Time to see how you scored in blackjack quiz

Alright blackjack players, it's your moment of truth. If you didn't answer all four of last week's questions correctly, you're playing a losing game. Worse yet, if you don't believe the answers below, your prognosis is hopeless. Read'em and weep.

1. B -- No Stinking Insurance! Insurance is a bad bet because it pays 2-to-1 when the odds are generally 2¼-to-1 against winning it. The dealer can have 13 different cards in the hole. Say you make a $10 Insurance bet 13 times for $130 total. Four of those times, she'll give you back $20 from your lost hand along with your $10 Insurance bet for a $120 total refund. You just donated a sawbuck to the casino expansion project. Comprende?

How about Insuring your 20 to "protect" a good hand? That's not possible! If the dealer has blackjack, you'll still lose the bet on your 20. But if you manage to recoup that $20 by winning the same amount on Insurance, all you did was "subsidize" your loss with a bad bet! It was a bad bet because you won't win it often enough to get all your Insurance money back -- as we just saw.

Should you take Insurance if there's a shortage of 10s on board? Even with the extreme quiz example, not enough cards came out to push the odds against a dealer's 10 in the hole below 2-to-1. Insurance is worthwhile only when the shoe contains over one-third 10s. That can't happen until you get deeper into the shoe. If you haven't been counting the 10s round by round, Insurance is a loser.

2. C -- Mommy can't help you now. Most players don't even hit 12 against a 3, so they'd say to stand, believing it would be best for everyone. Sharper players who know enough to hit 12 vs. 3 might answer to hit. But the real answer is, neither play changes the odds on your hand at first base.

To prove it, let's simplify things and say we saw the dealer's hole card -- a 9. Furthermore, this time there are only three cards left in the shoe -- two 10s and a 5, but we don't know their order. So which way is Sonny Boy more likely to win -- if Mom stands or hits?

If Mom stands, the dealer will break two times out of three with a 10. But what happens if Mom hits?

Let's see, on two hits out of three, Mom will take a 10. Of those two times, the dealer will break once. But on that third hit, Mom will take the 5, forcing the dealer to break. Bottom line? The dealer also breaks two times out of three if Mom hits. Furthermore, this will always cancel out, no matter what cards are left.

3. B -- Lulls players into a false sense of security. Read my lips: "The cards have no natural order!" During the shuffle, sometimes a 10 gets riffled in front of a 5, and sometimes the 5 comes down first. Some ways will favor the players, and some will favor the dealer. If a new player jumps in and changes that haphazard order, it's as likely to help as hurt the players.

However, if you were an expert observing the game from behind, you'd know when the remaining cards have just produced a player advantage. Now you could jump in and make large bets -- unless -- it was a "No-Mid-Shoe" game!

The casino knows this, and they patronize your silly superstitions by inviting you to make the game "No-Mid-Shoe-Entry." You believe you're preserving the "sacred" order of the cards, when basically, they're protecting the game from card counters.

4. A -- Dive in with both feet. The typical table scout decides he should jump in and play when he sees the players winning. Bad play at the table will quickly scare him off. As usual, typical players watch all the wrong things.

Ask yourself this. In the quiz example, how many high cards vs. how many low cards came out on that round? There were at least 17 low cards and maybe one 10. With all those small cards gone, the players have the edge now. It's time to get in there and gamble! Bad players, hot dealers and all that other stuff is pure voodoo.