Beginners Black Jack

Insurance is perhaps the least understood of all the commonly available rules for Blackjack. This is not necessarily a bad thing because the insurance bet is normally a poor bet for the player, with a high house advantage. However, that’s not always the case.

If the dealer turns an up card of an Ace, he will offer “insurance” to the players. Insurance bets can be made by betting up to half your original bet amount in the insurance betting stripe in front of your bet. The dealer will check to see if he has a 10 value card underneath his Ace, and if he does have Blackjack, your winning Insurance bet will be paid at odds of 2:1.

This is why the bet is described as “insurance”, since it seems to protect your original bet against a dealer blackjack. Of course, if the dealer does not have blackjack, you’ll lose the insurance bet, and still have to play the original bet out. The basic strategy player should simply never take the insurance bet, even the “even money” variety.

Card counters on the other hand, can often detect situations where more than one-third of the remaining cards are ten valued, and the bet is then a profitable one. So, unless you know the bet is favorable, just ignore it.