An Expert’s Guide to Blackjack Surrender

The Surrender Rule Explained

If you surrender a hand in blackjack, then you are abandoning the hand and in exchange receive half of your bet back. However, there are two different versions of the surrender rule in blackjack, one more common than the other.

Early Surrender means that you may surrender your hand if the dealer is showing an Ace or a 10 value card but before the dealer checks for Blackjack. This is a hugely advantageous rule for the player. If you are playing blackjack with six decks and the dealer is required to stand on soft 17s, it will reduce the house edge by up to 0.63%.

Unfortunately, it is rare to find games that offer Early Surrender. Far more common is Late Surrender. In these games, you may only surrender your hand after the dealer has checked for blackjack. If the dealer does have blackjack, then there is no option to surrender a hand. However, while it may not be as advantageous as Early Surrender, it can still reduce the house edge by 0.07%, which is not something to be ignored.

Hands that Should Be Surrendered

Regardless of what version of blackjack you are playing, you will always have the option of looking up the strategy chart. This will tell you exactly when you should be surrendering based upon the statistical probability of the outcome of different hands.

However, many people prefer to play without strategy charts. If you are one such player, then there are some general rules that you can remember. To a certain extent, deciding whether or not to surrender a hand will depend upon your style of play. Some players may choose to surrender a hand of 14 while others may keep it and hope the dealer busts (of course, depending on what the dealer is showing).

As a general guide, you should surrender a hand if it has less than a 25% chance of winning. Once again, if you are not a mathematician, you can refer to charts that show what a hand’s chance of winning is. For example, if the dealer is showing an ace and you are holding 16. You cannot risk hitting and you have a small chance of winning, therefore, you should surrender.

You should not be surrendering very often. Even when you surrender a hand, you still lose half of your bet. Therefore, you need to be confident that you have almost no chance of winning.

Hands that Should Not Be Surrendered

The majority of hands should not be surrendered and very often, this is obvious. For instance, any hand worth more than 17 has a good chance of winning and should always be kept. It is hands that are worth less than 17 but more than 10 that are tricky to decide about and often it will depend on what the dealer is showing. You would obviously hit on anything under 10 and never consider surrendering.

Blackjack Surrender Strategies

It is highly unlikely that you will be playing a game offering Early Surrender, so these strategies are only applicable to those that offer Late Surrender.

Many people say that you should consider surrendering if you have a hard hand total, the dealer is showing a strong card, and if you hit, there is a real chance of you going bust. Truly conservative players may even opt to surrender if they feel they have less than a 50% chance of winning with a hard total.

However, we shall now look at some specific examples. To begin with, single deck blackjack games. When playing single deck blackjack there are five situations when you should always surrender:

1. If you have a hard 16 and the dealer shows an ace or a 10. This is true both in games where the dealer stands on soft 17 and hard 17.
2. If you are holding a pair of 7s and the dealer shows a 10, but only in games where the dealer stands on soft 17.
3. If you are holding a hard 16 and the dealer shows an ace, but only in games where the dealer stands on hard 17.
4. If you are holding a pair of 7s and the dealer shows and ace or 10, but only in games where the dealer stands on hard 17.
5. If you have a hard 17 and the dealer has an ace, but only in games where the dealer stands on hard 18. While this may sound slightly counterintuitive, it is because hard 17 is below the average winning hand value of 18.5 and there is a high chance that the dealer will draw a stronger hand than you have.

Those five rules will always be applicable when playing single deck blackjack, and you should always be aware of how many decks you are playing with. However, not many games use a single deck.

There are also five situations when you should always surrender in two deck blackjack games:

1. If you are holding hard 15 and the dealer is showing 10, but only in games where the dealer stands on soft 17.
2. If you are holding hard 16 and the dealer is showing a 10 or an ace, but only in games where the dealer stands on soft 17.
3. If you are holding hard 15 or 16 and the dealer is showing an ace or a 10, but only in games where the dealer stands on hard 17.
4. If you are holding hard 17 and the dealer is showing an ace, but only in games where the dealer stands on hard 17.
5. If you have a pair of 8s and the dealer is showing an ace, but only in games where the dealer stands on hard 17 and you are unable to double down after splitting the pair. If you may do so, then you should split and double down rather than surrender.

As you are no doubt aware, the vast majority of blackjack games are played with four, six or eight decks of cards. However, even with so many decks, the surrender rule can come to your aid. In these games, there are once again five situations where you should surrender:

1. If you are holding hard 15 and the dealer is showing a 10, but only in games where the dealer stands on soft 17.
2. If you are holding hard 16 and the dealer is showing a 9, 10 or ace, but only in games where the dealer stands on soft 17 and hard 17.
3. If you are holding hard 15 and the dealer is showing a 10 or an ace, but only in games where the dealer stands on hard 17.
4. If you are holding hard 17 and the dealer is showing an ace, but only in games where the dealer stands on hard 17.
5. If you are holding a pair of 8s and the dealer is showing an ace, but only in games where the dealer stands on hard 17.

These rules will help you to reduce the house edge and improve your chances of winning. However, if you want to be a true expert player, the best thing would be to memorise the strategy chart for a blackjack game that offers the surrender rule. That way you can be confident of always making the right decisions.