When you play blackjack when the dealer's first card is an ace, you can take out insurance. The latter would allow you to recover the money you lose if the dealer's hand is 21 with two cards. This option may seem attractive. Yet it turns out strongly in favour of the casino. Learn why you should always avoid insurance at blackjack.

Insurance pays 2 to 1

If you want to take insurance, you need to bet half your original bet. Place your chips on a specific location of the table on which is inscribed: "Insurance pays 2 to 1."When you choose this game option, you are betting that the dealer's second card will be worth 10, i.e. it will be a face card (10, jack, queen, and king).

An example

At the beginning of a round, you bet 10 Euros. The dealer deals the cards. You get a hand of 19 and the dealer has an ace. You then decide to take insurance by betting an additional 5 Euros. The dealer takes his second card and gets 21.You lose your 10 euro bet early in the game but you win your insurance bet paid 2 to 1. So you do not win nor lose money because your gain of 10 EUR reimburses the loss of your bet. But, if the dealer did not get 21 with his two cards, you would have lost your insurance and the round would have continued as usual.

A house advantage of 7.69%

As I mentioned earlier, the insurance pays 2 to 1. Nevertheless, the chances that the dealer gets a face card are 2.25 to 1.Indeed, as a deck of cards has four 10s, four jacks, four queens, four kings and 36 other cards, the dealer has 16 (4x4)out of 36 chances to draw a face card. Thus, it is not worth taking insurance. It is even one of the worst bets you can make in a casino since its bank advantage is up to 7.69%.

Now that you know you should never take insurance at blackjack Why not try your luck for real in an online casino. If you want to practice before, I recommend you try our free blackjack game.