To Buy or Not To Buy Insurance
The opportunity to purchase insurance arises when the dealer's first card is an ace, it is possible to take out insurance against his hand, by laying down half of your original bet on the table. If the dealer has blackjack, the insurance bet pays off at 2 to 1, thus you don't lose any money in the hand, however if the dealer does not hit a blackjack but still beats your hand, you will lose your original bet and the insurance amount.The house gets a high edge on insurance bets in blackjack. So most gaming gurus tell players not to make them, however there are many seasoned veterans that do so anyway.
The odds of the house holding blackjack are over 55/1. The insurance bet that casinos offer is about 2/1.
As blackjack pays 3/2 and any other winning hand even money, insurance may look attractive, however statistically, insurance bets will lose 982 times out of 1000 long-term so taking insurance can definately hurt your chips stack.
These are the three most common types of insurance that your likely to encounter:-
- Insurance - This nearly universal rule allows an insurance bet against a dealer face up Ace.
- Insure Blackjack only - There are some casinos in Europe allow insurance bets when the player has a Blackjack.
- Insurance for full amount - Allows an Insurance bet equal to the value of the original bet. It is a good bet for card counters.*
- You take insurance and the dealer has blackjack
- You take insurance and the dealer does not have blackjack
- You do not take insurance and the dealer has blackjack
- You do not take insurance and the dealer does not have blackjack.
Basically, overall you stand to lose less by using a selectively aggressive playing policy and increasing your stakes when you feel confident of beating the house rather than opting for insuring your bets.