We take a look at what it means to surrender in real money blackjack, the difference between late and early surrender and where international players can find it online in the live dealer format. This guide is for informational purposes only for Australians due to the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 ruling online gambling as illegal as of September 2017.
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What does it mean to surrender in blackjack?
Some blackjack titles at land-based casinos offer the option to surrender. Surrender is similar to the La Partage rule in roulette, to help players out when their bets aren’t the best.
When playing traditional blackjack you are dealt two cards and the dealer is dealt one upcard. Here you can tell the strength of your hand and the likelihood of whether or not you will win.
The rule variation of surrender allows players to fold and receive half their bet back instead of continuing on with the game and losing all of their bet – as you can see it is very similar to the La Partage rule in French roulette. However, surrender in 21 should only ever be used if you have a really bad hand, for example your hand totals 16 and the dealer’s up card is a 10.
Surrender also is used in conjunction with the basic strategy and this relies on the number of decks played. Therefore, while the above example should always result in a surrender there are times with other hands that the number of decks are relevant to whether you should surrender or not.
For example, with eight decks it is recommended to surrender if you have a hand totalling 16 and the dealer has a nine, but advised against if only two decks are in play. These are just some of the factors which need to be considered before utilising the surrender option.
Additionally, surrender may be allowed early or late if the dealer as an Ace as their upcard.
What’s the difference between early and late surrender?
When it comes to the surrender option, there’s certain times which may see the player allowed to surrender when the dealer has an Ace. These times are known as Early Surrender and Late Surrender. Unfortunately, there’s rarely any titles at land-based casinos which allow Early Surrender, but you can find it online and even in live dealer format which we detail below.
The difference between the two is as follows;
Early Surrender: sees you eligible to recoup half your bet before the dealer peeks to see if they have blackjack – if they have Ace.
Late Surrender: on the other hand is allowed after the dealer peaks for blackjack on an ace and ten as their starting cards.
The former is more favourable to the player, and luckily for real money online blackjack players there is a live dealer variant offering this rule. The latter can be found on RNG titles including Microgaming’s Atlantic City Blackjack.
Live dealer blackjack variants offering surrender
As we mentioned above, surrender isn’t available on all blackjack variants but when it is many players tend to make the mistake of viewing the move as a bad option.
It’s only a bad option if you have a good hand and you can tell this by using the basic strategy, which relies on the number of decks and the rules in play to determine the best move possible.
If playing at a land-based casino, you may need to ask if the surrender option is available, but if you don’t want to waste your time simply head to G’day Casino for the only live dealer variant which offers Surrender on its live blackjack variant.
When to Surrender in Ezugi’s Live Dealer blackjack
Ezugi offers a live dealer blackjack variant which is often overlooked due to the huge range of variants on offer by top live dealer specialists, including Evolution Gaming and Extreme Gaming. However, this provider shouldn’t be forgotten about as it offers Early Surrender, on its live dealer blackjack variant, so if the dealer has an Ace and you have a 16 you can receive half your bet back instead of losing.
Ezugi also offers multiple blackjack tables to choose from with a variety of table limits, from a minimum of $5 and a maximum of $200, plus a variety of dealers. Standard Surrender is available if the dealer’s up card isn’t an Ace, and we found the best times to do so at Ezugi’s live blackjack table.
The game is played with eight standard decks, the dealer has to Stand on Soft 17s, the player can Double after Splitting and on any two cards, and Blackjack pays 3:2.
With these rules in mind we took to Google for the basic and the allowance of Surrender to work out the best time to opt for the move. The overall statistic for considering Surrender, is whenever you are going to lose by at least 75%.
The following times are when you should always opt for surrender:
- Surrender on a hard 16 when the dealer holds an Ace (early Surrender), 10, or a nine
- Surrender hard 15 when the dealer holds a ten.
Ezugi’s live dealer blackjack is said to have an incredibly low house edge, of 0.21% thanks to the Surrender rule. This is incredibly low for a live dealer blackjack variant and ideal for all 21 players.