The odds are always with the house – one of the most commonly known facts of gambling. So when you have the opportunity to guarantee yourself a win, even for a fraction of your initial bet, it sparks a nice feeling. A feeling that things went your way for once. Well, this optional rule in blackjack – not technically a side bet but you could say it’s in the same family – offers you just that. It gives you the option of taking the “win.” I’ll explain.

Either called automatic win or blackjack casino surrender (depending on where in the world you’re playing), this rule gives you, the player, the option of forcing the dealer to surrender (funny, it’s usually the other way around) if you have a 2-card hand valued at 20 vs. a dealer’s 10. So, basically, you can choose to settle for 50% of your bet (which is what happens in a surrender) and not have to play out the rest of the hand. Of course, it’s only extended to you after the dealer checks for blackjack. If he hits that, all bets are off (heh, heh). One of the more well-known casinos to offer this option is the Stardust in Vegas.

So what should you do in this situation? If you’re following the statistics, you should probably play out the hand. The odds are more in your favor in a one-deck game than an eight-deck game, but you still have a greater than 50% chance of winning the hand regardless of the other factors. Here’s a quick breakdown of the percentages.

If you’re hand is 10, 10, the chances of you winning the hand in a one-deck game is 58.5%. Two decks is 56.85%. Four decks is 56.15%. Five decks is 56%. Six decks is 55.9% and eight decks is 55.8%. If you’re hand is A, 9, the chances of you winning stays right around 55.45% regardless of the number of decks. It’s not until the third decimal point do the odds change, too minimal to matter to most players anyway.

So, as you can see by these basic blackjack tips, it’s probably not a great idea to ever exercise the surrender option. And, you have to think, why would the casinos offer this to begin with if it really benefited the player? The truth is you lose between 5.45 and 5.9 percent of every bet if you let the dealer surrender. Play the hand, and you’ll win your full bet more than half the time.