Blackjack Insurance: How the Side Bet Works and Why to Skip It

Insurance is a side bet, offered when the dealer's up card is an ace, that the dealer's hole card (the face-down card) is worth 10. It costs up to half your original bet and pays 2:1, but with 6 decks the hole card is a ten only 30.9% of the time, so the house keeps about 7.4% of each insurance bet and basic strategy never takes it.

• What insurance is
• How insurance is paid: a worked example
• Why basic strategy never takes insurance
• Even money: insurance under another name
• Insurance in no-hole-card games
• Practice saying no

01What insurance is

The dealer has two cards: the up card, which is face up, and the hole card, which is face down.

When the up card is an ace, the dealer could have blackjack: an ace plus a card worth 10. Before anything else happens, the game offers you insurance.

Here is what happens, step by step:

1. The dealer shows an ace.
2. The game asks if you want insurance. Online, this is a button such as Insurance or No insurance.
3. If you take it, you place a second bet of up to half your original bet. Many games set it at exactly half.
4. The dealer checks the hole card for blackjack.
5. The insurance bet is paid or lost. Then the hand goes on, or it ends if the dealer has blackjack.

Insurance is a separate bet, and it does not change how your main hand is played. See the glossary for any term you do not know.

02How insurance is paid: a worked example

Insurance pays 2:1. For every 1 unit you bet on insurance, you get 2 units if the dealer has blackjack.

In this example, your main bet is 10 units and you hold 18. You take insurance for 5 units, the full amount allowed: half your main bet.

Outcome 1: the dealer has blackjack

Your 18 loses to the dealer's blackjack, so you lose the 10-unit main bet. Your 5-unit insurance bet wins 10 units.

Outcome 2: the dealer does not have blackjack

The ace counts as 11 unless that would bust the hand, then as 1. Here the dealer has soft 18, not blackjack.

Your 5-unit insurance bet is lost. Your main hand keeps playing as normal.

Victoria's tip

Insurance does not protect your hand. It is a new bet on one thing: whether the hole card is worth 10.

03Why basic strategy never takes insurance

A card is worth 10 if it is a 10, J, Q or K. That is 4 ranks out of 13.

• Ten-value ranks: 10, J, Q, K – 4 ranks.
• All other ranks: A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 – 9 ranks.

A 2:1 payout breaks even only if you win once for every two losses. With 4 ten-value ranks against 9 others, you lose more than twice for each win.

The insurance bet costs you far more per bet than the main game does. The basic strategy chart has no insurance column: the answer is always no.

Learn more on the house edge page.

Victoria's tip

Your hand does not matter here. With 20, with 12, or with blackjack, the answer to insurance is the same: decline.

04Even money: insurance under another name

Even money is offered when you have blackjack and the dealer shows an ace. If you take it, you are paid 1:1 right away and the hand ends.

A blackjack normally pays 3:2. Here is what a 10-unit bet pays at each rate:

Taking even money gives the same result as taking insurance on your blackjack. Compare the three choices with a 10-unit bet:

Even money is the insurance bet, so its house edge is about 7.77% with 6 decks – slightly worse, because your blackjack already uses one ten-value card. Basic strategy declines it.

Check payouts on the payout calculator.

05Insurance in no-hole-card games

In some games, such as European blackjack, the dealer takes no second card until all players finish their hands. This is called a no-hole-card game.

• The dealer shows an ace and has only one card.
• Many of these games still offer insurance at 2:1.
• The insurance bet is settled after the dealer draws the second card.
• The second card is worth 10 just as often as a hole card would be.

If the second card is worth 10, as here, the dealer has blackjack and the insurance bet is paid. The math does not change, so basic strategy declines insurance in no-hole-card games too.

06Practice saying no

The insurance button appears fast, and it is easy to click by habit. Practice makes declining automatic.

You have 20 and the dealer shows an ace. The answer is the same as with any other hand: no insurance.

• Play hands in the trainer and decline every insurance offer.
• Learn the full chart for every other decision.
• Set a budget and a time limit before you play.

Victoria's tip

When you see an ace in the dealer's spot, decide before the button appears: no insurance, no even money.

Questions people ask