The game of blackjack comes with a lot of fun to it. One thing that you get to work with in the game is the insurance bet. This of course is a very controversial wager because of the amount of thought processes that revolve around it. The insurance bet is something that is considered to create a “game within a game” of blackjack. If the dealer at the table has an Ace, you get to decide whether or not you want to take out the insurance bet. When you purchase the wager, you are in essence wagering that the dealer is going to have a blackjack in the end. If the insurance wager wasn’t there and the dealer got a blackjack, you’d end up just losing your wager. The insurance wager allows you to capitalize on the chance of the dealer having it. It lets you protect your wager though. This likely is why the wager is thought of as a good idea to some newer players. They figure, “At least I will win something if the dealer has a blackjack!” While this is a good thought process in theory, it has its own criticisms. When you take out insurance, you are putting half of your wager up. If you end up losing, then you only lose half of that wager, rather than the entire thing if you didn’t have it.
When it comes to blackjack though everything is based on odds. So what are the odds that the dealer is going to get a blackjack based on that one initial Ace? The truth is that the odds are just not that high that the dealer is going to get that blackjack and your wager is going to pay off. This is why so many professional gamblers all but completely ignore the wager. They believe that it is a pointless wager that never offers the gambler enough of a chance to win with it. The only reason you should take out the wager is to see how it works. Once you get a handle though you may want to put it back on the shelf. The only place you may want to pull it out is if you are good at card counting and have more of a “feel” that it may work for you.