Too good to be true?

[Pascual]

These are the rules at the casino I play:
-6 Decks
-Dealer stands on soft 17
-Double down after split allowed
-Double down any 2 cards
-No hole card
-Split any 2 cards allowed
-Resplit allowed except aces
-Early surrender allowed

With this site's calculator, the House Advantage is -0.08%
I assume that's a 0.08% advantage for the player playing perfect BS. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, given those rules, can the player expect positive returns in the long run?

[KenSmith]

If the game is as you describe, then yes, the player has a small advantage with just basic strategy.

However, in most cases when surrender is offered, it is late surrender instead of early surrender. You say this game has no hole card for the dealer, so here's the important question.

If the dealer has an Ace up, can you surrender and truly lose only half a bet if the dealer ends up drawing to blackjack? If so, then it is early surrender.
Many casinos that offer surrender in a no-hole-card game will allow you to surrender, but if the dealer is showing an Ace they do not immediately give you half your bet back. If the dealer draws blackjack, your whole bet is lost.

If that's not the case here, and this is really early surrender, let us know where this game is located.

[Pascual]

It's been almost 4 months since I played at that casino and I'll probably have to wait until christmas to hit their tables again. I can contact one of my friends down there and ask him if you can surrender when the dealer is showing an Ace as his hole card. Now, if that's the case, wow, then I'm really excited.
By the way, the casino is in Bogota, Colombia. I don't remember the name, though I can ask my friend too.

[E-town-guy]

When I first started playing I thought the casinos I was playing at offered early surrender with no hole card, I was a bit mistaken though. First off they do offer early surrender but you cannot surrender against a dealer's ace regardless of whether its blackjack or not. Secondly though they didn't deal the dealer's second card the rules made it basically as if it was. Meaning if you doubled and/or split against a dealer's 10 or ace and the dealer got BJ you only lost your original bet which is analogous to having a hole card and checking for BJ. Perhaps this is how your casino works.

[Pascual]

Now I'm confused.
What exactly is early surrender?
The ability to quit when the dealer is showing an Ace as a hole card and get half of your bet back?
or
The fact that you get half of your bet back if the dealer draws a BJ on his initial Ace after you've played your hand?
What happens with double-downs and double-downs after splits with early surrender?

[KenSmith]

Surrender is a decision you make first, so you don't play your hand out if you surrender. Early surrender gets its name from the fact that usually that means that you are allowed to surrender BEFORE the dealer checks to see if he has blackjack. Late surrender means the opposite... The dealer will check for a blackjack before you are allowed to surrender, and he'll take your whole bet if he has a blackjack, before you ever had a chance to surrender. (That's the typical rule.)

This whole early (before they check) and late (after they check) naming scheme makes perfect sense in a game where they deal a hole card.

Now, on to the confusing case of no-hole-card. Some NHC casinos simply don't allow you to surrender anytime against an Ace, but they will allow you to early surrender against a dealer ten. That's not worth nearly as much, but it's not bad nonetheless.

Other of the NHC casinos do allow late surrender against any dealer upcard. However, if you surrender when the dealer shows a ten or Ace, you won't immediately be given back half your bet. Instead, the dealer will place a 'surrendered' marker on your hand, and your surrender will only be allowed if the dealer doesn't draw to blackjack.

Theoretically, there may be true early surrender no-hole-card games out there at some casinos, where you really can surrender immediately, no matter the dealer's upcard.

I've never seen that, but I don't play outside the US very often, so I don't have much experience with no-hole-card games.

Yes, this gets confusing. I need to write this up in a proper article, because it is a frequently asked question around here.

[BJStanko]

What about penetration?

Good or bad?

I have feeling it is bad.

[johntks]

In the European No Hole Card (ENHC) game, which is played by almost everybody in the world outside the US, the terms Early or Late Surrender doesn't really apply. To be more precise, you have Early Surrender against any face card except the Ace and No Surrender when Ace is the face card.
The house do offer Insurance bet (up to half your original bet) but this is really a misnomer. It is actually a side bet (the house pays 2 to 1 if the dealer gets BJ) and according to all the charts this is a poor bet.
In the casino where I play in Asia with 5 decks the house advantage is .44% according to Ken's website chart. An belief you me I get whack pretty hard by this house advantage sometimes.