Insurance in Blackjack
Insurance is an optional blackjack side bet, offered only when the dealer’s upcard is an ace, that the dealer’s hole card is a ten-value card and the hand is therefore a blackjack. The stake is capped at half the original bet and a win pays 2:1. Despite the name, it protects nothing: it is a separate wager on a single question, settled when the dealer peeks, and it carries its own house edge.
Where Insurance Appears and How It Settles
The dealer offers insurance before peeking at the hole card, and the bet is settled straight away. Take a €10 hand with €5 insured: if the dealer has blackjack, the main bet loses €10 and insurance wins €10, so the round finishes level.
If there is no blackjack, the €5 is gone and the hand plays on as normal.
Players often confuse it with even money, which is offered when they hold a blackjack themselves against the ace. Even money pays 1:1 on the spot, and the arithmetic is identical to insuring that blackjack, so it carries the same cost under a friendlier name.
Why the 2:1 Payout Falls Short
A 2:1 payout breaks even only if exactly one card in three left in the shoe is a ten. With one ace already showing, the share sits a little below that, and the gap is the house edge. The figures below are the published ten-value share after the dealer’s ace, ignoring the player’s own cards.
| Shoe size | Chance of ten | House edge |
|---|---|---|
| 1 deck | 31.37% | 5.88% |
| 2 decks | 31.07% | 6.80% |
| 4 decks | 30.92% | 7.25% |
| 6 decks | 30.87% | 7.40% |
| 8 decks | 30.84% | 7.47% |
| Infinite deck | 30.77% | 7.69% |
The Myth of Protecting a Good Hand
The commonest mistake is insuring a strong hand such as twenty, on the theory that it is too good to lose. The bet does not care what the player holds, and two tens in that hand leave the shoe slightly poorer in tens, which makes the wager a touch worse.
Card counters are the exception.
When the remaining shoe holds more than one ten in three, the bet turns positive, and some counters take it only then. For a basic-strategy player, who cannot see that ratio, the published guidance is to decline it every time.
