When to surrender in blackjack

Late surrender versus early surrender

Late surrender is available only after a dealer blackjack check. Early surrender occurs before that check and requires a different strategy. The charts here use late surrender.

Default multi-deck examples

With S17, surrender hard 15 against 10 and hard 16 against 9, 10 or an ace. A pair of 8s uses its pair row and is split under these S17 rules.

The H17 differences

For the 4–8 deck H17 chart, surrender hard 15 or hard 17 against an ace when allowed. The pair-of-8s row against an ace also changes. Check the full table instead of extending an S17 rule.

When surrender is unavailable

The second letter of Rh, Rs or Rp gives the fallback: hit, stand or split. Select Not available in the blackjack chart’s late surrender setting to see the chart without surrender.

Reading a surrender chart without surrender

A $20 hand surrendered under a permitted late-surrender rule returns $10 and loses $10. This option is normally an initial-hand decision after the dealer’s blackjack check. It is not an option to recover half a stake after you bust.

For a no-surrender chart, turn late surrender off on the basic strategy chart. The fallback is hand-specific: do not replace every R with hit. Rh means hit, Rs means stand and Rp means split when surrender is unavailable.