If you believe you have a very slim chance of winning the current round of Blackjack, you have the option to surrender and stop losing. In addition to other strategies such as doubling and splitting in blackjack, players should learn when to use surrender in blackjack to their advantage. What is surrender in blackjack, when should you use it, and when can you use it? Keep reading to find out.
What Is Surrender In Blackjack?
After the dealer’s face-up card and each player’s opening two cards have been dealt, a player can quit a round of blackjack. A player may choose to surrender if they believe their initial hand is significantly weak. This is particularly true if the dealer possesses a strong face-up card, and they believe their chances of winning the round are slim.
When a player chooses to surrender, they consent to having half of their initial wager returned to them (effectively taking a 50% loss voluntarily). They are then immediately removed from the round.
Depending on the particular set of rules being applied, there are two major types of surrender.
Early surrender is the procedure just described, and it’s primarily used in Asian and European casinos. In this type of surrender, gamers may surrender in any round they choose. Only when the dealer has an ace or a ten showing is the tactic different from late surrender. Here is a list of situations where you can take early surrender against a dealer’s ace or 10, regardless of the rules, unless otherwise stated.
- Dealer ace verses hard 12-17
- Dealer ace verses hard 5-7
- Dealer ace verses a pair of 8’s, 7’s, 6’s, or 3’s
- Dealer 10 verses a pair of 8’s or 7’s
- Dealer 10 versus hard 14-16
- Dealer ace versus pair of 2’s if the dealer hits soft 17
- Don’t surrender 10 versus 5+9 or 4+10 in a single deck
- Don’t surrender 10 versus 4+10 in double deck
- Don’t surrender 8,8 versus 10 in single deck if a blackjack double down following a split is allowed
Most US casinos employ a strategy known as late surrender. With this variation, the dealer may check their second card to establish whether they have Blackjack if their face-up card is worth 10 or an Ace. If they don’t, surrenders are permitted. However, if they do, surrenders aren’t allowed. This means that only after the dealer has checked their hand for blackjack can the player forfeit their hand and lose half of their bet.
As a result, the surrender option’s effectiveness is drastically reduced to between.05 and.1 percent. This may not seem like much. However, keep in mind that when late surrender is used properly, the edge on a 6-deck shoe with loose house rules decreases from 0.42 percent to 0.35 percent, or nearly 20 percent overall. In order to reduce the house edge when it is available, late surrender may be another tool.
The following is a summary of the rules of late surrender:
- You should only surrender if you are dealt a 16 and the dealer possesses a 9 up. And only if there are at least four decks in the game.
- You need to always surrender if you’ve got a 16 and all 15s, unless it is a single-deck game and the dealer possesses a 10.
- If the dealer has an ace, the outcome depends on whether the house stands or hits a soft 17.
- Regardless of the number of decks in play, always surrender the 16. If they hit a soft 17, you should always surrender 17, 16, and 15.
Checking whether surrender is allowed and whether the rules follow the late surrender or early surrender process is crucial, whether you are playing blackjack at a casino table or in an online casino.
When is it Always the Best Time to Surrender in Blackjack?
You still need to think about whether surrendering is the best option in your current situation, in addition to following the rules for when this option is available.
The majority of blackjack strategies only actively advise surrender in a small number of situations. These all occur, perhaps not surprisingly, when the dealer has a face-up card that is likely to offer them a strong hand and you’ve an opening hand whose hard value is between 15 and 17 (generally regarded as the weakest beginning you can have).
If the dealer has a face-up card of nine, a card valued at ten, or an ace and you’ve an opening hand whose hard value is 16 (not made up of a pair of eights though), you should surrender. Standing in this situation leaves you with only one chance to win: if the dealer busts, which only has a roughly 11.7%, 21.4%, or 23.4% chance of happening with a face-up nine, ten, or nine, respectively.
In contrast, if you lose, you automatically have a 61.6% probability of going bust and only have a 30.8% probability of getting a hand worth between 18 and 21, as opposed to the dealer’s 57.1% odds. In essence, no matter how you choose to approach the situation, the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against you. Therefore, giving up makes the most sense.
The same rule applies if the face-up card of the dealer is an ace and you’ve a hard hand worth 17 points. In this situation, standing gives the dealer a roughly 61.5% probability of getting a second card to improve their hand or enable them to hit again for another chance to get a soft 17 and build a strong hand.
If you choose to hit, there’s a 69.2% chance that you will lose money. Again, this suggests that the best course of action is to give up.
If you’ve got a hard hand whose value is 15 and the dealer’s face-up card is valued at 10 or is an Ace, the odds of winning are against you to a similar degree. If you choose to stand, you are giving the dealer a 88.3% or 78.6% chance of winning, depending on whether their face-up card is an ace or worth, respectively. In contrast to the dealer’s 38.4% chance of getting a blackjack or a 20, if you hit, you would have an unfavorable 58.1% chance of losing and just a 15.3% odd chance of getting a 21 or a 20.
What Is Surrender In Blackjack? Pros and Cons
Let’s quickly examine the benefits and drawbacks of surrender in a blackjack game.
Pros
- It lessens the house advantage in some cases.
- Card counters can make profits.
- It partially enables you to recover from a losing hand.
- Rather than losing the entire bet, you will only lose 50%.
Cons
- With the surrender rule in place, card counting is impossible in online blackjack games.
- It isn’t always easy to decide whether to keep playing or surrender.
Conclusion on what is surrender in blackjack
In particular blackjack situations, the surrender option is intriguing and extremely helpful. The option will be very helpful in some circumstances if you’re an excellent blackjack player who uses a variety of playing strategies, particularly when you know you’ll lose. It’s always preferable to get half your wager back than to lose it all, which is why you should think about using the surrender option.
