When to use insurance in blackjack

When you play online Blackjack and the dealer shows an ace, you will be offered to take insurance.

Sounds fancy, but why and when should you take insurance in blackjack?

In blackjack insurance means that the dealer's up card is an ace. In this scenario, there is a high risk that the dealer has blackjack as he just needs a ten, and ten is the most common number remaining in the deck. But the casino will give you the option to buy insurance against this unfortunate event.

If you decide to take insurance, you will make an additional side bet equal to half your initial bet. This bets pays 2 to 1 (this is the famous "Insurance pays 2 to 1" written on Blackjack tables).

So if for example you had bet $10, the insurance bet is $5 and if the dealer has blackjack you will receive $10 plus your $5 insurance bet back. This covers exactly the loss of your main bet of $10, so this is a perfect hedge. But is it a good idea at all to take the insurance?

When to take insurance in blackjack

Many players hate to lose to a natural and are more than happy at the chance to avoid this dreaded scenario. In other words taking insurance is like the dealer cannot dominate your hand with a blackjack. But as a good player, you need to learn basic strategy and base your decisions on what makes mathematical sense before all.

If you wish to reduce the house edge to the minimum, you must base your decisions on what the optimal play is statistically. Not on superstitions or fears.

So let's look at this insurance bet from an odds standpoint. This bet must be analyzed in itself, independently. So getting a payout of "2 to 1" means that the odds must be 33.33% or more for the dealer to have blackjack for this bet to be profitable.

What are the chances that the dealer has blackjack? In a regular online casino using 4 decks and reshuffling after each hand, as there are 16 cards equal ten per deck, this is a proportion of 16/52 = 30.77%.

As you can see this is less than 33.33%. Meaning that you should never take insurance. Because the dealer will not have Blackjack often enough to make this bet profitable to you. On average insurance costs a little bit and all players who take insurance add a little to the house edge.

Never take insurance.

Beyond insurance, two other rules to master basic strategy are splitting pairs and surrendering.

Good luck at the Blackjack tables.

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