Casino war is a casino card game based on the game of War. The game is one of the most easily understood casino card games, and is one of the only card games where players can beat the dealer more than 50% of the time.
The game is normally played with six standard 52 card decks. The cards are ranked in the same way that cards in poker games are ranked, though the aces are the high card.[1]
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One card each is dealt to a dealer and to a player. If the player's card is higher, he or she wins back two times his or her own wager, plus the raise amount. However, if the dealer's card is higher, the player loses their bet.[2]
A tie occurs when the dealer and the player each have cards of the same rank. In a tie situation, the player has two options:
If the player goes to war, the dealer burns (discards) three cards before dealing each of them an additional card. If the player's card is ranked higher than or the same as the dealer's, then the player wins all three bets (original wager, "going to war" bet, and a matching wager from the dealer). If the dealer's card is ranked higher than the player's, the player loses both the original bet and the "going to war" bet.
If the player and the dealer are tied on the second set of cards, then the player wins both bets. Therefore, a player win occurs 50.3% of the times, assuming the player never surrenders.
Casino War also features a bonus bet on ties. If the player bets on the tie, and his card matches the dealer's, then the player wins 10 to 1 to his original wager on the tie bet.
The dealer and the player each have a 46.3% chance of winning on the first card (in a standard game with 6 decks), so this seems like an even money game. The house advantage, however, comes from what happens in the case of a tie.
The house advantage increases with the number of decks in play and decreases in casinos who offer a bonus payout. The house advantage for this game is usually over 2%.
Surrendering has a slightly higher advantage for the house in the case that a bonus payout is offered, so according to game theory a player should never surrender.