Insurance

Insurance is the most valuable Blackjack index. That is, among playing decisions, insurance provides the greatest opportunity for increase in advantage by varying from Basic Strategy at the correct count. Unfortunately, betting insurance correctly is also a sign that you are a card counter. If you always insure at a high count, and never at a lower count, you look like a counter. Most players base their insurance bet on the cards they have, which is essentially irrelevant to the correct decision. Insurance cover is playing in a less than perfect manner in an attempt to look less obviously like a counter. The chart below provides the SCOREs when using several methods of betting insurance for all penetrations from 130 to 26 cards cut off.

www.qfit.com/book/z130Chart.gif

There are six methods of playing insurance depicted in this chart as follows:

Ø  Cover 1 – Insure all Blackjacks and nothing else. (This is how regular players most often play.)

Ø  Cover 2 – No insurance ever. (Correct Basic Strategy)

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger