Blackjack Gambling: Insurance

admin · Site Admin Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 862

One of the most confusing aspects of Blackjack gambling is the insurance side bet. Insurance is offered to players after the first deal in which the dealer receives one face up and one face down card. Insurance is only available when the dealer's up card is an Ace. If this is the case, then the player has the chance to make an additional profit from Blackjack gambling by betting that the dealer has a natural. This two-card hand equals 21 and must therefore be made up of an 11-point Ace and a 10-value card. That means that, by taking an insurance bet, players wager that the dealer's face down card is either a 10, Jack, Queen or King.

The Blackjack gambling odds on this side bet are 2:1. Thus, if a player chooses to take the insurance bet, he can essentially come out even although he may eventually lose the hand. Let's say the player decides to make an insurance bet in the amount of one half of the original bet. If the original bet is $10, the player puts $5 on insurance. If the dealer indeed has a natural 21, and the player does not have a 21, the player will lose the original bet of $10, but will gain a 2-to-1 payoff on the $5, gaining $10. In this Blackjack gambling example, the player breaks even.

If the dealer does not have a natural, the player's insurance bet is lost and the standard game continues.