Even money

Some casinos offer another variation for players holding a Blackjack when offered insurance. They may have the option of insuring their card by taking what is known as “even money”.

For a hand with blackjack, taking even money has the same result as taking and losing an insurance bet and winning your original wager, but it keeps the fractions a little simpler. If you take the bet, you immediately get your stake back, plus the same amount again.

For example, if your original stake were 10 chips, this would immediately yield 20 chips from an even money bet, with no risk of losing.

If you insured it instead, you would need to bet an additional 5 chips.

There are then only two permutations as you can neither win nor lose both bets.

You could either win the insurance bet and push the original bet (if the dealer matches your blackjack) or you could lose the insurance bet and win the original bet (if the dealer matches your blackjack).

In the first instance you would receive your original stake back (10) and the winnings (10) plus the stake (5) from the insurance, yielding 25 chips in total. Or, you could lose the insurance bet (-5) and recoup the winnings (15) plus the stake (10) from the original bet, yielding 20 chips in total – the same result as taking even money.

Of course, you don’t have to insure your blackjack, which as we shall see later may is probably the best course of action anyway…