Blackjack is a popular card game that has been around for centuries. It’s a game of strategy and skill, and if you’re planning on playing it, you need to know what insurance means.
Insurance in blackjack is a side bet that players can make when the dealer’s face-up card is an Ace. The insurance bet is typically half the amount of the original wager.
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If the dealer has a 10 or face card, then the player wins the insurance bet at odds of 2:1. However, if the dealer does not have a 10 or face card, then the player loses their insurance bet.
The purpose of insurance in blackjack is to protect your original wager from losing to a dealer’s natural blackjack. A natural blackjack occurs when the dealer has an Ace and any 10-point card as their initial two cards dealt. This hand beats all other hands except for another natural blackjack.
While it may seem like a good idea to take insurance every time the dealer has an Ace showing, it’s important to understand that taking insurance isn’t always profitable in the long run. In fact, most experienced players will advise against taking insurance in most situations.
Here are some reasons why:
1) The odds are not in your favor: When you take insurance, you’re essentially betting that the dealer will have a 10-point card as their hole card (the facedown card). The odds of this happening are only about one-third or 33%.
2) Insurance increases the house edge: Taking insurance increases the house edge by about 6%, which means that over time, you will lose more money compared to not taking insurance.
3) Insurance is only useful in specific situations: Insurance can be useful if you’re counting cards and know that there are many high-value cards left in the deck. However, for most players who aren’t counting cards, taking insurance isn’t worth it.
Now that we’ve discussed why taking insurance in blackjack may not always be the best idea, let’s talk about when it might make sense to take insurance.
If you’re playing a single-deck game of blackjack and you’ve counted the cards, and you know that there are only a few 10-point cards left in the deck, then taking insurance could be a good idea. However, this is a rare situation that doesn’t happen often.
Another situation where taking insurance could be worthwhile is if you have a natural blackjack (an Ace and any 10-point card) and the dealer’s face-up card is an Ace. In this case, if you don’t take insurance and the dealer has a natural blackjack as well, then it’s a push (tie), and you won’t win or lose any money. However, if you take insurance, then you’ll get paid out at 2:1 odds on your insurance bet, which will offset your original wager.
In conclusion, while it may seem like taking insurance in blackjack is always a good idea when the dealer has an Ace showing, it’s important to understand that this isn’t always the case. In fact, most experienced players will advise against taking insurance in most situations because it increases the house edge and isn’t profitable in the long run. Only take insurance when counting cards or when you have a natural blackjack and the dealer’s face-up card is also an Ace.
