Taking Insurance in a BJ tourney

[Mr. Curious]

I know that insurance is a bad deal, but isn't it +EV to take insurance in a BJ tourney when you have an BJ and the dealer shows an ace? Since the goal is to win chips and you'll only push on a BJ, you're only giving up 1/2 to ensure that you win 1.

Maybe +EV isn't the best thing, rather isn't it better from a strategy perspective to take the gauranteed money since you have a limited number of hands in which to attain the chips?

[SheetWise]

For a good player, this is the one time you would give variance precedence over expectation. Take the insurance independent of the known A-A-X.

[Terry]

Your goal in a tournament isn’t necessarily to win chips, it is to finish with more chips than the other players. Sometimes everybody loses and the player who loses the least is the winner.

Tournament play has very little to do with using correct BJ strategy; it is all about making bets and / or plays that give you a chance to have the most chips. If the only way you can win is to double down on hard 19 then that is what you do.

A good play when it comes to Insurance is to take an odd amount, e.g., if you have $200 bet, rather than taking $100 Insurance, take $67.50, making it more difficult for the other players to determine where their bankroll will stand in relation to yours when the hand is over.

[Cyrus]

[ QUOTE ]
I know that insurance is a bad deal, but isn't it +EV to take insurance in a BJ tourney when you have an BJ and the dealer shows an ace?

[/ QUOTE ]

"It depends." See Tournament Blackjack, by Stanford Wong