When To Buy Blackjack Insurance and When Not To Buy Insurance
There are a few things about playing blackjack that will be quite easy to discern right away. For example: how to hit and stay. Then there are other aspects of online blackjack strategy that you may already know of but unsure how to use them, such as splitting pairs.
As with many online card games there are aspects of blackjack that are completely confusing and very hard to decipher like blackjack insurance and/or even money. Most people have trouble understanding blackjack strategy like insurances. Even people who have played the game for a number of years don’t truly understand the concept of blackjack insurance. Determining when to buy and when not to buy blackjack insurances is complex, but here is the simplest explanation.
When the dealer turns an ace he will offer the option to blackjack players purchasing insurance. Blackjack insurance bets are made by betting a specific amount, typically one half of the original bet with the insurance betting button. At this point the dealer will check the value of his cards to determine if he has a 10 to accompany the showing ace, and if the dealer in fact has blackjack then the insurance bet made will payout at 2 to 1 odds.
In the case of the dealer having blackjack you can lose the original bet. That is unless you have blackjack as well. When this happens it’s as if you’ve combated the odds of losing to the dealers blackjack by buying blackjack insurance. The fact that you can break even with your blackjack bet by buying insurance is the premise for buying an insurance bet since it works to cancel out the dealers winning the blackjack hand. There are risks associated with this type of blackjack betting when the dealer does not have blackjack because the insurance bet and the initial bet are lost.
One of the upsides to insurance betting is when you have achieved blackjack and the dealer offers money rather than the option of buying an insurance bet. Basically it’s the same concept as if there were no insurance betting involved. For example, if you place a $10 wager and you have blackjack normally you would win $15 dollars for the blackjack or a dealer push (tie). When the dealer is showing ace up and you buy an insurance bet of the entire bet amount and the dealer presents a blackjack or not you win $10.
While a number of online casino blackjack players believe insurance betting is a great idea to protect them against the house edge; however in many cases blackjack players would fair better by avoiding insurance and/or even money blackjack bets and collecting their entire blackjack bet amount.
