You Don't Have To Go To School To Be A Blackjack Dealer

You don't need to go to school to become a blackjack dealer. In fact, all you need is a good handle on the game and some practice. Let me show you how!

Requirements for Blackjack Dealers

First thing that I want to talk with you guys about is -- I have been saying this since I have started making videos. You don’t need to go to dealer school in order to get a job.

Check Local Laws First

Now of course, it depends on your location, so every area is different. In Las Vegas specifically, you do not need to go to dealing school in order to get a job as a dealer. If you're in other areas around America, what would happen is -- there’s only a handful of casinos around so what they do is they’ll hire you based on your personality. Then they will teach you how to deal. Anyone can be taught how to deal, but you can’t teach someone how to have a good personality.

The Key is Practice, Practice, Practice

When you are going to school, they basically tell you to do a lot of at home homework. So, even though you’re going to school, you’re spending most of your time practicing at home. Well you guys can spend most of your time practicing at home. The only thing you need is for someone to help you through it. To walk you through it.

If you want a detailed explanation on how to be a Blackjack dealer, I put the link in the description below and you can read it. In the future we are going to have a simplified version of that. A really short, sweet, to the point. I’m looking forward to make that here pretty soon. But until then we have the detailed version for you online. Check it out. The link is in the description below.

Learn to Deal Blackjack{:.button.primary}

Challenges Finding a Dealer Job During COVID

Another thing, right now with COVID-19, nobody is hiring. A lot of casinos laid off their workers. When they opened back up they only hired 50% of their workers. So they still have the other 50% that they have to hire back. So because of that, no casino is hiring at the moment due to COVID-19. I still give emails about how to be a dealer, and I really wanted to put this video out there so that way you can re-watch it, so when things change and they do start hiring again, you can use this as a guide. In order to get a job as a dealer without having to pay to go to school. Again, I have been saying this, this is my message for the past 10 years. COVID sorta put a wrench in everything. I just wanted to make a video so you guys had this information. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Gino - Thanks for the superchat… you get a story. I have a ton of stories, I got winning stories, losing stories, drunk stories, crazy people stories, naked stories, bodily fluids stories, aggressive stories, fight stories, I mean...let me know what you want to hear and I will probably think of a story for it.

3 Things to Learn at Home to Become a Blackjack Dealer

Next up is -- we are going to talk about the three things that you should learn at home in order to be a dealer.

Again, usually when you’re hired as a dealer, you’re hired for your personality not so much your dealing skills. Anyone can be taught how to deal, not everyone has a good personality. So when you are learning this you are going to be doing a lot of at home practice. What you are going to be practicing is shuffling, cutting checks, and depending on the casino you want to work at, pitching.

Some people don’t want to pitch. If you pitch, you’re more likely to get hired. So let’s go over a couple of these things. Now if you want to check this out in detail, I have this written in my article linked below so you can read this in more detail.

1. Learn how to shuffle.

The first thing we are going to learn is Shuffling. What you need is a deck of cards. And you need to make sure that the cards, the corners are not cut. Sometimes if you buy used casino cards, the corners are cut and this makes it extremely difficult to shuffle the deck. Also to, don’t use a deck of cards that is like 10 years old. If it’s 10 years old it has a lot of oil on it, a lot of grime, dust, dirt. You’re not going to be able to shuffle that. So you want a nice fresh deck to shuffle with.

Gino I still owe you a story so let me know in the chat what you would like to hear.

How to Hold the Cards

First thing you do when shuffling the deck is holding the cards. Now as you’re practicing at home you might be thinking, I don’t have a table to practice with. No worries! When you're a dealer and you’re learning this they don’t have tables either. What you do is you use an ironing board, because an ironing board is about the right height. You have the padding which help with shuffling. If you don’t have an ironing board or your ironing board doesn't have any padding...what you can do is use a table top, a bar, something with a hard surface and then either put a folded blanket on it, or a comforter on it. This will simulate the table in a casino. That way you have the padding that you need in order to shuffle and do these maneuvers.

Hey colorup good to see you…

Colorup says: Can you get hired with just one game, Blackjack? It really just depends on the casino. If it’s a breakin house, yes. You’re going to be able to get hired with just one game, such as blackjack. Break in houses will usually hire people with little to no experience. So knowing one game is probably more experience than some of the people that are going into breakin houses. Now if you want to continue as a dealer, then you're going to need to learn more games. Because if you want to move from that breakin house to say Treasure Island, they are not going to hire you with just blackjack. The more games you know, the more valuable you are as a dealer. I always tell people that right away. Also too -- that brings up another good point. Learn one game, and then get into dealing. Usually blackjack, because blackjack is way easier than Craps. So learn Blackjack, get hired as a dealer, then what is really good to do is -- after you get hired as a dealer, learn all of the other games that you can while you are on break. So instead of going to the breakroom, go to different games and learn as much as you can about all of the games and try to deal them at that breakin house. This saves you money from having to pay a school to learn that game. So instead of you paying the school to learn. The casino is paying you to learn. That’s one of those tricks I learn while being a dealer.

Let’s see what else you guys are saying real quick.

Colorup says: When my kids are out of the house I am thinking I might like to deal one day a week. Will casinos hire on that limited schedule of like two days? That is a great question. Right now because of COVID-19 everything is all up in the air. So what happened, I talked about this a little bit earlier, was casinos when they closed they layed off all of their dealers. Then when they re-opened, they only hired 50% of their dealers. So they still have 50% of their dealers that they have to bring back. So no casinos are hiring right now because of the COVID situation. But like I was saying before, my message these last 10 years was you don’t have to go to school to be a dealer. I still get emails about this and I really wanted to have a video where I talk about it in person. You can see exactly what you need to learn, and what you need to do and you have the article down below that will give you much more detail. Again, I will simplify that article, but that will be some time in the future. It is on my ToDo list.

And to answer your question, so normally yes. That is called extraboard. When you get hired you're going to get hired either as on call or extra board. Oncall or extra board -- yes it depends on the casino. You could work anywhere from one to 3 days a week. With some casinos being on extraboard or oncall, while at other casinos you could be working 5, 6, maybe 7 days a week. This was before COVID. I’m not sure exactly how it’s working after COVID. Yes! You could work as an extraboard and onliy work 2 days a week and that is perfectly acceptable, and a lot of people do that.

Gino says: Do you know a super Blackjack player who won a million dollars or so? Who won a million dollars at the table? No. I know people who have a million who played on the table. I know people who -- I heard they won jackpots of a million dollars. I never had that on my table. I’ve had high rollers at my table. I used to work -- I don’t know -- I used to work at the RIO and I used to work in the high limit area, so we had high limit players there. They would play $50,000 a hand, a $100,000 a hand. So they would lose a million or make a million but it wasn’t really a big deal because they came in with that money. It wasn’t like they started with $20 and they left with a million. However, I did have a guy who was completely wasted, totally drunk for the whole 8 hours he was playing. He started with $20, by the end of the night he was up to $20,000 and he was doing everything wrong. He would split 10s, stay on a five, hit a 16 against the dealers 6. Like everything you could do wrong, he did wrong and he made like $20,000 in one night. Security ended up having to take him back to his hotel room because he was so drunk, he was starting to fall asleep on the table. They had to take his money with him. So, all the dealers were laughing and were saying, you know when this guy wakes up he’s gong to think he robbed the bank, because he’s going to see $20,000 and he’s not going to remember where that came from. So we were all laughing about that.

How to Grip the Deck

First thing you want to do is you want to learn how to hold the deck. When you are holding the deck you want to put your four fingers at the front and your thumbs in the back. So it looks like so. Now your going to use your middle fingers, right here, to straighten up the deck.

That’s all you’re really going to use when holding the deck. So these right here, thumbs on the back, and this right here to straighten up the deck. The pinky and the ring finger are sorta tucked in and you’re are not using them at all. So you're holding the deck. Now you're going to use your thumb to split the deck in half like so. And you're going to pull them apart. Now you have two halves, of the same deck. That’s called halving the deck. Again, you’re going to use your thumb to lift up and pull off, and now you have half the deck. Now the first thing we are going to learn is riffling the deck. It really depends on your hands.

If you have larger hands it’s going to be different than if you have petite hands. I have small hands so with small hands I would put my hands together in the shape of an A, where my thumbs are the connecting point. Then pushing down on these points right here to hold the deck down, I’m going to lift up and let the cards fall into place. So again, you’re just lifting up, and letting the cards fall into place. And your holding these two points down, lifting this up and letting the cards fall into place.

Now you don't want to lift up to high, because if you lift up to high people behind you are going to see what your cards are. Also too, to be a good dealer if you want a bit of a challenge while you are at home practicing, try to riffle as softly and as quietly as possible. So, continue doing this. Continue riffling until you feel comfortable. A lot of times people don’t feel comfortable riffling a single deck. So what they do is they start off with half the deck and they riffle half the deck.

Once they feel comfortable riffling that, they’ll take a little bit more and add it on, and then practice riffling that. And when they feel comfortable, they'll take some more and put it on, and practice riffling that. When you feel comfortable with that you would have a second deck. You would do that with the second deck. Keep adding a little bit more each time and then practice with that until you feel comfortable. Just like so. And again, you want to keep it low, you want to have it be quite.

Remember, you’re just lifting up the edges and letting the edges fall into place. So you don’t have to fight it. You don’t have to like man handle it. You know be gentle with it. If you’re nice to the cards, the cards will be nice to you. If you’re sitting there and you're trying to fight it and it’s not working, and why isn’t it working? You know you might be holding the deck too hard, you might be trying to force it. If you try to force it, your cards are just going to give you a headache. So be nice, be gentle. Slightly lift up the edges of the cards and let it fall into place. Okay. So that was rifling.

How to Strip the Deck

Next up is stripping the deck. So you’re going to hold the deck about a half an inch up from the table, like so. Slightly bend it downward. And then take cards from the top and put it on the bottom. And that is stripping the deck. And you’ll do that about 5 to 7 times. Again, up -- now when you practice at home, go slow.

You want to make sure you’re doing it right and you don’t have to worry so much about speed. Speed will come with time. Speed will come with practice. The more you practice the better you’ll be. The faster you’ll be. Also too, when stripping the deck don’t take a portion from the bottom and place it on the bottom. You’re not doing anything by doing that. You’re always going to want to take it front he top and place it on the bottom. Take it from the top and place it on the bottom. Take it from the top and place it on the bottom. Like so. So that’s stripping the deck. (22:47)

How to Box the Deck

Next is boxing. Boxing, you’re going to take a third from the bottom, turn it 180 degrees and place it on top. Again, when you are doing this, go slow.

Take a portion from the bottom, turn it 180 degrees and put it on top. That’s what it looks like. And again, don’t try to go too fast because you’ll mess up. Go slow, make sure you have it right and then just keep practicing. All of this is in the article that I have linked below.

How to Wash the Deck

After boxing, what you’re going to do -- and this one is my favorite, you are going to learn how to wash the deck.

Washing the deck happens when you get a new deck of cards and you’re going to put them into play on an 8 deck shoe. It happens once per shift. On a single or double deck it happens every two hours. When you wash the deck, you’re going to put the deck in the middle of the table like so. Swirl it around, and then use both hands to mix up the cards and then -- this makes it random. This makes it so your not like messing with the deck and it’s totally random.

So do this for a couple seconds, and after you have done that, bring it together. Lift the cards up but make sure the cards backs are facing the player and the face of the cards are facing you. Let them fall into place and use your thumb to put them back in a deck position. Like so.

Now what we're going to do after you have practiced all of those elements, is we are going to combine those elements, and we are going to create a shuffle. So with a single deck shuffle, you would riffle, strip, riffle, box, and riffle. You have just completed a single deck shuffle. Again, check out the link in the description below. I have a double deck shuffle and a shoe shuffle in there as well, and that should help you as you go. Now we’re going to take a little break before we go on to the next one which is cutting the checks. I’m going to see what you are saying in the chat. See if you have any questions….

Let’s see what you guys are saying in here really quick.

Heather's articles are really good and very concise on each and every aspect of dealing on games you want to play. I have learned a hell of a lot, and will be changing careers in the near future. Thank you Joey.

Dame says: What is the length of an average Craps table? Length can be anywhere from 12 feet to 14 feet in a casino.

Mills says: Any suggestions since the casinos are not hiring right now? Like I was saying before, due to COVID-19 the casinos had to close down and they fired all their dealers. When they opened back up they only hired 50% of their dealers back. Which means they still have 50% of their work force that they have to bring back in. So the casinos are not hiring right now. But I am still getting emails from people who want to know about the process. A lot of people -- what they want to do is -- they want to take this time -- since COVID just messed everything up and has screwed everything up. A lot of people are thinking about changing their careers. Or because they were fired they want to use this time to learn a new trade. Since they can’t actually go to a dealing school, because they can’t afford to pay for the dealing school, because nobody has any work right now -- I’m still getting emails from people asking, “How do you become a casino dealer?” Because they want to learn these tips, tricks and techniques while they are in COVID. So when this is over, they will have a new trade and they can go into a new industry. So that is why I am making this video. I want to be able to point people to this video so they have more details and more interaction face to face on what to do and the steps to take. Again, we will have a future article that simplifies all of this and makes it really easy and simple and fast and really quick to go through. So that’s in the future. I don’t know when that will be but hopefully it will be soon. Okay. Cool.

Speaking of which...check out my website…

Okay so let’s move on to the next one.

How to manage a deck of cards if you have large hands.

Andrew says: What do you do if you have large hands? So when you're shuffling, you're going to be shuffling pretty much the same way. Except, instead of doing the A position like so, which is what I was teaching you with petite hands or small hands. You would do like a spider. It’s like claws. You would claw it. You would hold the deck like this in a clawed position. So you would still hold it down, and you would still use your thumbs to lift the cards up and bring it together, but your hands are more in a clawed type of position. And that’s what you would do if you have large hands like so. It would be like claws. Okay. So I hope that helps.

2. Learn how to cut the chips.

Next up is cutting the chips. If you don’t have a deck of cards. If you don’t have a stack of 20 chips to practice at home, I put a link in the description where you can buy it on Amazon for pretty cheap. I think you can buy two decks for $10. And you can buy a stack of 20 for $5 or $10. So it’s pretty cheap. You would use this to practice at home. So you have your stack of chips and you want to learn how to cut the chips. When you are a dealer shuffling is very important, you’re going to be shuffling on every game. Same thing with cutting the checks. No matter what game you're on, you're going to need to know how to cut the checks. So pretty important. So you have a stack of checks right here. It’s going to be about a stack of 20 or so. That’s about a stack of 20. What you’re going to do is you're going to put out your very first stack which is 5 chips. If it takes you a moment to figure what 5 chips is and put it out there no problem. Again, we are trying to get our muscle memory up. We want to do this a million times so that way when we go to cut a stack of chips we could just automatically go out there and do 5 chips and just start going. And we don’t have to sit there and actually say...ok yeah this is 5.

So you have your 5 chips out, and ready to go. You're going to do 4 stacks of 5 chips. When your holding the stack, you're going to put your pinky on the side and your thumb on the other side and you're going to hold the bottom stack. The bottom chip. This is what's going to move the stack around. So you’re going to push the stack of chips up to the bet, you’re going to take your for finger and drag it across the top and then lift up. Like so. Again, you’re going to push it towards the bet. You’re going to use your finger, drag that on the top and then your sizing into the bet. You're going to lift up and pull away. And that is how you size into a stack of chips. Like so. And you’re going to want to sit there and do over and over and over again. Just go and cut into a stack of 5 chips. Don’t try to be fast about it. Speed will come with time. You want to be as accurate as possible so that way you learn the correct way of cutting the chips. You’re going to sit there and you’re going to practice doing that. Now when you get tired of doing that, you could do a stack of 4 with 5 chips each. And you can practice doing that. Because that would be your $25 chips. So $25 chips and $500 chips are always a stack of 4, 5 stacks each. And then $5 and $100 chips are always a stack of 5, 4 stacks each. You can sit there and watch Netflix, watch your kids. Whatever you want to do. Just sit there and try to practice cutting a stack of chips.

Now a couple things you need to look out for. When you’re cutting the chips, make sure your finger goes across the middle portion of the chip. From the very other side of the chip all the way to where your chips are at, like so. A lot of people -- what they do, is they’ll cut to the side, which doesn’t do anything. You're not doing anything by cutting to the side. Or what they’ll do is they’ll use their thumb and they'll try to cut the chip with their thumb. Never use your thumb to cut checks. So you always want to use your for finger and you want to slide it across, in order to cut the chips. And this is ensuring that all the stacks are the same height. And they are all the same amount. And you're going to sit there and practice that over and over and over again.

Again, if you want a challenge try to do it as quietly as possible. If you want an even bigger challenge, then do it with your nondominant hand just as much as you are doing it with your dominant hand. Dealers need to be ambidextrous, they need to be able to use both of their hands. So it’s good for you to be able to feel a stack of 20 and also be able to cut a stack of 20 with your nondominant hand. Like so. But I did that pretty poorly. It’s been a while since I’ve used my left hand to do that. But you want to try to be ambidextrous. One of the things I would do when I was a dealer was on my off days -- on my off periods, I would try to use my left hand as much as possible. Because that is my nondominant hand. So if I was eating cereal, I would eat it with my left hand. Writing would be horrible. I gave up on writing, but I would always try to use my left hand to do stuff and then that would help when I was a dealer and I had to use my left hand in order to deal.

Okay so let’s see what you guys are saying in the chat….

3. Learn to pitch the deck.

We talked about shuffling, we talked about cutting checks. The next thing we are going to talk about is pitching the deck. Again if you’re going to practice these, these are great things to practice at home. Practicing pitching the deck. You need a deck of cards first and foremost. What you're going to do -- first thing you're going to learn is how to hold the deck.

If you're holding the deck, put out your hand like so, and you see this line. If you're palm reading -- if you know anything about palm reading I think this is like the love line or the life line. One of those. It’s one of the main lines. Any way. There’s a line in your deck -- when you crinkle up your hand you see the line there. It’s where your hand indents. That’s where you're putting the cards.

So you're going to up to the edge of the card right here on the edge of the hand. And then you're going to take your fingers and you're going to cover the front portion of the deck and the sides of the deck. Okay. So none of the deck is showing. You're going to hold the deck like so. Now you want to make sure that this section is covered, because a lot of times when people hold the deck, they hold the deck like this. You don't want to be able to see the front of the deck. This is very bad. You do not want to be able to see the front of the deck. You need to protect the deck. So in order to protect the deck, you need to be able to cover the front of the deck and the sides of the deck. And that’s how you hold the deck, like so. Now when you’re pitching you're going to use your thumb to push the deck or the card out. (38:41)

That’s when you’re going to pitch.

Staying Square

But before I go into that, I want to go into just a little bit more. Now as the dealer you are staying square with the table. When you are holding the deck you don’t want to hold it to high or too low.

If you hold the deck to low like so. The players can see the top card. And if the top card is marked they can see their top card. So you don’t want to hold it too low. You don’t want to hold it too high because, if you hold it to high, the players can see what the next card is. You could flash them the next card basically. You never want to hold the deck to high. You always want to hold the deck belly height, like so. Belly height, and slightly away from the body at an upward angle. If it’s an upward angle, then the players can’t see what the next card is. And they can’t see if it’s a marked card.

Also, if it’s low -- if it’s near your belly they can’t see a card if you try to flash it. That’s why you want to keep it to your belly, like so, slightly away from it, and at an upward angle. That is how you properly hold the deck and how you properly protect it. Now when you pitch, again you’re going to push out the top card, and you’re going to put the corner of the top card on this line right here on your finger. The very first line on your finger, that’s where you're going to put it. And it’s the top portion. You do not want to hold it in the middle. You don’t want to hold it on the bottom, that’s incorrect. You need to have some kind of room to flick the card. So you need to hold it in the top. When you’re holding the card, it’s just your thumb and your forefinger. None of your other fingers are doing anything with the card. In Fact they are tucked in. So all you’re doing is just holding the very corner of the card. And what you’re going to do is your going to use your middle finger, and you’re going to flick it. That’s what pitches the card. Now when you flick it -- oh I’m sorry Pip….I hit her in the face. So sorry. I hit my poor dog in the face with a card.

So you’re flicking the card and you want to keep your wrist completely straight. If you keep your wrist completely straight and you're just using your finger to flick the card and pitch, then you know you are doing it right. Because you’re keeping your hand straight. Now when you flick, you want to follow through with it. If you ever played sports, you know if you're throwing the ball. You don’t just throw the ball and stop, you have to follow through. Well it’s the same with pitching. You want to follow through. You don’t want to stop half way. So if you're pitching, you want to follow through. When your hand -- your fingers are extended like so, you know you are following through.

Following Through

This is what it looks like if you're not following through. Your fingers don’t go very far. It’s not really doing anything. So when you are at home, you want to practice this, go as slow as possible, so that way you know you are doing it right. It’s flicking. So if you put your thumb and your middle finger together and flick, this is what it feels like when you are pitching the deck, like so. When you practice, you want to set up -- for example, markers, or targets. So that way you have something to throw the cards at. You’re going to be using the chips as the target when you are pitching. You always want to pitch to the chips and never to the player. If there is a player that is not playing then you’re going to screw up the cards. If there is someone playing two bets, you're going to screw up the cards. So you always want to pitch to the bets or the targets and never to the people or the players.

One of the things when you are pitching, do not use your wrist. There’s different ways to do this. So if you’re a Blackjack dealer, a Blackjack dealer is going to pitch differently than a poker dealer. A poker dealer is probably going to use his wrist. But if you’re a Blackjack dealer you do not want to use your wrist to pitch. This is horrible. You’re going to get carpal tunnel, it looks bad, you just don’t want to do it. So again, forefinger, thumb, you’re holding the very top corner of the card and you’re using your middle finger to flick.

Okay, let me know if you have any questions about pitching…

Lauren said I was trying to make you laugh.

Pitching Takes Practice

Yes, pitching takes a lot of practice. This is hours and hours and hours and hours of at home practice. This is something all dealers have to do. We all have to do at home practice. Even if we’ve been a dealer for a year, 5 years. Especially if we’re learning a new game. Or if we just want to keep our skills up. We all have to practice at home. And that’s why I was saying, you don’t need a school to learn how to be a dealer, because we are all practicing at home anyway. Half of it is practicing at home. You just need a guide or someone to show you how to do it right. That's what I am here for. That's what these live streams are here for, that’s what the videos are for, that’s what my website is here for. If you guys are practicing and you ever need any help you can email me at [email protected]. I can watch a video of you pitching or shuffling and I can let you know...hey you’re holding your hand a little awkward or maybe you're holding it a little tight. If you let it up a little, or maybe loosen up. It will be a lot easier for you and that way I can give you the help you guys need to develop these skills and get a job without having to pay to go to school.

Lawrence says: I used an empty box while sitting on the couch and would aim for the hole in the box. That’s a really good idea too! I would -- well I had a different dog, I didn’t have Pip back then, I had a Vegal-pitbull mix so the pitbull -- It was a medium dog. You know the pitbull had a lot of fun. So what I would do was I would pitch to YoShee my pitbull. And YoShee would try to grab the cards and eat them. And that is how I practiced pitching the deck at home when I was learning how to deal. I would pitch the cards to my pitbull. And the pitbull would jump up and try to grab them. And then he would tear them up and get excited. So there’s definitely a lot of different ways you can do this. A lot of different ways you can practice at home. Being a dealer, most of it is at home practice, especially when you are first learning.

What else are you guys saying…

Common Mistakes Dealers Make

Mr. Chad: Common mistakes you’ve seen dealers make, funny or awful examples. Very good question. So some of the common mistakes I see are, with new dealers on Blackjack -- A lot of mistakes I would see made is sloppiness. They wouldn't try. They would do just the minimum, the bear minimum, and then they wouldn't do any more. A lot of those dealers would stay in breaking houses because they were happy where they were at and they had no desire to do any better than that. So really just depends on you, and your personality and whether you want to be better. Another mistake I would see in Blackjack, sloppy game security. When you’re a dealer, you have to follow policies and procedures. That’s part of it.

Two Parts to Being a Dealer

There’s two parts to being a dealer. One part is you are an entertainer.

Part 1: Entertainer

You entertain the guest. You make them happy. You distract them from losing their bets. You want to entertain them. You want to keep them at the table. This makes more tips for you. How do you entertain them? Talk about them, talk about what they want to do, find a common interest. If you are interested in a certain sports team, talk about it and you’ll find the players that are interested in it as well. You will create a little group where you guys are talking and it’s fun. No one cares that they are losing because they are having so much fun. That is part of being a dealer, is entertaining people. Talking with them. Talking with your guest. Asking them about themselves. And basically just distracting the guest from them losing their money.

Part 2: Protecting the Game

The second part about being a dealer is protecting your game. You always want to protect your game. You have to protect your game at all times. One of the major ways you protect your game is by following all policy and procedures at all times. If all of the dealers follow all policies and procedures at all times, then everyone would be uniform. So, if anything happened, if anything out of the ordinary happens, if every dealer is uniform, that eye in the sky security will be able to catch it a lot easier. If they are watching everyone do the same thing. So following your policies and procedures is extremely important. These policies and procedures were put into place for a reason. For example: On a -- and I talked about this in an earlier video. When you’re giving someone a deck of cards to cut the deck, you never show them the wide side of the deck. Because of a scam that is out there, where they have cameras in a ring and they could record what the cards are. There’s reasons behind every policy and procedure. They are not put there just for the heck of it. So following all these policies and procedures is extremely important.

Let’s see what else you are saying….

More Common Mistakes

Oh common mistakes: Other common mistakes -- I sorta went on a rant right there didn’t I? So follow the policies and procedures, knowing what your job is. You are an entertainer. You are there to entertain. If you’re a sourpuss -- no you can’t be a sourpuss. You are an actor. I know some people are laughing right now, but I swear as a dealer you have to be an actor. If you’re having a bad day, you have to put that aside and you have to smile and have fun and make yourself enjoyable for the people around you. You are an actor! If someone is being a jerk on your table, don’t let them see that it bothers you. Don’t let them see that it gets to you. ACT, like nothing is wrong. You have to be an actor. Acting is a big part of dealing. So, that’s part of it. You don’t want to go to the table and be a sourpuss and I have seen people do that. It’s not fun for them, it’s not good for the players, the casino is not happy because people are not on the table. It’s just not good. Let me know if you have any other specific questions Chad. I hope I answered that for you.

Let’s see what else you are saying….

How Long Does it Take to Get Good at Pitching?

Tocuna: Yes I can agree. It took about a month to get good at pitching in poker but I didn’t learn how to do the faceup pitching until the day I went in for my audition. Talk about on the job learning.

Lauren is Laura. I didn’t catch that. Good to see you. How are you? Did not catch that.

Adam says when are you going to hire for your channel next Heather? Well, possibly very soon. I need -- we are thinking about hiring someone for sales. We need someone -- this is just up in the air…(55:10)

How Much do You Need to Practice?

Domestic says: When you start, how many hours a day do you practice? Once you are proficient how many hours to stay sharp? Great question. When you first start. When you are a breakin dealer, you want to practice 2-3 hours minimum each day. Like minimum! And you don’t have to do all three hours shuffling, or all three hours pitching. You can do an hour shuffling, an hour pitching, an hour cutting checks. But that would be the very minimum. Any more you are just helping yourself, because it is all about muscle memory. The only way you are going to obtain that muscle memory is by doing the same actions a million times. So practice is very important.

So I would say a minimum 3 hours when you are a break-in dealer. And then if you are a dealer and you just want to stay sharp I would say probably 30 min to an hour depending on what you are wanting to accomplish. If it’s -- for example if you’re just hired as a break-in dealer and you’re dealing 8 hours a day. And you have been in the business for 6 months then I would still practice the blackjack stuff an hour a day. But if you’re in it for a year, you want to learn roulette or you want to learn craps or something like that then practice roulette, practice craps, practice doing that for an hour or two or three each day. So I would say that would probably be the time range between 1 and 3 hours. 3 hours if you’re new, 1 hour if you are stationary. And again it just depends on you and your schedule and what’s going on in your life. The more you practice, the better you will be as a dealer. Once you get to the point you’re doing this all the time and you have it down pat. You’re working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day then you probably don’t have to practice as much any more. You know after 5 years, after 10 years, you're probably not practicing as much at all. But you could probably also deal in your sleep. I have dealt in my sleep. I know people can deal in their sleep. You just get it ingrained in your head. I hope that answers your question.

Let’s see what else you are saying….

Continuous Shuffle Machines

So Gina says in Germany there are a new CSM machine in common. Is that coming up in Vegas too? Are you talking about Continuous Shuffle Machines? We have had CSM machines here for a while. Great way to deter card counters because it’s always shuffling. There are some problems with it however. It just depends. Yes we do have continue shuffle machines. We’ve had it for at least 15 years now.

What have you heard about games where you handle the cards like Pai Gow? The players handing the cards. Mills can you be more specific so I know exactly what you are talking about? I am not exactly sure what the question is.

Yes depending on where you work, they could make you learn more games.

Taquinie says, where I work I still need to take the class for Blackjack and one other game. I only have poker on my gaming license. Yes, depending on where you work they might ask you to learn more games. But usually, in these areas it’s places like Tennissee, Kansas, Georgia, it’s like really remote areas where there’s only a handful of casinos maybe 2 casinos, 3 Casinos. If that’s the case, usually the casino will teach the dealer. So that’s really helpful, especially if you don’t have to pay for it. Some casinos will teach you how to deal, but you have to work for them for a year. And if you don’t work for them for the year, you have to pay them back for the school. So again, it really just depends on your location and the casino that you’re at.

Now let us continue….

Next Steps to Becoming a Blackjack Dealer

Now one of the things that we’re going to talk about is, what do you do when you’re ready to move on? Check out my website, I have “How to Deal Blackjack” on there.

When I teach people how to deal Blackjack, I always tell them, “Before you know how to deal a game, it's best to learn how to play it”. So you want to learn how to play the game before you learn how to deal it. If you don’t know how to play Blackjack, you’re not going to be able to deal it. You have to be in command of the game. First thing you do when you’re learning a new game, is you learn how to play it, then you learn how to deal it. You learn each component separately, then you put it together to create an actual game. Now I have livestreams on YouTube where I’m dealing a Blackjack game and you can see start to finish what it’s like to deal hand after hand, after hand. When you’re putting all this stuff together, you’re doing the same thing over and over and over again.

Where to Find a Cheap Blackjack Layout

If you really need a layout or something to practice at home. You can buy a layout, a Blackjack layout for $10 on Amazon. You can lay it out with a folded blanket or something underneath on a kitchen table, and now you can learn how to deal Blackjack or you can practice dealing Blackjack at home. Again, you’re going to go -- I‘m getting old and I had a brainfart, I admit it. I forgot what I was saying and I don’t remember where I was going with that. :)

So you’re going to put all the components together and then you’re going to deal Blackjack. You can use my article on my website…(1:02)

Applying to Your First Blackjack Dealer Job

The other thing we are going to talk about is once you feel ready, once you feel like actually getting a job as a dealer. You can go and you can get a job as a dealer. You do not need the schools to place you in a casino. You can get a job as a dealer yourself. Now how do you do that?

Step 1. Put in Your Application

First thing you do is you go to the website, and you put in your application for a dealer. Normal stuff. Do you have experience? No, but I really want to learn. Okay. So once the application is in, then you dress up in your salt and peppers. Salt and Peppers mean, black pants, black shoes, a white long sleeve collar, button up shirt. If you have a black tie cool, but if you don’t that's fine too. But a white shirt button up, long sleeve, dress shirt, black pants, black shoes. Salt and Peppers.

Step 2. Visit the Casino

You’re going to go to the casino during the day. You’re going to ask for the shift manager. The shift manager comes up and you're going to say to the shift manager. Hey, I really want to work here as a dealer. Can I get an audition to deal Blackjack here. The shift manager will be like the first thing you need to do is put your application in. You’re like great, I’ve already put my application in, you guys have my application, what’s the next thing? The next he’s like, the next thing is an audition.

Step 3. Run Your Audition

So you can either audition right then and there if he has nothing else going on, and if it’s a good time. That’s why you are in your salt and peppers and he’ll give you the audition right then and there, or he’ll tell you.. ”Hey, come back Friday night 8 p.m. we’ll give you an audition then.” Then you come back Friday 8 p.m. you do the audition then.

On the audition, they put you on a live game. So you are on an actual Blackjack game and you have to deal Blackjack to the players. It is so stressful, and so nerve wrecking. You are an actor and this is an audition and you're auditioning for the part. So there is a bit of stage fright there.

You do have stage fright when you go on your audition. One of the things I tell people to do in order to combat this is, when you’re going on an audition -- or when you’re applying for a casino, I want you to make a top 10 list. So no. 1 is the casino you want to work at the most. No. 10 is the casino you want to work at the least. Order the casinos in order from how much you want to work there to how much you don’t want to work there. And put as many casinos in there as possible. Ten usually works. What I want you to do is, I want you to start -- casino no. 10 the casino you don’t want to work at.

I want you to put your application in there and I want you to audition for that job. You’re not going to work there. That’s not the point of this. The point of this is you want that experience for the audition. You want that audition experience. You want to get all the mistakes, and problems, and mess ups and screw ups. You want to get all that nerve wrecking stuff out of the way with the casinos that you don’t want to work at. So that way by the time you get to casino no. 1 -- you get to the casino you do want to work at. You’ve already had all the experience, you’ve already messed up, you’ve already -- the cards have busted out and flown everywhere. You already threw chips at people. Like shit already happened. You get all of that out of the way so by the time you hit no. 1 you are ready. You’ve done this. You know what you are doing. You’re confident. You’ve done this 10 times and you’ve already screwed up enough. You're like...you're ready. You’ve already gotten that out of the way. You’ll be more confident and more ready and more likely to get the job than you would if you started with casino no. 1 as your first audition. So that’s another example of what to do to help you get a job as a dealer. Again, you do not need a school in order to place you into a casino.

Anyone can get hired in a casino. All you have to do is put in your application. Go into the pit. Where your black and whites. Ask the shift manager for an audition. He’ll give you an audition date or he’ll tell you, “We’re not hiring right now,” which happens. Just go to the next casino. And you can get yourself a job. You don’t have to rely on anyone else to do it.

Let’s see what else you are saying….

COVID and Players Handling Cards

Mills says with COVID and all, are the players still handling the cards? And I hope that helps. Yes it does help. So every casino is different. It really just depends on the casino. At some casinos, what’s going on is they'll have hand sanitizers on the table and as soon as the player sits down at the table. They’ll be asked to use hand sanitizer before they touch anything. The cards will be dealt and the players will handle the cards like normal. The chips will be handled like normal. When the player loses the bet the chips will be washed and placed back in the rack. For the cards, the cards are going to be replaced more often. Before COVID, a shoe -- 8 deck shoe was replaced once every shift. Once every 8 hours. No one was touching the shoe cards except the dealers. That has been shortened to once every 4 hours. So now it’s replaced twice every shift, or every 3 hours I think. Twice a shift instead of once a shift. And then for the handheld decks, the singles and double deck, instead of being replaced every two hours, the deck are replaced every hour. This cuts down on people handling it. Again that is why hand sanitizer is at the table. So they tell people to use hand sanitizer a lot. That’s basically what they’re doing for the cards. And that’s pretty much at every table. I hope that helps Mills.

Acquiring a Gaming License

Joey says: Does the casino apply for your gaming license for you or do you have to do it yourself? Great question! It really just depends on your location and the state. Here in Las Vegas, Nevada, what happens is, you get hired as a dealer, and when you’re going through processing, when you're in HR and you're doing all the processing, that’s when you have to apply for your gaming license. So they set everything up, they get everything taken care of. The only thing you have to do is, you have to go in and get your fingerprints taken, you have to -- actually the fingerprinting thing is the only thing you have to do for the gaming license. Everyone has to do a drug test of course but I think that was for the casino not for the gaming license. I think it was just fingerprinting for the license. You just have to go get your fingerprints taken. Maybe get a picture taken either at the sheriff's office or at the casino. After that, here in Las Vegas, it’s electronic. So you never actually get a physical card. You have it for 5 years. After 5 years then they re update it as long as you're working in a casino. That casino will know when it expires and they will update it for you. You don’t have to pay anything, you don’t really have to do anything. It’s really simple and easy to get a gaming license here. I know it’s totally different in different locations. I know in different locations the dealers have to go to the sheriff's office and they have to get the gaming license themselves and the casino doesn’t help them. So really just depends on your location and the casino.

Yeah, and depending on your audition. Sometimes you’ll audition to players on a live game, and sometimes it’ll have what happens to Sacuni where you are taken to the backroom and you’re dealing to management and other dealers or other managers. Like people that work there. It really just depends on the location.

And out of the 4 of the past you're the only one that is still there. That is awesome.

Mills: I know it’s Mills, I just couldn’t remember! Okay good I’m glad I answered that.

So that pretty much goes over it. We have been doing this for an hour 20. So we’re are going to wrap it up here. Again, when you're learning how to deal, or how to deal Blackjack check out the link in the description below where I have more information on how to do this….