Should You Surrender in Blackjack? A Smart Player’s Guide

The Surrender option in blackjack allows players to forfeit their current bet on purpose but receive half of their total stake back. This optional rule comes in several variants including late and early surrender, significantly broadening the tools at the player’s disposal.

Although there are many live blackjack games with Surrender rules out there, it’s an underappreciated feature that many beginners completely ignore. However, if used correctly, the Surrender option can significantly improve your net winnings by decreasing your losses. In fact, many blackjack strategy charts use Surrendering to optimize their RTP.

This article offers an in-depth explanation of how Surrender works in blackjack. We’ll also go over specific cases in which you should surrender in blackjack and consider when, how, and why you should implement this option into your strategy.

Key Takeaways

The Surrender rule in blackjack allows players to give up on their current hand and receive half of their stake back.
Late Surrender only allows you to surrender after the dealer checks for blackjack; Early Surrender means that you can give up before the check.
Blackjack tables that allow players to Surrender have a lower house edge than those that do not.
According to basic blackjack strategy, surrendering is statistically optimal in certain situations, such as hand totals of 15 or 16 versus a dealer 10 or Ace.

What is the Surrender Rule in Blackjack?

The Surrender rule provides an additional option to players that can be used instead of the usual Hit, Stand, Double, and Split. Deciding to Surrender means that you immediately lose the current round. However, you only lose half of your total stake instead of all of it.

Players can only Surrender after receiving their first two cards, i.e. their hole cards. Once you make any other decisions such as a Hit or Split, Surrendering is no longer available.

Generally speaking, the Surrender rule is considered a player-friendly addition to any blackjack table. Tables that allow you to surrender have between 0.07% and 0.39% higher RTP than tables that do not. In other words, a game that allows you to take the Surrender option is objectively better than one that doesn’t, assuming all of the other rules are identical.

The main use of Surrendering is to pre-emptively give up on poor hands. While losing half your stake sounds bad, it’s certainly better than losing all of it. This optional move offers new strategic options that can significantly improve your winnings in the long run.

Every blackjack player has likely been in a situation where giving up would have been the best move. You probably know those situations all too well – you get a horrible hand while the dealer is showing a 10, and the whole round seems like a slow plod to a certain loss. By Surrendering, you at least get a chance to reduce the sting of that loss.

Types of Surrender: Early vs. Late

There are two main types of Surrender rules in blackjack – Early Surrender and Late Surrender. The main difference between the two is whether the dealer gets to check for blackjack before you are offered a chance to surrender.

Early Surrender

As the name implies, Early Surrender allows players to surrender before the dealer checks their hand for a Blackjack.

This variant of the rule makes Surrendering an immensely useful option. Think of it this way – most of the hands you would want to Surrender are ones where the dealer is showing an Ace or 10. In other words, it’s hands where the dealer has a shot at drawing a Natural 21 and beating you outright.

In fact, the Early Surrender rule had such a tremendous effect on house advantage that it became an issue for casinos in Atlantic City in the 70s when it was first introduced. By some estimates, this rule increases the game’s RTP by a whopping 0.39%. If we consider that blackjack RTP generally sits around 99.50%, adding this one little option almost completely removes the casino’s house advantage.

That’s why Early Surrendering is an extremely rare sight these days. Almost no land-based casinos use it, barring some rare exceptions in Europe and Asia.

There are very rare examples of online blackjack games with Early Surrender enabled. However, these games are typically saddled with other rule variations that counteract the increased RTP. For example, many such games also allow dealers to hit Soft 17s.

Late Surrender

Late Surrender only allows players to Surrender after the dealer checks their hand for a natural Blackjack.

This means that it’s impossible to avoid an outright loss due to a dealer’s Natural. In turn, this makes Late Surrender noticeably less useful than Early Surrender.

To be clear, it’s still a good rule to have at your table. It’s the only type of Surrendering you can easily find these days, and it’s certainly better than not being able to Surrender at all.

However, most calculations agree that Early Surrender increases the table’s RTP by around 0.07%. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s still a noticeable blow to the house advantage, which sits around 0.50% in blackjack.

As such, Early Surrender is much more common in both online and brick-and-mortar casinos. For example, some Ezugi Live Blackjack tables feature the rule, as well as Live Blackjack from BetConstruct.

If you’re playing at a real casino, your best bet is to simply ask the dealer whether you can Surrender late or early.

When to Use the Surrender Option

We already mentioned a few times that Surrendering is a valuable option that can be used as part of basic blackjack strategy. This brings up a very obvious question – when should you Surrender in Blackjack?

In short, you want to surrender whenever your hand is weak but the dealer’s card is strong. To be more specific, here are the exact situations in which surrendering is statistically the best decision, as per optimal blackjack strategy:

Hard 16 vs Dealer 9, 10, or Ace – Statistically, a hole card total of 16 is the most likely player hand to lose any round of blackjack if the dealer is showing 9 or stronger. As such, surrendering these hands is the best move according to basic blackjack strategy charts.
Hard 15 vs Dealer 10 or Ace – Similarly, a Hard 15 is a hand you’ll want to Stand on but offers very little chance of actually winning. However, statistics show that you should only surrender if the dealer is showing 10 or an Ace.
Hard 17 vs Dealer Ace – Although a Hard 17 is not a terrible position on its own, it’s also very likely to lose against a dealer Ace. As such, it’s best to cut your losses and take a Late Surrender.

Note that our tips assume that the table you’re on uses 4 decks or more. In single-deck or double-deck games, you never want to surrender against a Dealer 9.

Exceptions

There are some exceptions to the rules we outlined above. These exceptions are largely tied to the specific card values that make up your hand total. In other words, deciding whether to surrender is composition-dependent instead of being total-dependent.

Pair of 8s vs Dealer 9 or 10 – If your hand total of 16 is up against a dealer 9 or 10, you may wish to Split the hand instead of doubling it. However, you should still surrender if the dealer is showing an Ace.
8+7 vs Dealer 10 – In this specific scenario, you should consider Standing instead of Surrendering. The expected value is almost identical for both options, so the optimal decision may depend on the card count.
Hard 15 vs Dealer Ace if the Dealer Stands on Soft 17 – On tables where the dealer is forced to Stand on a Soft 17, your chances of beating a dealer Ace are higher than usual. As a result, you should Stand instead of Surrendering.

When to Surrender in Blackjack: 4-8 Decks, Late Surrender
Player Hand Total	Dealer’s Up-card
	9	10	A
15	No	Yes	Yes (unless the Dealer Stands on Soft 17)
16	Yes (unless you have a pair of 8s)	Yes (unless you have a pair of 8s)	Yes

When to Use Early Surrender

If the table rules allow you to take an Early Surrender, there are some additional moments where Surrendering becomes the optimal solution.

Hard 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, or 17 vs Dealer Ace – A dealer showing an Ace has a very strong chance to get a Natural 21. As a result, surrendering is the best option in many scenarios.
Hard 14, 15, 16 vs Dealer 10 – A dealer 10 is a much better situation than an Ace because they’re much more likely to draw a 10-value card than an Ace, which means a dealer Natural is less likely to happen. However, exceptionally weak hands such as 14s and 15s should still be surrendered.
Pair of 3s, 6s, 7s, or 8s vs Dealer Ace – While Splitting is the right answer to many situations in which you can Split at all, doing so with weak cards against a dealer Ace is generally a poor move.
Pairs of 7s or 8s vs Dealer 10 – Similarly, some hands are too weak to be worth Splitting even against a Dealer 10.

When to Surrender in Blackjack: 4-8 Decks, Early Surrender
Player Hand Total	Dealer’s Up-card
	9	10	A
5	No	No	Yes
6	No	No	Yes
7	No	No	Yes
8	No	No	No
9	No	No	No
10	No	No	No
11	No	No	No
12	No	No	Yes
13	No	No	Yes
14	No	Yes	Yes
15	No	Yes	Yes
16	Yes	Yes	Yes
17	No	No	Yes

House Edge and Surrender

As we’ve already mentioned, tables that allow players to Surrender have a lower house advantage than tables that do not. This is universally true for all blackjack games, regardless of the other rules or the setting.

Of course, casinos sometimes use other rules to negate the RTP advantage that Surrendering offers. That’s why it’s so important to read and understand every rule of a specific blackjack game before sitting down and risking your money.

The exact effect on a game’s house edge depends on several factors: whether you can Surrender early or not, the number of decks in the game, and whether you’re allowed to Surrender on any dealer total.

In games with 4+ decks per shoe, the Late Surrender rule decreases the house edge by 0.07% compared to games with identical rules and no option to surrender.
In games with one or two decks, the Late Surrender rule decreases the house edge by up to 0.22%. However, this combination of rules is almost unheard of in modern casino gaming.
In games with 4+ decks per shoe, the Early Surrender option decreases the house edge by 0.39%.
The effects of Early Surrender on the house edge of a single-deck game are unknown because no one ever made such a table.

Keep in mind that these figures assume you’re playing according to basic blackjack strategy charts. If you’re not using Surrender optimally, the house advantage can be much bigger overall.

When Not to Surrender

While it is tempting to opt for surrender on any hand which will probably lose, the correct strategy is to only surrender on the very worst hands, because having even a one-in-four chance of winning the full bet is better than losing half the bet

How to Execute a Surrender

By now, some of you are probably thinking – so how do I surrender in blackjack? We’ve covered all the use cases and all of the best practices, now it’s time to cover the actual process.

In Land-Based Casinos:

In land-based casinos, the most common way to Surrender is to either tell the dealer you’re Surrendering or make a specific hand gesture. You can also do both at the same time to ensure you’ve communicated your decision properly.

The most common hand signal for Surrendering in blackjack is to use your index finger to draw an imaginary horizontal line behind your bet. Simply place the tip of your finger on the left side of your betting position and drag it across the table surface to the right.

However, it should be said that there is no standard, universal signal for surrendering in blackjack. Some casinos do things differently.

That’s why it’s always best to also announce to the dealer that you’re surrendering. This has the added benefit of avoiding any confusion since the hand signal is relatively similar to the one used for Hitting.

However, we still recommend asking the dealer for the proper signals and etiquette. They’ll be happy to walk you through it.

In Online Casinos:

If you’re playing online, things are much easier. Both live dealer blackjack games and RNG-based online games simply include a button that allows you to Surrender whenever possible.

This button is typically found right next to the other player decisions such as Hit or Stand. Don’t be surprised if you can’t find it unless you currently have an active bet.

Just hit the right button and you’ll surrender your current hand while receiving half of your initial stake back.

The screenshot below shows an example of the Surrender option in a live dealer blackjack game. Specifically, it’s from BetConstruct Live Blackjack. Obviously, other games and providers may choose to do things differently, but most of these UI elements follow similar principles.

Common Misconceptions About Surrender

This rule’s name and purpose are often cause for confusion among players – especially beginners. We should address some of these misconceptions to further illustrate when and why Surrendering is a good option.

Surrendering is for “quitters” – The most common misconception about surrendering is that it’s somehow against the player’s interests since the goal of every player is to win. However, winning in blackjack is not a simple matter of winning or losing a single round. Instead, the goal is to win more money than you lose over many rounds. With that in mind, the ability to decrease losses is just as valuable as the ability to increase winnings.
Surrendering is not a part of basic strategy – Blackjack charts are more or less standardized in this day and age. All of them recommend surrendering in some scenarios, such as the ones we discussed above. Mathematicians and statisticians figured out the optimal decision in every possible situation decades ago. According to their findings, there are definitely situations in which Surrendering is the best move you can make. In fact, many charts recommend a different decision only if surrendering is not allowed at the table.
Surrendering is a bad decision because even the worst hands still have a chance to win – There is some truth to this statement: yes, the nature of gambling is that even the worst hole cards can still win the round. However, Surrendering should not be used for every bad hand or every high dealer up-card. It’s only a good option when the chances of winning are so small that they’re not worth even half your bankroll. These situations are rare, but they do happen.

Tips for Players

We’ll round this guide off with a few useful tips for blackjack with Surrender allowed. Making use of this player-friendly option is not difficult, but you should still keep a few things in mind.

Know When to Surrender – The scenarios we described above are not just examples of situations in which you should consider Surrendering. They’re all of the situations in which Surrendering is statistically the best option. You can either learn them by heart or simply use a blackjack chart that takes Surrendering into account. Either way, there are times you should Surrender and times you shouldn’t, and you need to learn the difference if you want to use the option effectively.
Check if Surrender is Allowed – Whether you’re playing live or online, you’ll want to know the exact rules of any blackjack table you’re considering playing on. You’ll also want to know the specifics of when and how you can surrender. Either ask the dealer in land-based casinos or check the rule screen of online games to find out the details.
Don’t Overuse Surrender – While some players steer clear of Surrendering, others are way too enthusiastic about it. The scenarios in which Surrender is the optimal move are relatively few and far between. Surrendering in any other situation is a sub-optimal decision that will cost you value in the long term.
Practice with Free Online Blackjack – If you’re not confident in your understanding of how blackjack Surrender works or when you should use it, getting some practice is the perfect solution. While live blackjack typically requires you to have some cash on hand, RNG-based online blackjack is often available in demo mode. This mode allows you to play the game without real money, which is perfect for risk-free practice.

Conclusion

Like Doubling or Splitting, Surrendering is a valuable tool that players can use to maximize their profits while playing blackjack. It’s not allowed at every table, but games that allow surrendering are statistically better for us as players.

However, it’s not a move that you should use lightly. You’re still giving up half of your stake, and you should only do so if the chances of you winning the round are incredibly small.

As such, the surrender move in blackjack is best used sparingly. Basic blackjack strategy outlines a few specific scenarios in which surrendering is the best decision, but those scenarios are relatively rare.

Either way, incorporating Surrendering into your strategy can result in decreased losses, increased net winnings, and an overall reduction in the game’s house edge.

Hopefully, this guide has provided you with everything you need to use the Surrender rule in blackjack effectively. Check out this page for more in-depth strategy guides for various casino games.

You can also stop by our main blackjack page to find the best live blackjack games to play and the top casinos to find them on. The page also contains various other resources to help you improve your game, such as our guide to card counting or a breakdown of blackjack Insurance.

FAQ

What is the surrender rule in blackjack?

The surrender rule adds an optional decision for players that allows them to forfeit the current hand willingly and receive half of their stake back. This decision can be made only after revealing your initial two cards and the dealer’s up-card.

What is the difference between Early Surrender and Late Surrender?

Early Surrender allows players to surrender before the dealer checks their hand for Blackjack, which only happens if the dealer’s up-card is a 10 or an Ace. Conversely, Late Surrender only allows players to forfeit their hand after the dealer checks for blackjack.

When should you surrender in blackjack?

As per basic blackjack strategy, you should only surrender in these specific scenarios:

Your hand total is 17 against a dealer 9, 10, or Ace
You have a Hard 16 against a dealer 10 or Ace
You have a Hard 16 against a dealer Ace

Should I surrender a pair of 8s against a 10?

No. In this specific case, the best move is to split your 8s.

Does surrendering reduce the house edge?

Yes, but only if you use it in situations when it’s optimal to do so. When used effectively, the Surrender rule decreases the house edge of blackjack by 0.07-0.32%, depending on the exact rules.

Is surrender allowed in all blackjack games?

No. Surrendering is only allowed in games that specifically feature Early or Late Surrender rules. If you’re not sure whether the game you’re playing allows you to surrender, check with the dealer. If you’re playing online, you can find information about table rules in the in-game help screen.

Can I surrender after hitting or doubling down?

No. You can only surrender immediately after receiving your initial two cards. As soon as you decide to Hit or Double, you will no longer be able to surrender in that round.

Why do some players avoid using the surrender rule?

Because consciously deciding to lose a round of blackjack feels bad, even when it’s statistically the best decision you can make. Moreover, the rarity of surrender rules in blackjack means that there are a lot of misconceptions out there, which leads to misinformed players.

Should You Surrender in Blackjack? A Smart Player’s Guide

Key Takeaways

What is the Surrender Rule in Blackjack?

Types of Surrender: Early vs. Late

Early Surrender

Late Surrender

When to Use the Surrender Option

Exceptions

When to Use Early Surrender

House Edge and Surrender

When Not to Surrender

How to Execute a Surrender

In Land-Based Casinos:

In Online Casinos:

Common Misconceptions About Surrender

Tips for Players

Conclusion

FAQ

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