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Free Casino War

One card each from a six-deck shoe, played for chips that are worth nothing, with the one decision the game has checked against the correct play.

Play chips

1,000

No real money, no prizes, nothing to buy.

6-deck shoe · 312 left

Dealer
You

Put chips on the Ante and deal.

WarEquals the Ante

Session coach

Last round

Nothing played yet. After each of your hands the coach says what the round cost and what decided it.

Decide the cost before you start

Gambling is entertainment with a price, like a concert ticket. The useful question is not how much you might win but how much the evening is allowed to cost. Pick that number first, and treat reaching it as the end of the session. You can set one below and the coach will hold you to it.

Next bet

No bet lined up. Once there is one, its expected cost shows here before you play it.

This table is for practice and entertainment only. How to keep gambling safe

What each choice costs

Ante, going to war
2.88%
Ante, surrendering
3.70%
Tie bet
18.65%
Expected cost of the bets lined up
0
Chips a hand on average, going to war on every tie

The game has one decision, on a tie, and it has one right answer: go to war. Each tie you play is checked against it, whichever way the war cards then fall.

Set Casino War beside the other table games

This session

Hands played
0
Ties taken to war
None yet
Net chips
0
Expected at these edges
0
Given up by surrendering
0
Chips on the Tie bet
0
0 in Antes

Expected is each bet's house edge taken on the chips you put on it, with every tie taken to war. Surrendering costs more, and that extra is counted on its own line. A short session swings well away from both in either direction.

Built by Alexander Korsager · last updated October 3, 2026 · corrections

Hands where the two cards tie
7.40%
House edge on the Ante, going to war on every tie
2.88%
The Ante's cost when every tie is surrendered
3.70%
House edge on the Tie bet, paid 10 to 1
18.65%

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A table that grades the one decision

Casino War is the card game most people learned as children, with a bet on it.

You get one card, the dealer gets one, and the higher card wins even money. When the cards differ, you win as often as you lose and the game costs nothing. The whole house edge comes from the 7.40% of hands where the two cards tie, because that is where the rules stop being even.

One card each
YouTieDealer
Your card is higher
46.30%
The cards tie
7.40%
The dealer's card is higher
46.30%

The two outright results are equally likely and pay even money, so they cancel. What the game costs is decided in the gold part.

On a tie you choose: surrender and lose half the bet, or go to war by putting up a second bet.

The choice has one right answer. Going to war costs 2.88% of the Ante over time and surrendering costs 3.70%, so the table grades each tie you play, whichever way the war cards then fall. The Tie side bet is the other lesson here: it pays 10 to 1 and costs 18.65%, about 6 times what the Ante does.

What each choice costs
  • Ante, going to war on every tie2.88%
  • Ante, surrendering every tie3.70%
  • Tie side bet18.65%

    Pays 10 to 1 on the 7.40% of hands that tie

House edge as a share of the chips first put down, for a full six-deck shoe.

02 / 03

Rules at this table

  • Go to war

    Second bet
    Equal to the Ante
    War won
    53.70% of wars
    A won war nets
    1 Ante
    War lost
    46.30% of wars
    A lost war costs
    2 Antes

    Average loss from a tie

    0.39

    Of an Ante. The cheaper choice, and the one the coach grades against.

  • Surrender

    Second bet
    None
    Costs, every time
    50% of the Ante

    Average loss from a tie

    0.50

    Of an Ante.

  • 6 decks, 312 cards, dealt from a shoe and reshuffled when it runs down to the cut card.
  • One card is dealt face up to you and one to the dealer. The higher card wins and the Ante pays 1 to 1. Aces are high and suits do not matter.
  • When the two cards tie, you may surrender, which returns half the Ante, or go to war, which takes a second bet equal to the Ante.
  • In a war, 3 cards are burned and one more card is dealt to each side. If yours is equal or higher, the second bet pays 1 to 1 and the Ante is returned. If it is lower, both bets lose.
  • A second tie in the war wins like any other won war. This table pays no bonus on it.
  • The optional Tie bet pays 10 to 1 when the first two cards tie and loses otherwise.

  • Each spot takes up to 500 chips. The table holds back a second Ante from your balance when you bet, so a war can always be covered. Your bets stay down for the next hand until you clear them.

FAQ

Is this Casino War game played for real money?
No. The table uses play chips that have no value, cannot be bought, and cannot be cashed out or exchanged for anything. If you run out, you are handed another stack for free. There is no account and nothing to download.
Should you go to war or surrender in Casino War?
Go to war, every time. From a tie, going to war loses 0.39 of an Ante on average and surrendering loses 0.50 of one, so on a 100-chip Ante surrendering gives up 11.10 chips each time the cards tie. A war is won 53.70% of the time, because a second tie counts as a win for the player.
What is the house edge in Casino War?
On a six-deck shoe with no bonus for a second tie, the Ante costs 2.88% of the chips staked when every tie goes to war, and 3.70% when every tie is surrendered. The Tie bet costs 18.65% at 10 to 1. A table that pays a bonus equal to the Ante on a second tie costs 2.33% on the Ante.
Is the Tie bet worth making?
No. The first two cards tie about once in 13.5 hands, so a fair payout would be about 12.5 to 1. The table pays 10 to 1 and keeps the difference, which is 18.65% of every chip bet on it: about 18.65 chips a hand on a 100-chip bet, against 2.88 for the same chips on the Ante.

How this game works

The table deals from a shoe of 6 decks shuffled in your browser so that every ordering is equally likely. The odds are counted, not estimated. There are 97,032 ordered ways to deal a card to you and then one to the dealer. After the first card, 23 of the remaining 311 cards share its rank, so 7,176 of those deals tie. The rest split evenly, 44,928 each way, which is why the Ante costs nothing until the cards tie.

After a tie, 310 cards are left and 22 of them are of the tied rank. The burned cards are dealt unseen, so they do not change the chances: any two of the remaining cards are as likely to be the war cards as any other two. Of the 95,790 ordered ways to deal them, your card is higher in 44,352, lower in 44,352 and equal in 7,086. You win the war 53.70% of the time, lose it 46.30%, and 7.40% of wars tie again.

A won war nets one Ante and a lost war costs two, so going to war is worth −0.39 of an Ante from the moment of the tie, against −0.50 for surrendering. On a 100-chip Ante that is an average loss of 38.90 chips against 50.00. Multiplying each by the chance of a tie gives the Ante's house edge: 2.88% going to war and 3.70% surrendering. The coach grades every tie against the cheaper of the two.

The site's tests check these figures by settling every opening deal, every pair of war cards for each of the thirteen ranks that can tie, and every sequence of burned and war cards with the burned cards removed from the shoe. The house edge comparison sets edges like these beside other casino bets.

The expected cost of a hand is 2.88% of the Ante plus 18.65% of the Tie bet. The session figure is the same sum over every hand you have dealt, and what surrendering gave up is counted separately.

Limits

  • The edges are for a full six-deck shoe. They move very slightly as cards leave it, by far too little to act on.
  • Tables differ. Some pay a bonus on a second tie, which lowers the Ante's cost to 2.33%, and some use a different number of decks or a different Tie payout. Those games are priced differently and are not dealt here.
  • The edge is quoted against the Ante. Going to war puts a second bet on the table, so the chips at risk on a tie are double the Ante.
  • Play chips do not feel like money. A losing run that is easy to sit through here is harder with a real stake.

This is a practice game for adults. It has no real-money play and links to none. Casino War played for money has a house edge on every bet, a fast pace that multiplies it, and no decision that removes it.

Gambling can cause serious harm. The National Problem Gambling Helpline is free, confidential and open 24/7, call or text 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), or chat at ncpgambling.org/chat.

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