An interesting option called surrender is offered in a few casinos and is favorable to the skillful player. There are many “forms” of surrender. In the United States, the most common one is as follows: No matter what the dealer’s up card is the player may surrender the first two cards for half of the initial bet. The player may surrender only if the dealer does not have blackjack.
For example, assume that George made a $100 bet, he receives (9, 7), and the dealer has a ten up (but does not have blackjack). In this case, George may surrender his hand. If he decides to exercise this option, the dealer will remove $50 from his bet and leave rest for George.
Incidentally, the players who do not keep track of cards should surrender (9, 7) when the dealer has a ten up.
Many players do not know when to surrender. Other players do not like to surrender.
Consider, for example, the case of (9, 7) against a dealer’s ten. This is a losing hand, no matter what one does. As indicated above, the players who do not keep track of cards should surrender this hand. It can be proven mathematically that the players, who do not surrender, lose more in the long run.
Assume that the cards are dealt/ace down. To surrender, the player must turn the cards face up and say “surrender.” The player must make certain that the dealer understands what he wants to do.
Special care should be taken when the cards are dealt face up. To surrender, in this case, the player should say “surrender” (loud enough). The player should keep his hands still and away from the cards, any movement of the hands might be interpreted by the dealer as “hit” or “stand.”
A variant of the surrender option, described above, allows the player to surrender the first two cards only when the dealer has an ace or a ten up.
Another variant is the so called early surrender. It is offered mainly in the case of no hole-card games. Under this rule the player may surrender before the dealer checks (or receives) his hole card. When the dealer has an ace up, he has a probability of little less than 1/3, of ending with a blackjack. It is obvious therefore, that when early surrender is allowed, the player must surrender much more often.