Royal Match Blackjack Side Bet

The Royal Match Blackjack side bet is one of the oldest and most basic side bets still in existence.  Dating back over 20 years, this game has seen it’s better days, but will still pop up here and there at casinos and is still used on the electronic blackjack machine distributed by Shuffle Master, Inc.  Although the electronic version uses a newer paytable with additional pays.  Some land based tables have also switched to the newer paytable with additional pays, but this article is focusing on the original version.  With only 2 ways to win, Royal Match lacks the various ways to win that a lot of side bets offer these days, thus you will not find too many placements of this game any longer.

How to Play Royal Match Blackjack Side Bet

Game play for Royal Match is very simple.  All bets are placed prior to the dealer dealing the cards.  By making a wager you are hoping that the first two cards received in your hand are suited.  If they are, you win.  There is then an additional larger payout if the cards happen to be a suited King and Queen.  All other first two card combinations are lost.  As mentioned earlier, this is a very basic side bet and not a whole lot of action involved.

House Advantage

The original version of Royal Match used to different paytables, with the casino getting to choose which one they preferred.  Because one paytable includes a half pay in one of the payouts, some casinos chose the other paytable to avoid this, even at a much lower house advantage, but most stuck with the half pay table, since paying a 3-2 blackjack also uses a half pay.  Below are the two variations:

Paytable 1

  • Royal Match – 25-1
  • Two Suited Cards – 2.5-1
  • No Match – Loss

Paytable 2

  • Royal Match – 10-1
  • Two Suited Cards – 3-1
  • No Match – Loss

Using a six deck shoe, paytable 1 has a 6.66% house advantage and paytable 2 has a 1.4% house advantage.  Obviously, if you can find a location that is using paytable 2, you’d want to play there over a place using paytable 1.  In reality, I think you’ll be hard pressed to find too many of either of these choices anymore and would most likely find the newer version that will be covered in a later article.