Start with why side bets exist, because the answer tells you everything about how to treat them.
A carnival game table generates revenue for the casino from two sources: the base game edge and any side bets attached to it. The base game edge, typically between 2% and 5.5% depending on the game, is the primary product. It's what attracts players through the design, the hand rankings, the community of people at the table. The side bets are supplementary revenue, priced independently and always at a higher edge than the base game. If you're playing Three Card Poker at 3.37% and posting Pair Plus at 7.28%, the side bet is nearly as costly as a second base game bet running at double the edge.
The casino's interest in side bets is not mysterious. A table that turns £10 in ante bets, 50 hands per hour, generates £16.85 per hour in expected revenue at 3.37%. The same table with Pair Plus at £5 per hand generates an additional £18.20 per hour in expected side bet revenue. The side bet roughly doubles the table's revenue per player. This is why croupiers are trained to place side bet tokens in front of you without being asked, and why the layout makes the side bet spot look like a natural part of the game structure rather than an optional extra.
Pair Plus: The Three Card Poker Side Bet
Pair Plus in Three Card Poker pays based on your three-card holding regardless of the dealer's hand and regardless of whether you raise or fold. The most common pay table (1-3-6-30-40: pair pays 1:1, flush 3:1, straight 6:1, three of a kind 30:1, straight flush 40:1) carries a house edge of 7.28%, per our in-house analysis. A better pay table exists (1-4-6-30-40, substituting flush 4:1) with an edge of 2.32%, but it's not the standard UK offering; confirm which pay table is live before posting the bet.
The psychological trap with Pair Plus is that a good hand on the Ante feels as though it should also pay on Pair Plus. It does, when you have one. But the Pair Plus edge applies to every hand you post it on, and the average three-card holding is not a pair or better. You hold a pair or better approximately 25% of the time in Three Card Poker. The remaining 75% of hands, Pair Plus loses silently. The 7.28% edge is the aggregate of all those silent losses and the occasional win.
Progressive Jackpots in Caribbean Stud
The progressive jackpot bet in Caribbean Stud is typically a £1 or £5 token posted to a designated spot. It pays on your five-card hand with a flush or better as the minimum trigger. The royal flush pays the full jackpot; other strong hands pay fixed amounts. The house edge depends almost entirely on the current jackpot size.
The break-even jackpot, where the progressive bet has zero house edge, requires the jackpot to reach a level at which the probability of a royal flush multiplied by the jackpot value exactly compensates for the house's retained take on all other outcomes. our Caribbean Stud analysis side bet analysis puts this threshold around £300,000 to £400,000 depending on the specific pay table. At jackpots below £100,000, the effective edge is typically 40% to 60%. At jackpots between £100,000 and £200,000, the edge falls but remains well above 20%.
Most UK casino progressives visible in venues like Aspers Westfield Stratford do not routinely reach the break-even threshold. The jackpot resets on each hit and grows incrementally with each £1 or £5 posted. If the jackpot hasn't been won for an unusually long period and the display shows a number approaching £300,000, the maths shifts. But this is a rare circumstance. Treating the progressive as a default part of every hand is one of the most consistently expensive habits in a carnival pit session.
6-Card Bonuses and Bad Beat Bonuses
The 6-Card Bonus appears on Casino Hold'em, Ultimate Texas Hold'em, and some three-card game variants. It evaluates the best five-card poker hand from a combined pool of your two hole cards, the dealer's two hole cards (or some configuration of them), and the community cards. Because it uses six or more cards to construct a five-card hand, the probability of hitting strong hands (flushes, full houses, quads) is higher than in a pure five-card game. Pay tables typically start paying at three of a kind.
The house edge on 6-Card Bonus bets varies by pay table variant. A pay table paying three of a kind at 5:1, straight at 10:1, flush at 15:1, full house at 25:1, four of a kind at 50:1, straight flush at 200:1, and royal flush at 1,000:1 produces a house edge in the 8-12% range depending on the exact figures. The bet's appeal is its larger payout ceiling and the fact that it fires more often than a purely hole-card-based side bet, since the community cards give you six or more cards to build from.
Bad Beat Bonuses exist in some Pai Gow Poker variants and a few specialty games. They pay when you lose with a strong hand, a losing full house or better, for example. The edge on Bad Beat Bonuses is highly variable and often not published at the table: it's reasonable to assume it's in the 15-25% range without specific data. If the table offers one and the rules aren't posted, asking the floor for the pay table is a legitimate request and your right as a player on a UKGC-licensed floor.
The Composite Session Cost
At £10 ante on Three Card Poker with £5 Pair Plus every hand, 50 hands per hour: expected base game loss is £10 x 50 x 3.37% = £16.85 per hour. Expected Pair Plus loss is £5 x 50 x 7.28% = £18.20 per hour. Total: £35.05 per hour. Compare to playing base game only: £16.85 per hour. The Pair Plus stake is half the ante and costs more than the base game. That relationship, a side bet at half the stake costing more than the base game, is characteristic of most carnival side bets and worth internalising as a rule of thumb.
None of this means side bets are never placed by informed players. The progressive in Caribbean Stud at an extreme jackpot level changes the calculation. A specific Pair Plus pay table at 2.32% changes the calculation. The Trips bet in Ultimate Texas Hold'em at the right pay table runs below 3%. The information that matters is the actual pay table currently on the felt, not the general category of "side bet." Use the casino poker trainers to understand the pay table structures before you sit, and you'll know which side bets are worth considering and which ones to skip entirely.
Key numbers
| Side bet | Typical house edge | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Three Card Poker Pair Plus (1-3-6-30-40) | 7.28% | Standard UK pay table |
| Three Card Poker Pair Plus (1-4-6-30-40) | 2.32% | Better pay table, less common |
| Caribbean Stud Progressive (jackpot under £100k) | 40-60% | Typical UK jackpot level |
| Caribbean Stud Progressive (jackpot £300k+) | Near 0% or positive | Rare; jackpot must be verified |
| Casino Hold'em AA Bonus (pay table 1) | 6.40% | Common variant |
| Casino Hold'em AA Bonus (pay table 3) | 2.97% | Better variant |
| 6-Card Bonus (standard pay table) | 8-12% | Game-specific |
| Bad Beat Bonus | 15-25% (approx.) | Highly variable |
Sources: our in-house edge analysis, UKGC safer gambling guidance.