Understanding Early Surrender in Blackjack

Apr 7, 2011 Casino Gambling Today

While it is not a common rule to be found at blackjack tables and in online blackjack games, it is important to understand what early surrender is in blackjack so that you can take advantage of it if you stumble across a game that offers it.

There are two types of surrender in blackjack first off: early and late. Late is the more common of the two, but of the two early is preferred. The two only differ in when the surrender can happen. Otherwise they play out in the same way: when declaring that you are surrendering the cards are given up and half of your wager is taken by the house and the other half can go back into your bankroll.

Now down to timing and early surrender. As you might have guessed early surrender happens early in the round. Early surrender happens before any plays are made and before the dealer checks to see if he has blackjack. In other words, you are making this decision based off of what your first two cards are and what the dealer’s up card is—if you are playing in a blackjack game in which the dealer gets a hole card, some variations allow for early surrender but the dealer does not have a hole card.

So early surrender is kind of like folding in poker, except you do not lose your entire wager, only half of it.

Early surrender can increase your edge by up to 0.24% so it is well worth keeping an eye out for a game of blackjack that offers early surrender since it has an impact on your blackjack odds.

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• Playing One Hand of Blackjack vs. Two Hands
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Tags: Blackjack, Early Surrender