Rules when taking insurance

Hello,

I am in a computer programming class and my final project is to make a blackjack game for the computer.

I am not entirely sure how insurance works (haven never bought it or seen someone buy it) and I have a couple questions before I can be confident that it is accurately modeled in the game.

Assuming the dealer is showing an Ace:
Question 1: The player will be offered a chance to buy insurance up to half his original bet. If the dealer then reveals a blackjack, the player (a) loses his bet, (b) loses his insurance, and (c) wins 2:1 on the insurance. Is this correct?

Example: Player bets $10 and is dealt 9 and 10. Dealer has an ace so offers insurance. Player buys insurance for $5. Dealer then reveals a blackjack so player loses original bet ($10), insurance ($5), and is paid 2:1 on the insurance ($10). Net effect: -$5.00 for player.

Question 2: In terms of question #1, what happens if the player is dealt a blackjack, then the dealer's up card is an Ace and the player buys insurance? If the dealer reveals a blackjack would the player lose his original bet or would the original bets push while insurance pays 2:1?

Assuming $10 bet and $5 insurance, is the net effect +$5.00 for player?

Thanks in advance,
Ian

You asked

Question 1: The player will be offered a chance to buy insurance up to half his original bet. If the dealer then reveals a blackjack, the player (a) loses his bet, (b) loses his insurance, and (c) wins 2:1 on the insurance. Is this correct?

b) is wrong. The player keeps her insurance wager. So in your example:

Example: Player bets $10 and is dealt 9 and 10. Dealer has an ace so offers insurance. Player buys insurance for $5. Dealer then reveals a blackjack so player loses original bet ($10), insurance ($5), and is paid 2:1 on the insurance ($10). Net effect: -$5.00 for player.

The player would keep the $5, and be paid $10 on the insurance. Net Effect: 0.

When you take full insurance and win the bet, the net effect is a big push.

Question 2: In terms of question #1, what happens if the player is dealt a blackjack, then the dealer's up card is an Ace and the player buys insurance? If the dealer reveals a blackjack would the player lose his original bet or would the original bets push while insurance pays 2:1?

Assuming $10 bet and $5 insurance, is the net effect +$5.00 for player?

Again the player would keep the insurance bet. Net effect +$10 for the player, the size of the original wager.

Note that if the dealer did not have blackjack, the player would loee the $5 insurance bet, but get paid $15 on her BJ. Net effect +10. Again the size of the original wager.

When you insure a BJ, you lock in a 1-1 or even money payoff on your original bet. Often, we refer to taking full insurance on a natural as �taking even money�.

What school are you attending?

Example: Player bets $10 and is dealt 9 and 10. Dealer has an ace so offers insurance. Player buys insurance for $5. Dealer then reveals a blackjack so player loses original bet ($10) and is paid 2:1 on the insurance ($10). Net effect: $0.00 for player.
The Player DOES NOT lose the insurance bet when the dealer HAS a Black Jack.

Question 2: In terms of question #1, what happens if the player is dealt a blackjack, then the dealer's up card is an Ace and the player buys insurance? If the dealer reveals a blackjack the player loses his original bet while insurance pays 2:1.
Assuming $10 bet and $5 insurance, the net effect is +$10.00 for player. Often called even money. In NJ the player must put up insurance to get even money. Other places just give the player even money if the player opts to take it.

The Player DOES NOT lose the insurance bet when the dealer HAS a Black Jack. The insurance bet is only lost when the dealer DOES NOT have black jack.

Thanks for the update. Glad I didn't implement my flawed logic.

MathProf - the school is called City University in Seattle area. I am taking a few programming-oriented graduate classes there on the side.

Oh I thought of something else -

When the dealer shows a 10/J/Q/K, he peaks at the hole card and if he has an Ace down he flips it over and the round is done... no insurance or surrender or anything... Isn't this correct?

I've played blackjack enough I should know this :(

Ahh another question!

I have seen some sites with basic strategy tables and sometimes I get mutually exclusive rules. For instance one site says if you have a pair of 4s, split vs. dealer's 5 or 6. Another site says in that situation you should double. So what I'd like to know is what is *the* site to go to for basic strategy rules? If I have enough time I will implement a "hint" option.

I don't know all the abbreviations but here's the rules I will have which might affect the basic strategy:
8 deck shoe (or is it standard to have 6?)
Dealer hits soft 17
Unlimited splits for player
Split any two 10-value cards
Split Aces gives one card only to each hand
(incidentally, if player splits aces and gets another ace, can
those be split again in most casinos?)
Double on any 2 cards
Insurance is always 1/2 bet (not variable)
No surrender

Many thanks,
Ian

Regarding the 10 face-up. Insurance is almost never available here. It would be a he sucker bet if it only paid to 1. So much so that even casinos are too embarrassed to offer it. It could be reasonable to pay something like 12 to 1 on it, but that is just done.

Regarding surrender. Usually you cannot surrender when the dealer has BJ. If you are allowed surrender before they check for BJ, it is called �Early Surrender� The standard form is called :Late Surrender�. LS is the most common. ES is very favorable, especially against an Ace. That is almost never available, at least in this country.

Some of the strategy questions you have asked about depend on the rules. That is you will see different answers in different places. For example, it is correct to split 4s vs 5,6 in a DAS game, but not otherwise. The ability to subsequently double after splitting makes splitting more attractive.

There are some Web site that list BS given in the links on the left frame. I think the Wizard of Odds has that feature, as does Ken Smith�s BJ Engine. I think both of them allow to specify the rules, and it will produce the strategy for that game.

A good feature would for your program would be to allow the player to set various rules options. An alternative approach is to give the player the most liberal rules, so that he/she has the most options available.

Please do NOT use 8 decks. They aren�t used that much, and we don�t want to encourage civilians to think that they are. Six decks is acceptable, although you could do single deck. Especially, if you can only pay one spot at a time, so you don�t have to worry about running out of cards.

Regarding the other rules you asked about: Usually splits are limited to 4 split hands (so can split 3 times.) In some games it is restricted even further. Re-splitting Aces is allowed by some casinos in their multi-deck games, but usually not in pitch games. IN my city all the casinos allow it; in Indiana none of them do. In LV, the better ones like MGM-Mirage do allow it.

Double any first 2 cards is pretty standard, although sometime there are restrictions for single and occasionally double deck games. In my state, doubling is restricted to 10 or 11 at the reservation casinos which have double deck games.

For Shoe games, dealers Standing on Soft 17 (S17) is more prevalent; at pitch games Hitting Soft 17 (H17) is. There is a lot of variation in this. S17 is the rules at almost of the casinos in Michigan; H17 is standard at almost the games in Wisconsin.
I am not familiar with the casinos near Seattle.

Ian,

In addition to the corrections that MathProf gave, here is one more: the insurance bet need not be half the original wager; a player may choose to "insure for less", so for your example with the $10 wager, the player can insure for less in any amount below $5, or he can take full insurance for $5. If the dealer has a blackjack, then the player loses his original wager and wins 2-1 on the insurance wager.

In practice, when insurance is a good bet (this can be determined by counting the cards), one should almost always insure for the full amount. I read one time about the exception to taking full insurance... it involves a case in which a bettor is wagering some absurdly large fraction of his entire bankroll, but I cannot locate the reference. Perhaps someone else at this site knows the particular conditions. However, this case is of academic interest only.

Best of luck with your program!

Dog Hand