Never take even money

Yeah doing some study for the Vegas trip. Here finally is an article that says what I've always said. NEVER TAKE EVEN MONEY when you have a Blackjack and the dealer is showing an Ace.

Let’s say that you have a natural blackjack and the dealer has an Ace for an up card. You’re offered even money. Should you take it or not?

No, you shouldn’t.

You have the chance of winning a 3-2 payout. Why throw it away to settle for 1-1 blackjack payout? It’s kind of like having a winning argument and then backing down with meek deference.

So rather than take the even money you think you might want to insure your blackjack. You don’t want to do that either because it’s the same thing. You will come out with the same amount of money.

I’ll show you how this works. Let’s say that you have wagered $10 and you have that blackjack against an Ace. We’ll say that you take insurance on your hand, so you put forth $5. But it turns out that the dealer doesn’t have blackjack. He’ll take your $5 insurance bet…and then pay you $15. Now subtract the $5 you lost to insurance, and you’ll find that in reality your payout was only $10. Which is the same thing as taking even money.

See how it doesn’t matter whether you insure your blackjack or take even money on it?

Oh but wait! What if the dealer does have blackjack too and you have taken insurance? In that instance your blackjack would push his. And you would collect $10 on your insurance bet. It’s still the same $10 profit.

What even money does is simplify the steps in giving you the same amount you would win if you took insurance on your blackjack. But dealers don’t get a 10 for a hole card often enough to warrant taking insurance or even money in any case. Your best bet is to decline both and stick with your basic strategy.