Casino War rules and Casino War strategy
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”.
How to play Casino War:
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.
The chart below shows the house advantage depending upon the number of playing cards used.
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Casino war – the house advantage
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Decks of cards
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House advantage
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1
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2.42%
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2
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2.70%
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4
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2.84%
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6
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2.88%
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8
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2.90%
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Side betting in casino war
Besides normal betting, you can also gamble that it is a tie. This bet generally gives 10:1. Above the ordinary box where you place you bet, you find a small unit where you can bet on a tie – a so-called “tie bet”.
Casino War strategy
It does not require a genius to know that you should always choose to go to war when possible.
A small detail: never bet all your money in one game of casino war. You should always leave enough money on the account to be able to go to war.