Insurance: the side bet hiding inside the main game
Insurance is offered whenever the dealer shows an ace: a separate bet of up to half your main bet that the dealer’s hole card is a ten-value, paying 2:1. It feels like protection for your hand — mathematically it is an independent side bet on one question: is the hole card a ten?
A 2:1 payout breaks even only if ten-value cards make up exactly one third of the unseen cards. They never do: only 16 of every 52 cards (30.8%) are tens, so the bet loses money at every deck count.
House edge
7.40% per unit bet (6 decks, pays 2:1). For contrast: the blackjack hand underneath it costs about 0.5% with perfect basic strategy — this side bet is roughly 15× more expensive per unit wagered.
At 5 units per hand and 70 hands an hour, Insurance costs about 25.88 units per hour on top of the main game.
Odds and payouts
| Outcome | Pays | Chance | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hole card is a ten — dealer has blackjack | 2:1 | 30.87% | 1 in 3 |
| Anything else — you lose | −1 | 69.13% | — |
House edge: 7.40% — the bet wins something on 30.87% of hands.
Does the deck count change it?
| Shoe | Pays 2:1 |
|---|---|
| 1 deck | 5.88% |
| 2 decks | 6.80% |
| 4 decks | 7.25% |
| 6 decks | 7.40% |
| 8 decks | 7.47% |
Frequently asked questions
Is insurance ever a good bet?
Not for a basic-strategy player: the house edge is 7.40% in a 6-deck game. It only turns profitable for card counters, when the count says the remaining shoe is unusually rich in tens (more than one third).
Should I take even money on my blackjack?
“Even money” — taking a guaranteed 1:1 payout on your blackjack when the dealer shows an ace — is mathematically identical to buying insurance. Declining it wins more in the long run for the same reason plain insurance loses.
Check these odds against your casino’s rules →
The free analyzer recomputes every side bet for your exact deck count and paytable,
alongside the optimal basic strategy for the main game.