Blackjack

Instructor: Erika Wolf

Insurance is only offered when the dealer's up-card is an Ace.

After the dealer flips over an Ace, there are a few things we need to do:
1. Turn the Ace 90 degrees.
2. Take care of bonus' from right to left (of the dealer)
3. Offer insurance

Any time a player chooses to partake in insurance, we must immediately compare the original bet to the insurance bet the player chose to put up.

The insurance amount that the player has placed cannot exceed more than half of their original bet. The amount that the insurance bet can range is:
1. Up to half of the player's original bet and,
2. Can only go as low as table minimum.

There is a small exception to the previous rule #2, a player is allowed to bet less than the table minimum only if half of their bet is below the table minimum.

Here is a practical example:
Table minimum = $5
Player's main bet: = $6
Max insurance amount = $3

Due to this scenario, the player may place an insurance bet if they elect to do so but only for $3. You may be asking why. The reason is that insurance cannot exceed half of the player's original bet amount. So for this reason, the player cannot place more than $3 on the insurance line.

Also, because half of their bet is below the table minimum, they are not permitted to bet below half of their bet either. So due to these limitations, they are stuck at only betting $3 if they choose to take insurance.

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Players may often elect to place a bet that is lower than half of their original bet amount. In this case, we must make the alert call, "insurance for less!". We make this alert call to our floor supervisor to prepare them for the possibility that the player that elected to put up less than half of their bet will lose money in the event that the dealer has a blackjack.

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In the event that a player can only place an insurance amount in $5 increments, but the insurance bet exceeds half of their bet, we as the dealer are expected to fix this discrepancy in some houses.

Here is another practical example:
Table minimum = $5
Player's main bet = $15
Player's insurance bet = $10

Given this example, the player's maximum allowed insurance must be $7.50. This is because $7.50 is exactly half of the player's original bet amount and the insurance bet cannot exceed this limit.

So what do you do in this event? First, look at what cheques the player has available to them in the apron area of the table and see if they have the immediate ability to make it a proper bet. If they do not, you will make break a cheque that was placed on the insurance line by the player in the form of "cheque-change" - giving the excess change back to the player and making their insurance bet proper.

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Regarding "even money", this option is only reserved to those players that meet all of the following requirements:

1. The current table pays 3:2 to winning blackjack hands.
2. Insurance is currently taking place.
3. The player announced that they would like to be paid "even money".

As you could surmise based on the requirements for even money, if the current table is a 6:5 table, even money is not an option for anyone. At a 6:5 table, during insurance, players that have a blackjack have no options but to take insurance if they would like to do so.

Just to note, if the dealer shows a blackjack after closing insurance, and a player also has a blackjack, that player's main bet is a push and no money will swap. However; if that player also chose to take insurance, sticking with the betting limits discussed earlier, they will be entitled to a 2:1 payout on their insurance bet.

Closing notes: Different houses have different rules. With this in mind, some casinos do not want you to make the insurance a proper amount if the player decides to place more than half of their bet on the insurance line. Simply listen to your floor supervisor per your house rules.