What is a Late Surrender?Īlthough the same rules apply in terms of getting half of the stake back, with late surrender the dealer gets to check for blackjack before the player gets the option to surrender. The early surrender rule is so powerful that it knocks 0.63% off the house’s edge, although games that allow early surrender will often have also tweaked other rules to claw some of that back. That means the player can surrender even before the dealer checks for a natural blackjack, and this is what makes it so advantageous.Ī natural blackjack ends the hand straight away, in which case the player’s full stake is lost, so the ability to squirrel half of it away before that happens is most welcome. The most valuable option of the two, early surrender allows the player to salvage half of their wager immediately after the initial deal, even if the dealer is showing an Ace or a ten card. To understand the difference between early and late surrender in blackjack, it’s probably easiest just to explain each one in turn, and in that way the difference will become apparent. Early surrender is the most advantageous for the player when used correctly, and only one version of the rule will ever be available in each variation of the game. To make matters worse, there are actually two different types of surrender option early and late. It’s still fairly rare though, and that scarcity leads to the surrender rule being misunderstood and used sub optimally. It’s not a rule that is too common in real life casinos, but you will find it more readily available online. This is because if you played the hand out you would be more likely to lose than win, in which case you would lose 100% of your stake. Surrendering your hand will cost you half of your stake, but if you only take the surrender option when the odds are not in your favour then, statistically, you will be saving yourself 50% more often than not. The ability to surrender in blackjack can be very useful in certain situations, where you are mathematically less likely to win the hand based on the cards that have been dealt so far.

Late surrender blackjack online