A Beginner’s Guide to Playing Blackjack in a Casino Without Embarrassing Yourself
The game of blackjack (or something close to it) was first described in the early 1600s in Cervantes’ novel Novelas Ejemplares. Since then, blackjack has become the most popular casino card game in the world. It’s a great front-table game – it’s challenging enough to be fun, but slow enough to be easy to follow for beginners, plus it generally offers the best odds for players of any casino game.
While the black and white rules of blackjack are easy to understand, the unwritten rules—the etiquette and customs of playing blackjack in a real casino—are harder to understand. However, you need to know them if you want to avoid looking like a fool. So, if you’ve never sat down to play blackjack in a casino, here’s a guide to getting into your first game without embarrassing yourself.
“There is a right way and a wrong way to play blackjack,” explains Mike Griggs. Griggs has been working in the gaming industry since the 1980s. He was a blackjack dealer, worked as a casino pit boss and as a shift supervisor supervising dealers at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, so this guy had seen just about everything there was to see at the blackjack table.
What hand signals are used in blackjack?
Right after learning the basic rules of the game, a new blackjack player needs to become familiar with a couple of basic hand signals. They are easy to learn and essential for playing casino games.
Tapping your finger on the table means “give me another card.” Or “hit me.” It looks like this:
The “I’m staying” or “No more cards please” sign is a quick movement of your hand (or hands) over your cards. It looks like this:.
So don’t say “hit me” or “stop.” Make this gesture. Any other action can (and does) lead to confusion.
“Dealers are taught not to act on verbal cues,” Griggs explained. “They are trained to follow hand signals. A player can walk up to the table and say no, but the dealer sees the hand and gives him a card. So tap the table when you want a card. Wave if you don’t need the card.
Do not touch the chips or cards during the deal.
To bet on a hand, you place the chips you want to bet on in a circle or square in front of you before the hand begins. Once the hand starts, you will not be able to touch the chips you bet on. And the cards should never be touched. New players may touch the chips because they are ignorant, but the casino will think they are trying to cheat and the other players at the table will think they are assholes.
If you double or split a hand, do not place new chips on top of the ones you bet. Place an equal stack next to your original bet, outside the circle or square, to signal to the dealer that you want to split or double your bet.
For example: This smart player splits a pair of eights:
“Why is the dealer handing me this plastic card?”
This varies from casino to casino and table to table, but the decks in blackjack are usually either shuffled after each hand or dealt from a deck of six to eight decks—so many cards that counting is very difficult. When playing screw, after shuffling, the player cuts the deck by inserting a blank plastic card, marking when the cards will be shuffled again.
“If they get a cut card, sometimes new players don’t know what to do,” Griggs said. “They can put it sideways. Or they will just start jamming it really hard. It’s just a cut. That’s all.
If you are a cutter, the “don’t touch cards” rule still applies. Simply insert the cut card anywhere without touching the deck. Some say that the location of the cut card makes little difference to the most advanced card counters, but it won’t matter to you and 99.8% of players. The house won’t let you cut it too thin anyway – card counting is really important at the bottom of the shoe, so they shuffle the cards before they get too close. If you don’t want to do the trimming, you can say “dealer trimming.”
The dealer is not your enemy
Unless you really did something to piss them off, the dealer probably wants you to win. After all, they are at work, and being around happy people who win money is a lot more fun than being surrounded by a bunch of grumpy losers. More importantly, the dealer wants you to win because winners are more likely to tip them.
When to tip when playing blackjack in a casino
Unlike a restaurant, Griggs said there is no expected tip percentage when playing blackjack. “It’s a sign of appreciation,” he said. “If the dealer helps you with what to do and what not to do, if he entertains you and shows you a good time, you can put a dollar or two next to your bet to play along with the dealer.”
The dealers and blackjack players are surprisingly friendly.
Of course, this varies from table to table, but both dealers and players are generally friendly to new players (at a low stakes table – hardcore players who bet big per hand probably don’t want newbies stinking up the house) as long as you you know the basic rules and etiquette and you’re not a jerk.
If you don’t know how to play a hand, don’t be afraid to ask. “If you’re ever unsure, you can ask, ‘What do you think?’ and other players will jump in immediately,” Griggs said. And they will almost always give you the right game. The correct game is called “basic strategy.”
Basic Blackjack Strategy Basics
Unlike playing poker against other players, there is no bluffing or psychological component to casino blackjack. It’s just math, and unless you’re counting cards or cheating, there’s no point in betting against the math. The dealer has no choice in how to play – he will always choose 16. Players have a choice, but in blackjack there is only one correct move every time, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar (unless they are counting cards or cheating) , and anyone who bets against math because they feel lucky is a fool.
With a few exceptions, basic blackjack strategy in simplified form assumes that any card you don’t see is a 10, since nearly a third of the cards in the deck are 10. So, if the dealer shows a 6, assume the card you don’t see is 10. he has a 10 and his hand is a 16. If you have a 14 in your hand, it is best not to draw another card, on the assumption that the dealer has a 16, he will draw a 10 and end up losing. (Don’t blame me if they draw a 5 – that’s why it’s a gamble.)
Casinos try to identify card counters and go after cheaters, but they don’t care if you remember the basic strategy – they even sell cheat sheets in their gift shops and let you play with them right on the felt – because even if you play “perfectly”, the casino still has an advantage. In blackjack it is relatively small, around 1-2%, but it is enough to keep the lights on in Las Vegas.
Etiquette for accepting the “wrong” bet
Card counting and cheating aside, it doesn’t really matter how the person next to you plays their hand. Logic dictates that a bad choice in a random deck can either help or hurt the rest of the players at the table. But if blackjack players were logical, they would stay away from casinos. Even though it doesn’t make much sense, other players often get very angry if you screw up, say if you hit a solid 17 or split a pair of jacks. Other players aren’t worried about you losing money; they think you’ve messed up how the cards are “supposed” to come out. This becomes more important depending on where you sit at the table.
“You have to be careful at third base,” Griggs explains. “This is the last place on the table in front of the dealer. Everyone looks at this place like you control what the dealer gets. If you play it wrong and the game doesn’t work out and the dealer deals because of something you did, people start complaining and complaining.”
Is it possible to take photographs inside the casino?
Don’t take photos inside the casino, even though it’s not as much of a rule violation as it used to be. “There used to be no photographs taken on the casino floor,” Griggs said. “This is a privacy issue. Perhaps someone is leaving work, or the wife doesn’t know her husband is there. But now everyone has a damn smartphone, and if something happens, everyone has their own phone. What can you do?”
Don’t get (too) drunk and don’t play cards.
There’s a reason the cocktail waitress or waiter is so eager to bring you a gin and tonic, and it’s not because they have a crush on you. “When you’re just learning, showing up to a game drunk is not a good idea,” Griggs said. “Your emotions get the better of you, and you may not make the best moves.”
The most important rule of casino gambling: you will lose.
It’s not for nothing that they say that “the house always wins”; it is an unchanging, eternal truth. Mathematics knows no pity. You may cheat the odds for a night or a weekend, but eventually the scales will balance and your pockets will be empty. Therefore, always go to the casino mentally prepared for possible defeat. See how much money you make, how much money you spend on the thrills you get by pretending to be a high roller for the evening – if you win, that’s great! If you lose, it’s okay. Have fun with it, but don’t get carried away with it. For almost everyone, blackjack (and any other casino game) is a bad bet.
Yes, and always split the aces.