In Black Jack is insurance a suckers bet?

Question

In Black Jack is insurance a suckers bet?

Answer 1

As a general rule, any bet offered by the casino has the odds in their favor. Blackjack insurance is no different. The casino will normaly win this bet more times than they will lose it.

I normally will never take insurance, with two exceptions. One, near the end of the shoe, if the count is high, meaning there are more face cards in the deck than small cards, and I have a 20. I will insure.

And two, if I am using the Blackjack Betting Trigger, and the bet is in my favor based on the Trigger odds, I will insure the bet. If you want to know more about the BlackJack Betting Trigger, here is a link:

http://www.thedoverpro.com/blackjack.htm

And I have never taken "even money", (an insurance offer by the dealer when I have a blackjack and the dealer is showing an Ace) in my life!

Answer 2

It's not necessarily a bad thing because the insurance bet is normally a poor bet for the player you, with a high house advantage.

If anything if your not comfortable about the dealers hand its a smart bet.

Best of Luck

Vegas Bob Jr.

Answer 3

yes. nearly all side bets are sucker bets. imho, the only time to take it is when you are holding a 20 and are nearly guaranteed a win and can only be beat by 20 or 21.

Answer 4

Generally, yes.  The break-even point is when 1/3 of the cards remaining in the deck or shoe are tens or face cards.  The proportion of tens and face cards in the deck to start out with is 4/13.  Playing with an 8 deck shoe and knowing only the value of the dealer's up card (an ace), there are 128 face cards and 287 non-face cards.  The probability of winning your insurance bet is 128/415.  The expected return is:

2 x (128/415) - 287/415 = 256/415 - 287/415 = - 31/415

Expected Return = -31/415 = -7.47%

To me, a 7.47% disadvantage is a sucker's bet, especially when the house edge on the entire game (using basic strategy) is around 0.5%.  Even with a single deck game, the disadvantage is 5.77%.

The only exception where you should take insurance is if you are card counting, and you expect that the ratio of tens and face cards in the deck is more than 1/3.  If you are not card counting, you should never take insurance.

Some players will only take insurance when they have a blackjack, in order to guarantee a win.  This is also just as much a sucker's bet.  You have to think of insuring a blackjack as a completely separate bet, and the house edge of the insurance bet is still the same bad bet (actually it is slightly worse since your ten/face card was removed).

Answer 5

The insurance bet has a house advanatge much larger than that of the basic game itself, it effectively increases the profit of the game so i guess you woudl dub it a sucker bet, however, by counting cards there is a threshold where it is very profitable.  In fact the insurance bet represents about 25% of the profits card counters gain.

The insurance bet on a spanish 21 table is the single worst bet in the entire casino since a spanish deck has no 10s and the payout remains at 2:1.  The hosue advanatge on a sp21 table for insurance is around 25%!!!!!

Note: taking even money is the same thign as taking insurance so dont play that option either.

Answer 6

Insurance is a sucker's bet.  To break even you need to get paid 2.33:1, but you only get paid 2:1.  That's a little more than a 7% disadvantage.  That's of course not taking into consideration any counting methods.

Now don't be fooled.  Even money is the exact same thing as insurance.  I am a dealer and people will say they would never in their life bet insurance but take even money in a heartbeat and they will argue up and down with me that it is not the same because you are collecting money and taking a "sure thing".  These kinds of people will never win.

If you want an example of this then here it is.   If you bet $100 and get a blackjack and the dealer offers insurance.  You decide to bet the $50.  Ok in case 1 the dealer has blackjack, you push on your blackjack and get paid $100 on your insurance bet.  Case 2 the dealer doesn't have blackjack so you lose your $50 insurance and win $150 on your bet.  Either way is a net $100 profit.  99.999% of people don't know that you can still bet insurance for less even if you have a blackjack.  So if you bet $100 and are torn between even money and going for it then go ahead and put $25 on the insurance line.  (This is like taking even money on $50 of your original bet and going for the blackjack on the remainder).  The dealer might look at you odd and say that you can't do that, but you gotta insist on it because it IS allowed.  Insurance has nothing to do with what hand you have.  In fact, in most blackjack tournaments you have to do it this way if you want to take down the even money win.  You have to physically bet the insurance line.

I see a lot of people on here say they never take even money, but when I'm working almost everyone takes it so I don't know where you people are.

Answer 7

It depends if You know what You're doing or not...