I'm Steve bourie author of the American casino guide for the past 25 years it's
been the number one bestselling book about casino gambling and travel and the
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casinos plus tips for playing and free casino coupons. The insurance bet in blackjack
was introduced to give the perception to players that they're
going to protect their hand against the dealer's blackjack and insurance has
specific rules and I'm gonna go over them so that you understand what
insurance is all about. What you're playing blackjack and the dealer has
an ace as an up card she'll basically stop the game and ask players if they
want to make the insurance bet. Now the insurance bet is a separate bet from your main bet and
all you're doing is you are betting that the dealers hole card is a 10. Either 10 Jack,
queen or king of course if the dealer has a 10 as a hole card the dealer will have
a blackjack. The casino rules basically specify that you can bet an amount on the
insurance equal to half of your original bet so for example if you made a $10
bet on your hand and the dealer showed an ace you can bet up to $5 on the insurance bet. Now
you make the insurance bet by putting your chips on the insurance line and that
insurance line is on the layout it's between you and the dealer and it runs
the whole length of the blackjack table. So what happens if you make the
insurance bet? There's two possibilities the first is the dealer
has the 10 in the hole, your original bet is then gonna be lost unless you
have a blackjack. So if the dealer has a 10 in the hole the dealer will have a blackjack
your original $10 bet will be lost however the $5 bet that you made on the
insurance line is going to be paid off at two to one odds, so all insurance bets
have a two-to-one payoff odds so let's review again you lost your original bet
for $10 but your $5 insurance bet wins you $10 so in this scenario you
basically breakout even. Now the other thing that could happen is you make the
insurance bet and the dealer doesn't have a blackjack in which case the
hand will continue. So most players will think of the insurance bet and say isn't it
better if I protect my hand against a dealer blackjack by making the insurance
bet and therefore they go ahead and they will ensure their hands against the
dealer's blackjack but let's look at the facts about the insurance bet. First
of all regardless of what the casinos say the insurance bet has nothing to do
with your original bet it doesn't decrease or increase the odds of winning
your original hand. The second thing is that the insurance bet is strictly a
side bet that you were making that the dealer has a ten you basically are not
insuring anything. The third fact -- and some people may not like this but I'm gonna
state it as best I can-- the insurance bet is a sucker bet you should never ever take
insurance regardless of how much you bet whether you bet $10 or $100 on a hand
in either case the insurance is a sucker bet. Now, what do I mean by a sucker bet?
Basically it has a high casino advantage now I'm gonna show you why I say the
insurance bet is a sucker bet. If you look at a deck of 52 cards
you know that the ratio of non tens to tens is 36 to 16 and by tens I mean
10, Jack, queen, king, non-tens are 2 through 9 plus the ace so there are
thirty-six to 16 is that ratio. Now let's look at the first example the dealer
deals the cards and she shows an ace up card for the moment let's ignore
the composition of your two cards. Before the deal the ratio was 36 to 16, now after
the deal the dealer basically has removed 1 non 10 from the pack of cards that's her ace
so the remaining 51 cards no longer have the ratio of 36 to 16 it's now what? It's
35 to 16. could you remove one of the non 10 cards ok so the ratio now is 35 216
let's suppose you bet $1 51 times on that hand what will happen
well 35 times you're gonna lose a buck so you're down $35 the sixteen times
that she has to 10 you're gonna win $2 because your dollar pays off at 2210 16
times $2 is $32 so let's recap of lost $35 1 $32 overall for every $51 you bet
you're down three dollars if you divide $3 and to $51 that comes out to a house
edge of a little over 5 percent and in my book
anyhow hedged bet that's over 2% and soccer back so let's look at the second
examples suppose you're dealt same scenario you've made a bet dealer has an
ace but this time
in your hand you've got to non 10 cards like to 69 or any two cars that are non
tens ok let's look at how much your gonna win lose if you made the insurance
but we start out with that ratio of 36 216 again but now you removed an ace
which is a non 10 and you're sitting on 29 trends the ratio is 33 216 therefore
you're gonna lose $33 spending $1 on every hand for insurance and you're
going to win
$32 that's the sixteen times she does of 10
$2 each time sixteen times 23233 you win 32 your net loss as $1 for every $49 you
back that leaves the house advantage of about 2% again my book that's a soccer
pat ok the third scenario is the one that players always seem to feel that
they have to make the insurance and that's when they hold to picture cards
that's a strong hand they see the dealer with an age they feel they have to
protect that 20 against a potential dealers blackshot so they go ahead and
make insurance but all the facts are that this is probably the worst
situation to take the insurance because you've now removed from play two of the
10 value cards for sitting in your hand that you want to be in the dealers down
card now let's look at that racial gain of thirty six to sixteen and I'll show
you what this is going to cost you when you go making insurance but sitting with
a twenty to thirty six to sixteen ratio is now going to change
235 240 thing to remove 19 10 which is the dealers ace and you to 10 value
cards which are the two that are sitting in your hands so
this scenario 49 times did you make that bet for a buck you're gonna lose $35 and
the fourteen times that she has that picture card you're gonna win $28 so
your net loss is gonna be $7 you divide that by $49 your net loss is going to be
14% house edge that is a soccer so let's recap if you are a basic strategy point
where there's no scenario at all and which you do even should consider making
the insurance but it's a sucker therefore you should never ever make
insurance is insurance but never a profitable but the answer is yes and
that's if your card counter because card condors are tracking the ratio of high
cards and low cards or to say it another way non tends to tens from the
information that they see the cards being played
they know when the Sun played cards are rich and 10 that is when the insurance
becomes profitable for a black truck player so therefore the only time you
should ever make an insurance card counter if your basic strategy player
forget about it if you wanna know more about me and my works visit my website
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