Casino surrender question

I recently took a trip to Tunica. I had a friend who goes to a coaching convention so I go with him every year. I get a free hotel and travel. Anyways, I saw a bj games that offered a casino surrender. I am sure many of you have heard of this, but I have not. When the dealer has ten and you have 20 you are allowed to surrender you hand and win half of your bet. Is this an advantageous play at any time? Is there a time where you might have a big bet out there and take the casino surrender for volatility reasons or is there a time to take it when the count is good, or should I take it every time? Or, is it a bogus play?

It seems very very bogus to me. For it to be profitable, you would need to have an EV of less than +0.5 bets on a stand. I find that very unlikely when you have a 20.

rrwoods said:

It seems very very bogus to me. For it to be profitable, you would need to have an EV of less than +0.5 bets on a stand. I find that very unlikely when you have a 20.

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It's below +0.5 when the TC is +10 or higher.

ccibball50 said:

I recently took a trip to Tunica. I had a friend who goes to a coaching convention so I go with him every year. I get a free hotel and travel. Anyways, I saw a bj games that offered a casino surrender. I am sure many of you have heard of this, but I have not. When the dealer has ten and you have 20 you are allowed to surrender you hand and win half of your bet. Is this an advantageous play at any time? Is there a time where you might have a big bet out there and take the casino surrender for volatility reasons or is there a time to take it when the count is good, or should I take it every time? Or, is it a bogus play?

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Well off the top of my head, I'm sure that there are advantageous times to take this offer, these times being at a high count.

The EV for this hand at a neutral count is +.55 by standing. I am not sure if this includes blackjacks or not. Someone would have to run a sim to find the point at which you should take this offer but my guess is that it would be >+5 for casino surrender to be profitable for the player.

ccibball50 said:

I recently took a trip to Tunica. I had a friend who goes to a coaching convention so I go with him every year. I get a free hotel and travel. Anyways, I saw a bj games that offered a casino surrender. I am sure many of you have heard of this, but I have not. When the dealer has ten and you have 20 you are allowed to surrender you hand and win half of your bet. Is this an advantageous play at any time? Is there a time where you might have a big bet out there and take the casino surrender for volatility reasons or is there a time to take it when the count is good, or should I take it every time? Or, is it a bogus play?

Click to expand...

A number of casinos offer either "early" (before the dealer checks for blackjack) or "late" (after the dealer checks for blackjack) surrender; a variant is that you cannot surrender against an ace. If you surrender your hand, you receive half your bet.

According to the blackjack basic strategy engine on this site, for a 4 decks, H17, DAS, Late Surrender, Peek game, you should surrender

15 vs dealer 10 or A
16 vs dealer 9, 10 or A
17 vs dealer A
8,8 vs dealer A

For this game, it looks like you shouldn't surrender a 20 against a dealer 10. You could try the engine for different combinations to see if there is a game where it makes sense (but I bet you won't find one).

Remember when you surrender that you will hear the moans and groans and bitching from other players because you interupted the flow......