on six decks it is the dearest of the four.
The key number: On eight decks the flat 9 to 1 schedule keeps 2.74%, under half the 6.29% of the 100/40/25/10/5 schedule.
A smaller shoe raises all four prices, the single deck most of all; why matching cards grow scarcer is explained under deck count on the comparison page.
21+3 in Our Library
Blackjack 21+3 from iSoftBet and Blackjack 21+3 Multihand from Gaming Corps carry the bet under its usual name, and Blackjack Trilux from Pixiu Gaming builds a three-card poker bet into its table under a name of its own.
Which schedule a game runs is printed on its help screen, and that one line decides its price far more than anything in the design. Matching it to a row of the pay tables here gives the house edge for the deck count the game states.
21+3: Pros and Cons
Select an option to sort the items by category or impact.
Advantages
The cheapest of the three bets with their own page
At flat 9 to 1 the six-deck price is 3.24%, below Perfect Pairs at 25/12/6 (6.11%) and the usual Lucky Ladies schedule (24.71%).
Wins more often than a pairs bet
A winning poker hand forms on 9.68% of six-deck deals against 7.40% for a pair of any grade, so this bet pays a little more often.
Disadvantages
The large pays almost never land
A straight flush comes about once in 484 deals on six decks and suited three of a kind about once in 4,820, so most wins are a flush or a straight.
One name, very different prices
The four schedules on this page run from 3.24% to 13.39% on six decks, and nothing but the pay table on screen tells them apart.
Impact Analysis
21+3 FAQ
Because with three cards a straight is the rarer hand. Three cards share a suit more easily than they fall in sequence, the reverse of five-card poker, where a flush is the harder hand to make. The tiered schedules follow that order and pay the straight 10 to 1 against 5 for the flush.
No. The ace can sit at either end of a straight, as in A-2-3 or Q-K-A, but not in the middle, so K-A-2 pays nothing unless all three cards share a suit, in which case it is paid as a flush.
Not on the four schedules here. A pair alone loses the bet, and a pair inside three cards of one suit is paid as a flush. Some games add a pair line to their own version, and that line changes the price.
Yes. Each hand that carries a 21+3 bet combines its own two cards with the single dealer upcard, so one upcard can complete a flush or a straight for several hands on the same deal, or for none of them.