Surrender in Morocco and Egypt (and likely elsewhere) is phenomenal. The dealer hole card isn't dealt until after the final player decision is made, so in the case of a hard 16 vs dealer ace, the player essentially can surrender a hard 16 vs a 40% +/- chance of dealer blackjack. A huge advantage for the player.

 

I know what the book say but I never surrender. Because my philosophy is I am here to GAMBLE!!! & you don't play you don't win.

 

Depending on the rules, I'll surrender 15/16 against a face.

In North Africa, I'll surrender bust/shit hands (12-17) against a dealer ace every time due to the potential dealer blackjack draw. If I'm dealt 18-20, I'll stick around to get pissed off at the inevitable dealer blackjack.

 

I just had a hand where I surrendered. I'm at Cosmo playing $200 a hand and I get a pair of eights against a dealer 10. Of course I split them.

Next two cards were all 8s giving me 2 more splits.

Then on the first hand I had a 3 so I doubled. Boom! A 10.

The second I got a 10 for 18.

On the third hand I got another 8 but since I've already reached my max of 4 splits I had to play it. So I surrendered.

The fourth hand I got a four then busted with a 10.

Dealer turned over a 3 then a 5, so end result is me surrendering one, losing one, pushing one, and winning a double down one. I'm up $100 after all of that!

 

If I'm on a 6d game I do.
It's not an accident the house uses a word like surrender, which has a negative connotation, for a % play that is not house friendly and then calls the house friendly bet "insurance" which is anything but statistically.

 

What would be a non negative name for surrender? Just curious...

 

so had you not surrender you would have hit the pair of 8's and gotten a 4 for 20 and then the last hand would have been a 18 and dealer would have still had 18 so you would have won two with a a double up and a pushed the other two hands.


Hindsight is always 20/20.

You never know. I split 8's with a 10 and got all the way down to what you had almost except dealer turned over a another monkey so I ended up losing so you never know.

 

Yup, those thoughts crept into my mind as I was replaying the hand in my mind, but one aspect of my game that I'm trying to improve upon is to not analyze every gambling decision based on the results; trust the math and move on to the next hand...

 

Take half?
Save half?

 

A lesser kick in the nuts.