Surrendering at Blackjack

More and more casinos are offering the player option of  “surrender”. This is a very good move for the player. For example, if you were holding a hand totaling 16 and the dealer showed a 10 up card, you have a 77% chance of losing that hand. By surrendering, you throw your hand in and in return the dealer only takes half your bet. This leaves you with funds to play the next round. I’ve had dealers tell me things like “you’re here to gamble and by surrendering you are not playing at all”. Don’t worry about what is said; surrendering is a good option for the player. What hands do you surrender? There are some variations depending on your skill level (card counter verses non-counter) but for basic strategy you should always surrender 9,7 or 10,6 vs. dealers 9,10,Ace: 9,6 or 10,5 vs. dealers 10. Forget what the dealer or other players might say; you are there to win the money, not to “play”.