[Blackjack] Surrender after 2 or 3 cards???

It sais:

Surrender: After you see the first two cards and if the dealer doesn't have a blackjack, you may surrender, losing half your bet.

And:

At the beginning of a hand, you get two cards and the dealer also gets two cards, but one of them is hidden.

So do you see all 3 cards, including the dealers one?

Before the hand is over (meaning also immediately after you call MakeBet()), you only see one of the dealer's cards. Of course, you always see your cards, so yes, you see all 3 cards, including one of the dealer's.

Still, if the dealer has a blackjack in his first two cards (in real life the dealer checks his hidden card before play commences), the game is immediately over, so you don't get a chance to surrender in that case.

Actually, before the dealer checks his hidden card you have the option of buying insurance against the dealer having a blackjack, if his visible card is value 10.

But this contest has no insurance, right?

That's right

Some casinos [used to?] allow the option of early surrender - that is, the option to surrender before the dealer checks for blackjack... Unfortunately, that option isn't offered here... (Apparently the early surrender option improves your expectation by about .5% of your initial bet - which is significant in a game where the house edge is at most around 1% when you're playing basic strategy w/o counting.)