Insurance 101: what's it all about?

(Credit: waffler) 

When you take insurance at blackjack, do you always know why? Make sure you are doing it for the right reason. And what's a good reason? Well, avoiding losing money is not a good reason. But, taking insurance if there was a better than 30% chance that the dealer had a 10 in the hole would be a good strategy.

This doesn't happen very often - 7% of the time in a shoe game, depending upon how many 10s have come out thus far. In all other cases stay clear of the insurance option.

No matter how you may view it, when you take Insurance you're simply making a separate, entirely new bet that the dealer has a 10 in the hole. If the dealer has the 10, you win your Insurance bet and get paid 2-to-1 odds on it. If not, you lose your Insurance bet. Insurance cannot influence the outcome of your game as each bet gets decided separately. If you have bet $1000 on your hand and have 20, but the dealer has a 10 in the hole for blackjack, you're going to lose that particular $1000.

For example, when you have, say, 20 against an Ace up, you cannot help yourself win your hand, but you can give a monetary edge away by making a bad bet – the Insurance bet. This means that for all the times you take Insurance on your 20, you'll win less combined money than if you just let your 20 ride.

Source: Casino City Times

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