| In casinos it is played with 6 playing cards. The ranking of the cards is the same as in poker except ace always ranks highest. Whether it is clubs, hearth, spades or diamonds does not matter in casino war. Having betted you receive a card. Your card is compared to the dealer’s card. The one with the highest card wins. That’s simple. If it’s a draw, you have two options:
1) Surrender and loose half of your original stake
2) Go to war (see the rules below)
The dealer deals each player one card face up. Then the dealer takes a card face up. If you beat the dealer, you win your bet. If the dealer beats you, you lose. The cards have the same rankings as in poker, with the ace being the highest card, followed by the king, queen, jack, etc.
In the event your card ties the dealer's card, you can either go to war with the dealer (by matching your original bet), or you can surrender (by forfeiting half your original bet). If you go to war, the dealer will burn three cards and give you another card. Then he will burn three more cards and take one for himself.
If your second card is higher than the dealer's second card, you win your original bet. If the dealer wins, then you lose both your bets. If your second card ties the dealer's second card, you win. The rub here is the dealer doesn't pay off the second bet you risk to go to war, which is how the house gets its edge.
There is also a tie bet you can make which pays 10 to 1. (The house edge on that particular bet is around 18%.) As for going to war with the dealer, do it if you decide to play this game. The casino's edge is 3.7% if you surrender, and only 2.9% if you go to war. You probably already know the game "casino war", even though you might not think so. You most likely played it as a kid. You draw a card - the casino draws a card. The highest card wins the war. It does not get easier than that. In casinos this game is called "war" or "casino war". Casino war is without doubt the easiest casino game of all. Have you played war as a child or betted who drew the highest card, you know the name of the game.
Casino war rules
In casinos it is played with 6 playing cards. The ranking of the cards is the same as in poker except ace always ranks highest. Whether it is clubs, hearth, spades or diamonds does not matter in casino war. Having betted you receive a card. Your card is compared to the dealer's card. The one with the highest card wins. That's simple. If it's a draw, you have two options:
1) Surrender and loose half of your original stake
2) Go to war (see the rules below)
Should you choose to go to war, you must place another bet equal to your original bet. The dealer does the same. The dealer then takes three cards off the stack (3 burn cards) and then gives himself and you a card.If your card is the same or higher than the dealers, you win your stake back 1:1 i.e. both your original bet and the war bet. Notice that this can vary. Sometimes it is only the original bet the casino pays 1:1 back. Other times you get 1:1 on both bets. If the dealer's card is higher than yours, you loose both bets.
House advantages
Using the normal, standard rules - 8 decks of cards and no bonus in case of 2 draws in a row - the house has an advantage of only 2,88%. You are likely to loose 2,88 USD every time you play 100 USD (from a statistical point of view)
In the case of a different number of decks of cards
Some online casinos can have other versions of Casino war e.g. the casino software producer Realtime Gaming. In online casinos with Realtime Gaming software they only use one deck of cards. I still cannot recommend Real Time Gaming casinos, as crooks run them. |
