There is a long-standing debate in the world of blackjack that revolves around the insurance bet. Many newer players use the bet while many seasoned players opt to pass. So what is the honest truth about the insurance bet? There is a reason why professional players rarely use the insurance bet. They know that over a longer period of time, they will lose less money than those who do use it.
First of all, the insurance bet is used when the dealer has an Ace as a face-up card and could have a blackjack. You can choose to either use or ignore the Insurance bet. To accept an Insurance bet, the player places a separate second wager on the hand, equal to half of their initial bet. If the card the dealer has is a 10, Jack, Queen, or King, then the dealer has blackjack and the insurance bet pays out the player 2-1 odds. If the second card is not a 10, then the dealer leaves it face down and takes the player’s insurance bet.
When trying to understand if the bet really works, it all comes down to math. If every deck had sixteen “10-cards” that would create odds where one third of players would win back their insurance bet. Decks don’t have that many 10s though. They only have four and that drastically reduces the chances of the dealer pulling a 10 card. That means that the chance of a player winning back their insurance bet is sorely diminished. This is why mathematically the chances of winning back an insurance bet is not high and professional players know this. So why do people take the insurance bet at all? Well- the answer is that sometimes it does produce a return. If a player has a blackjack and takes $5 insurance there are two things that could happen:
• The dealer could have blackjack so that would produce a tie with $10 and 2:1 odds.
• The dealer could not have blackjack and the player would win $15 but lose their $5 insurance bet.
Overall the insurance bet isn’t necessary and can cost the player money in the long run. That’s why professional players rarely choose to use the bet.
Do you know that the more you practice the better?, it actually become a second nature. Even better you can build onto your very own strategy to beat the dealer and advanced than the rest of the players.
