Insurance and even money

What insurance actually is

When the dealer shows an ace, many tables offer insurance: a side bet of up to half your original wager that the dealer’s other card is ten-valued. It pays 2:1. Despite the name, insurance does not protect your hand — it is a separate wager on the dealer having a natural.

Why basic strategy declines

For a 2:1 payout to break even, one-third of the unseen cards must be ten-valued; the bet is profitable only above that mark. Near the start of a shoe, ten-values are about four thirteenths of the cards — roughly 30.8% — and the cards in your hand do not raise the ordinary basic-strategy case enough to reach the threshold.

Basic strategy therefore declines insurance. Count information can change the remaining-card mix enough to change that decision, but this trainer deliberately uses no count information, so its recommendation is always to decline.

Your hand

KKking of hearts, card 1

99nine of clubs, card 2

Dealer shows

AAace of spades, card 1

Even money is the same decision

At a 3:2 table, when you hold a natural and the dealer shows an ace, the table may offer “even money”: take a guaranteed 1:1 win instead of risking a push if the dealer also has a natural. Mathematically, this is insurance on your own blackjack under another name.

Because insurance has negative expectation without count information, basic strategy declines even money too. The full 3:2 wins you keep when the dealer lacks blackjack are worth more than the pushes you avoid. Decline, and let the natural ride.

Your hand

AAace of hearts, card 1

KKking of diamonds, card 2

Dealer shows

AAace of spades, card 1