In the game of blackjack, whether you are playing on line on the Internet or on a blackjack table in a casino that you drive to, you could possibly be offered the option to “surrender” your hand. Not all casinos that you drive to or blackjack tables on the Internet offer this as an option. Some casinos offer early surrender while some casinos offer late surrender.
Early surrender in blackjack is when all the cards have been dealt to the blackjack players and the blackjack dealer and before the blackjack dealer checks his or her hand for a blackjack or natural twenty one, which is an ace and a ten valued card for the blackjack dealer, you, the blackjack player would have the option of surrendering your blackjack hand, which means you sacrifice half of your original bet and you would be able to get out of the blackjack hand, to avoid losing your entire original bet, if the blackjack dealer has a blackjack or natural twenty one.
Late surrender is after all the cards have been dealt out to the blackjack players and the blackjack dealer and after the blackjack dealer checks his or her hand for a blackjack or natural twenty one and finds that the house does not have a blackjack or a natural twenty one, at that point you, the blackjack player would have the option of surrendering your blackjack hand by sacrificing half of your original wager and getting out of the blackjack hand, to avoid losing your entire wager to the blackjack dealer’s better hand.
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Have you ever found yourself sitting at a blackjack table, either in a casino that you drive to or on the Internet and get dealt a very undesirable sixteen and the blackjack dealer is showing a seven, eight, nine, ten valued card or ace and you just have that horrible feeling that you are looking at a losing blackjack hand, no matter what you do, hit or stand, you just feel you are going to lose? Well, at some casinos, at some blackjack tables, you may have the option of bailing out of the blackjack hand before hitting the sixteen and busting, or standing on the losing sixteen, only to see the blackjack dealer flip over a ten valued card under his or her seven, eight, nine or ten valued card and take your entire bet? That’s what “surrender” in blackjack is, the ability to prevent such undesirable scenarios, at the cost of half of your original wager.
The problem is, knowing when to take full advantage of the house’s offer to surrender on your sixteen, or any other point total hand for that matter. Since you are automatically going to lose half of your wager when you chose to surrender your hand in blackjack, it is best to use this option very wisely.
A lot of blackjack players have a lot of very different ideas as to if and when to use the option of surrendering your blackjack hand. Some of the blackjack players base their decision whether or not to surrender their blackjack hand on mathematical odds, some use basic strategy, some use a hunch or simply don’t have a clue of when to surrender their hand in blackjack. I always suggest, with any decision in the game of blackjack, with any hand in blackjack, to go with the math and be consistent. Consistantsy is the key to avoiding those “kick yourself” moments for not following your heart. The best way to stay consistent, is to play by basic strategy when playing blackjack.
Basic Strategy for blackjack is designed by using mathematical odds, calculated by a computer and can usually be found on a credit card sized chart that fits nicely in to your back pocket. The basic strategy card can be found in a lot of casino gift shops as well as over the Internet. It is very important to make sure that the basic strategy card you buy and look to for advice on any given blackjack hand is designed for the very conditions under which you plan to play. For example, if the blackjack basic strategy card you purchase is for blackjack tables that the dealer stays on all seventeens, it is very important to make sure you use it when playing at tables where the dealer stays on all seventeens, in other words, if the blackjack dealer at the blackjack table you plan to play at is forced to hit his or her soft seventeens, you may want to find a blackjack basic strategy card that is designed for blackjack tables where the blackjack dealer hits soft seventeen.
The blackjack basic strategy card that I am looking at, is designed for blackjack tables where the blackjack dealer stays on all seventeens, if the blackjack table you plan to play at hits soft seventeen, I would ignore the examples of when to surrender your blackjack hand that I am about to give and go out and find yourself a more applicable blackjack basic strategy card to look to before playing. The strategy card I am using advises that when you are dealt a two card combination that totals fifteen and the blackjack dealer is showing an up card of a ten valued card or an ace, you should surrender your blackjack hand. It also recommends that if you are dealt two cards that total a sixteen and the blackjack dealer is showing an up card of a nine, ten valued card or ace, then you should also surrender at that time as well. In the case where you are dealt a seventeen, you should only surrender your blackjack hand if the blackjack dealer is showing an up card of an ace, no other up card should be surrendered against, according to the blackjack basic strategy card that I am closely following.
It is very important to keep in mind, no matter how well you follow basic strategy for blackjack, no matter how much you do every thing it advises, you will most likely not win every hand of blackjack you play. In fact, it is not even a promise that you will win on all of your larger amount wagers. Don’t be at all surprised that if you surrender your hand on your sixteen and the next blackjack player that hits their blackjack hand gets a five, which would have given you a total of twenty one, it can and will happen, but not always. Basic strategy is just that, basic. Hopefully if you follow blackjack basic strategy when playing blackjack, you will come out ahead more often than if you did not follow blackjack basic strategy.