Casino War Rules and Strategy

Casino War is not much different from the home game of War that we all played as kids. Basically, it is just a game of who can draw the highest card.

Casino War Rules

The game is generally played in online casinos under the following rules:

• 6 standard 52 card decks are used, Aces are always high, and suits do not matter.

• The player must place a wager, and then both the player and dealer receive 1 card each.

• If the player’s card is higher, he is paid even money on his wager. If the dealers card is higher the player losses his original wager

• In the event of a tie, the player will have 2 choices: 1) surrender his hand and forfeit half of the original wager amount, or, 2) elect to go to war

• If the player elects to go to war, he must increase his bet by an amount equal to the original wager. The dealer will then burn three cards and give both the player and himself another card face up. If the player’s new card beats the dealer, the player will be paid even money on the raise amount, with the original wager resulting in a push. Should the dealers new card be higher than the players new card, the player losses both the original wager and the raise. If the two new cards are a tie, then at most casinos, the player will win an amount equal to both the original wager and the raise amount.

Casino War Strategy

Casino War Strategy is pretty straight forward and intuitive. Besides hoping for the best cards, players need only remember to ALWAYS go to war whenever the opportunity arises, as opposed to surrendering your bet. You end up making a 2:1 bet on the result of the war, but you better off doing that in the long-run than surrendering half your initial wager, as the table at the bottom illustrates.

Casino War House Advantage

The Casino War House Advantage, as played under its most common rules, is 2.33%. This can vary slightly depending on the number of decks used, and also changes should the casino not provide a bonus on tied war hands, although this is rare. See the table below for the House Advantage of Casino War by varying rule adjustments.