To surrender a blackjack hand, the main things you should pay attention to are your cards and the dealer's cards. But, you should also consider the available options, which are:
- Early surrender
- Late surrender
Remember that different online casinos offer either variations or both, so be sure to check that out, before starting to create your blackjack strategy, as if you don't, you may be disappointed when you start playing.
Early Surrender
The early surrender rule allows you to give up on your hand just after all players are dealt with their two cards, but before the dealer checks his hole card.
When to use the early surrender rule in blackjack?
The early surrender option is extremely helpful when the dealer's hand is better than yours, such as in situations like the following.
- When the dealer has an ace and you hit a hard 5, 6, or 7
- When the dealer has a ten and you have a pair of 8s or 7s
- When the dealer has an ace and you have a pair of 3s, 6s, 7s, or 8s
- When the dealer has a ten and you hit hard, 14, 15, or 16
- When the dealer has an ace and you hit hard 12, 13, 15, 16 or 17
Those are just a few examples of when you can benefit from surrendering. But overall, remember that most of the time when the dealer has an ace or a ten, you can give up your hand.
Late Surrender
Late surrender is more widespread among online casinos. This is a rule that, aside from the early surrender, allows you to give up on your cards once the dealer peaked on his.
Late surrender is the only option available in most games, so it's good to know what it is. This rule gives you the opportunity to give up on your hand after the dealer checks his cards.
If that's your only option, you sometimes have to use the late surrender rules when holding 14, 15, 16, or even 17, depending on the version you are playing. So, let's take a deeper look into some bad hands that you should consider surrendering.
When to use the late surrender rule in blackjack?
- If the dealer has a 9 and you have 16, only when the game has at least 4 decks,
- If the dealer has 10, and you have 16, or 15 if the game is only 1 deck,
- If the dealer stands on 17s, always surrender despite the number of decks.
- If you hit 17, you should surrender the dealer's ace in a single-deck game.
- If you are dealt 16 and the dealer holds an ace or 10 in a single or double deck game
Remember that these rules will always lose half your bet, but sometimes it's better to forfeit half than all of it.
Probably, the only times when the surrender rules will go against you is when you are counting cards, but apart from that, these rules can come in handy, especially if you are trying to win long-term.