Basic Blackjack Rules – Insurance Option
If a dealer pulls up an ace then he is likely to offer you insurance. This doesn’t mean car insurance or life insurance but rather a bet on the side. It is a rule that should be avoided by the inexperienced player.
When you make an insurance bet, the premise is that the dealer has blackjack. You bet up to half your original bet. A $30 bet at the start will see a bet of up to $15 on an insurance bet. An insurance bet is paid at 2:1. If the dealer does not have blackjack then you lose your bet and still have to play your original one. If you have a blackjack then you obviously win.
The odds for this would look like this with 52 cards in a single deck minus the dealer’s ace. In the deck are 16 cards that have a value equal to 10. This gives odds of 16/51 and for the bet to break even we need 1/3, but these odds are only 1/3.18.
The dealer is likely to offer even money to you should you have blackjack. If you have bet $10 and you have a blackjack, you would win $15, unless the dealer draws the same and you tie. If the dealer draws an ace and you decide to take the insurance for the full amount, or $5, then there are two possibilities. The dealer has blackjack and you tie but collect 2:1 on the side bet to give a profit of $10. But if he doesn’t then you lose $5 but win $10 for your blackjack which is the same profit.
All in all, it is the general rule to avoid playing insurance bets as they are not good value for money and are difficult to win, so don’t bet on them.
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