Perfect Pairs — odds, paytables and the exact house edge
Perfect Pairs wins when your first two cards are a pair. Three tiers exist: a mixed pair (same rank, different colors), a colored pair (same rank and color, different suits) and a perfect pair (the identical card twice — possible because the shoe holds eight decks). Here is the complete math.
Exact probabilities (8 decks)
| Outcome | Combinations | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| Perfect pair | 1,456 | 1.687% |
| Colored pair | 1,664 | 1.928% |
| Mixed pair | 3,328 | 3.855% |
| Any pair | 6,448 | 7.470% |
| No pair (lose) | 79,872 | 92.530% |
House edge by paytable
| Paytable (perfect / colored / mixed) | House edge |
|---|---|
| 25 / 12 / 6 (most live tables) | 4.096% |
| 30 / 10 / 5 | 3.373% |
| 25 / 12 / 5 | 7.952% |
Read that table the way a casino does: cutting the mixed-pair payout by a single unit — 6 to 5 — nearly doubles the edge, because mixed pairs are over half of all wins. You lose a pair bet more than 92% of the time; the question is only how much the wins give back. For comparison, the main game with basic strategy costs about 0.5% — Perfect Pairs at the common paytable costs eight times that.
Frequently asked
What are the odds of a pair in blackjack?
With eight decks, ${sbp(PP.anyPair / PP.tot)} for any pair: ${sbp(PP.mixed / PP.tot)} mixed, ${sbp(PP.colored / PP.tot)} colored and ${sbp(PP.perfect / PP.tot)} for the identical card twice.
What is the house edge of Perfect Pairs?
Exactly ${sbp(e1)} at the common 25/12/6 paytable with eight decks; the 30/10/5 variant is slightly better at ${sbp(e2)}. Both are several times the main game’s edge.
Does the number of decks change Perfect Pairs?
Yes, a lot: perfect pairs require duplicate cards, so fewer decks mean fewer of them. With a single deck a perfect pair is impossible and the bet becomes dramatically worse.