Blackjack Insurance - To Bet or Not To Bet

Tip Category: Blackjack

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When it comes to blackjack insurance, novice players may wonder whether it is a good idea to take this bet, or not to take this bet. While it is a good idea to use insurance in other areas of your life, such as to insure your home, although one really hopes that they will never need this insurance, taking the blackjack insurance bet does not fall into the same category.

Blackjack experts will give the same advice on this bet every time they are asked about it. To bet, or not to bet - don’t take the blackjack insurance bet. There are some bets that are worth the risk for those players who like to take a chance at the big time, but the blackjack insurance bet does not fall into that category. In fact, it is not a bet that will help players win big. It is simply a side bet that, at the best of times, will help players to recoup the losses they made on their original bet for that hand.

The odds for this bet work against the player, and most certainly favor the house. In fact, when making this bet, players are usually only allowed to bet up to 50 percent of their original bet. The odds offered for the blackjack insurance bet are 2:1, which means that if the insurance “pays off,” the player will only have made back their original bet, and not have won anything extra. Of course, if the insurance bet is not needed, players will simply lose the money that they have paid for the insurance.

The insurance bet is offered to players after they have been dealt two cards, and when the dealer has receive an Ace as their first card. The players takes insurance out in case the dealer turns up a picture card and has a blackjack for the round being played. When this does happen, and the player has taken the full amount of the insurance, they will end the round without losing any money. If the dealer does not get a blackjack, the player plays out their hand against the dealer’s hand in the regular way.

It is true that the insurance bet has the possibility to save a player money, but according to the odds, in the long term, this bet is a loser bet. Some refer to the blackjack insurance bet, and other similar bets in other online casino games, as sucker bets.

The true odds for the insurance bet are higher than 2:1, which means that players are not really receiving quite enough money even if they win on their insurance bet.

What is important to remember is that insurance is a bit of a misnomer for this bet. The ‘insurance’ bet is really a side bet which the casinos have disguised as something helpful to the player. In reality, the player is simply betting on whether they think the dealer will have a blackjack hand or not. The blackjack hand dealt to the player is played out, no matter whether they took the insurance bet or not.

Again, the experts all agree that players should NEVER take the insurance bet in blackjack!