Play Blackjack Surrender Multihand

Blackjack Surrender Multihand Rules at Casinos

In blackjack at a casino, the dealer faces between five and nine (commonly seven) playing positions from behind a semicircular table. Each position may be occupied by up to three players. A single player is often permitted to control or bet on as many positions as desired at one table, but prohibited from playing on more than one table at a time. At the beginning of each round, bets are placed in the "betting box" at each position in play. The player whose bet is at the front of the betting box is deemed to have control over the position, and the dealer will consult the controlling player for playing decisions regarding the hand.

Each wagered-on position is dealt an initial hand of two cards visible to the player of that box, and often to any other players. The dealer's hand receives its first card face up, and in "hole card" games receives its second card face down immediately (the hole card), which the dealer peeks at but does not reveal unless it makes the dealer's hand a blackjack. Hole card games ares sometimes played on tables with a small mirror or electronic sensor which are used to peek securely at the hole card. In European casinos, no hole card games are prevalent; the dealer's second card is neither drawn nor consulted until the players have all played their hands.

Cards are dealt either from one or two hand-held decks, from a dealer's shoe, or from a shuffling machine. Single cards are dealt to each of wagered-on position clockwise from the dealer's leftmost position, followed by a single card to the dealer, followed by an additional card to each of the positions in play. The players' initial cards may be dealt face-up, or face-down (more common in single-deck games).

The players' object is to win money by getting a card total which will turn out to be higher than the dealer's hand, but without exceeding 21 (“busting”/“breaking"), and taking advantage of certain opportunities which arise within the play to increase the wager. Each hand is played by choosing whether to "hit" (take a card), "stand" (pass), "double" (double wager, take a single card and pass), "split" (if the two cards have the same value, separate them to make two hands) or "surrender" (give up a half-bet and retire from the game). Number-cards count as their natural value; the jack, queen, and king (also known as "face cards" or "pictures") count as 10; aces are valued as either 1 or 11 according to the player's best interest. If the hand value exceeds 21 points, it busts, and its bet is immediately forfeit. After all boxes have finished playing, the dealer's hand is resolved by drawing cards until the hand busts or achieves a value of 17 or higher (a dealer total of 7 including an ace, or "soft 17", must be drawn to in some games). The dealer never doubles, splits nor surrenders. If the dealer busts, all remaining bets win and are paid out at 1:1. If the dealer does not bust, each remaining bet wins if its hand is higher than the dealer's, and loses if it is lower. In the case of a tied score, known as "push" or "standoff", the bet is normally returned without adjustment.

Example of a Blackjack game. The top half of the picture shows the beginning of the round, with bets placed and an initial two cards for each player. The bottom half shows the end of the round, with the associated losses or payoffs.

The best possible hand is a "blackjack" or "natural", which is an ace and a ten-value card in either order on the initial two cards (not after a split). A blackjack beats any hand which is not a blackjack, even those with value 21. Blackjack vs. blackjack is a push. When the dealer's upcard is an ace, the player is usually allowed to make a side bet called "insurance," of up to half the main wager, which pays 2:1 if the dealer gets a blackjack, and is forfeited otherwise.

The normal payoff on a win is 1:1, or equal to the wager. The exception is the payoff for a winning blackjack, which is traditionally 3:2, or one and a half times the wager; many casinos today pay blackjack at less than 3:2 at some tables.

Player Decisions

After receiving an initial two cards, the player has four standard options: "hit," "stand," "double down," or "split". Each option has a corresponding hand signal. Some games give the player a fifth option, "surrender".

Hit: Take another card from the dealer.

signal: (handheld) Scrape cards against table. (face up) Tap the table or wave hand toward body

Stand: Take no more cards; also known as "stand pat", "stick", or "stay".

Signal: (handheld) Slide cards under chips. (face up) Wave hand horizontally.

Double Down (only available as first decision of a hand): The player is allowed to increase the initial bet by up to 100% in exchange for committing to stand after receiving exactly one more card. The additional bet is placed in the betting box next to the original bet. Some games do not permit the player to increase the bet by amounts other than 100%. Non-controlling players may double their wager or decline to do so, but they are bound by the controlling player's decision to take only one card.

Signal: Place additional chips beside the original bet, and point with one finger.

Split (only available as first decision of a hand): If the first two cards have the same value, the player can split them into two hands, by moving a second bet equal to the first into an area outside the betting box of the original bet. The dealer separates the two cards and draws a further card on each, placing one bet with each hand. The player then plays out the two separate hands in turn, with some restrictions. In the case of ten-valued cards, some casinos allow splitting only when the cards have the identical symbols; for instance, a hand of T-T or K-K may be split, but not of T-K or K-T. Other casinos allow splitting of any pair of ten-valued cards. Doubling and further splitting of post-split hands may be restricted, and blackjacks after a split are counted as non-blackjack 21 when comparing against the dealers hand. Hitting split aces is usually not allowed. Non-controlling players may follow the controlling player by putting down an additional bet, or decline to do so, instead associating their existing wager with one of the two post-split hands. In that case they must choose which hand to play behind before the second cards are drawn.

Signal: Place additional chips next to the original bet outside the betting box. Point with two fingers spread into a V formation.

Surrender (only available as first decision of a hand): Some games offer the option to "surrender." After the dealer has checked for blackjack, the player may "surrender", whereupon the house will take half the player's bet and return the other half to the player; this terminates the player's interest in the hand. The request to surrender is made verbally, there being no standard hand signal.

Hand signals are used to assist the "eye in the sky", a person or video camera located above the table and sometimes concealed behind one-way glass. The recording provides a means of resolving disputes or identifying mistakes, and is also used to protect the casino against dealers who steal chips or players who cheat. It may also be used by the casino to identify advantage players whose activities, while legal, make them undesirable customers. In the event of a disagreement between a player's hand signals and their words, the hand signal takes precedence. Each player may normally "hit" as many times as desired so long as the total in hand is not above hard-20. On achieving 21 (including soft 21), a player is normally required to stand; busting is an irrevocable loss and the player's wager is immediately forefeited to the house. After a bust or a stand, play proceeds to the next player clockwise around the table. When the last player has finished, the dealer then reveals the hole card and stands or draws further cards according to the rules of the game. After the dealer's final outcome is established, any bets remaining on the table are resolved, usually in counter-clockwise order; losing hands are forefeited, and winners are paid out.

Insurance

If the dealer's upcard is an ace, the player is offered the option of taking "insurance" before the dealer checks the hole card.

Insurance is a side bet that the dealer has blackjack and is treated independently of the main wager. It pays 2:1 and is available when the dealer's exposed card is an ace. The idea is that the dealer's second card has a fairly high probability (nearly one-third) to be ten-valued, giving the dealer blackjack and disappointment for the player. It is attractive (although not necessarily wise) for the player to insure against the possibility of a dealer blackjack by making a maximum "insurance" bet, in which case the "insurance proceeds" will make up for the concomitant loss on the original bet. The player may add up to half the value of their original bet to the insurance and these extra chips are placed on a portion of the table usually marked "Insurance Pays 2 to 1".

A player with a blackjack may also take insurance, and in taking maximum insurance he commits himself to winning an amount exactly equal to his main wager, regardless of the dealer's outcome. Fully insuring a blackjack against blackjack is thus referred to as "taking even money", and paid out immediately, before the dealer's hand is resolved; the player need not produce to place more chips for the insurance wager.

Insurance bets are expected to lose money in the long run, because the dealer is likely to have blackjack less than one-third of the time. However the insurance outcome is strongly anti-correlated with that of the main wager, and if the player's priority is to reduce variation, it is reasonable to pay for this.

Furthermore, the insurance bet is susceptible to advantage play. It is advantageous to make an insurance bet whenever the hole card has more than a chance of one in three of being a ten. Advantage play techniques can sometimes identify such situations. In a multi-hand, face-up, single deck game, it is possible to establish whether insurance a good bet simply by observing the other cards on the table after the deal; even if there are just 2 player hands exposed, and neither of their two initial cards is a ten, then 16 in 47 of the remaining cards are tens, which is larger than 1 in 3, so insurance is a good bet. This is an elementary example of the family of advantage play techniques known as card-counting.

Bets to insure blackjack against blackjack are slightly less likely to be advantageous than insurance bets in general, since the ten in the player's blackjack makes it less likely that the dealer has blackjack too.