Blackjack Strategy Guide

Now, part of the dealer's job is to tell the player what the book says. If the player has a 15 against the dealer's ten up card. A lot of times the player will ask the dealer what they should do. As the dealer, it's your job to quote the book, and the book we are quoting from is Edward Thorp’s, How to Beat the Dealer.

Now, what you're basically doing as the dealer is advising the player based on the basic strategy guide. Now you can find the basic strategy guide in any gift shop, in any casino. Usually what it looks like is a plastic card that tells the player what to do. Again, as the dealer, it's your job to inform the player on what the basic strategy card says to do. Now, when practicing the blackjack strategy guide, use the actual card at home and deal to yourself. This way you can put yourself in different situations and you could test your knowledge of the blackjack strategy card.

Another thing that will help you is use flash cards. Create at home flash cards that will help you learn what to do, depending on the situation. Another thing you could do is use our flash cards on our website, and that will help you learn the blackjack strategy guide as well. We also have a Blackjack Strategy Guide Worksheet that will help you memorize the chart.

Holding the Deck

Now, we've gone over a lot of the major components of actually dealing a blackjack game. That could be used on both a multi-deck, single deck, or double deck game. But with a single or double deck, you will have to pitch the deck. And some people have some trouble with this.

The first thing you have to focus on is actually holding the deck. You want to make sure that you cover the front of the deck, as well as the sides of the deck. If the dealer is holding the deck too high, then he could be flashing his next hit card to the player. If the dealer's holding the deck too low, then the player could see whatever marked card is going to come out next. When holding the deck, you want it slightly away from your body at an upward angle, so that way the player can't see what card is going to be next.

Now, when you hold the deck, I want you to take the deck and place it on your flat hand. Put the corner of the deck in this little groove in your hand. When you're doing this, you will see the little groove in between the thumb and the fingers. That's where I want you to put the corner of the deck, right in this groove. Then you're going to use part of your hand and your fingers to cover the front portion and the sides of the deck.

I want you to use the palm of your hand to push it up. This way, it fits snugly and tightly in your hand. It's also more comfortable. Remember, if it's comfortable, if it feels good to you, you know you're doing it right. If it doesn't feel comfortable, then try again.

If you look at your hands and you see your knuckles are white and your hands are white, you're holding the deck way too tightly. You want to feel comfortable. If it's not comfortable, you're probably not doing it right. Now for your homework. I want you to go home, and I just want you to practice holding the deck. I want you to get used to the feeling of it in your hands. Make sure that you are always covering the very front and sides of the deck. A way you could do this is by standing in front of a mirror and check to make sure that your hand is covering the front and sides of the deck.

As you look in the mirror, notice, can you see any part of your deck? Can you see the front edge or the sides? Are you dipping the deck so low that you could see the top of the next card, or are you holding it so high? So that when you push out the next card, the players can see what it is. Watch yourself in the mirror and make sure that you're holding the deck properly.

Pitching

In this section, I'm going to teach you how to pitch a deck of cards. To begin, I want you to hold the deck properly. And you're going to take your thumb and slightly push out the next card. Now, when you push out the next card, it's going to go up and over. And you only have to push out the card slightly. When you push up the card, you're going to place your finger at the very corner of the card. The corner of the card is aligned with the first line on your finger. You're going to hold the top corner with your thumb. If you notice my pinky, my ring finger and my middle finger are not doing anything. They're not even touching the card. You're just holding the very corner of the card with your thumb and your forefinger.

Then take your middle finger and with the nail or the top portion of your middle finger, you're going to touch the card and you're going to push it out. You are trying to flick the card. If you want to know what it feels like to flick the card, take your middle finger and your thumb and flick. This is what it should feel like when you're flicking the cards out. You should have a little bit of resistance. You want to make sure you follow through. When you do the flick, you will push the card out.

Again, you will grab the corner of the card, and flick. Notice how your fingers are out, and you follow through with the flick. I've seen people where as soon as they flick, they stop, and they don't follow through. You want to make sure you follow through with the flick, and all I want you to do is just practice at home. Practice going from left to right and trying not to dip.

Now, if you're on a table and you're pitching and the card goes down, this is completely normal. Don't stress out when the card goes down. In the casino, you will need to keep your eye on it and don't lose eye contact. Continue to watch the area that it dropped until a player or floor supervisor picks up the card. Now, in a casino, the floor supervisor will inspect the card before putting it back into play.

But at a casino party, it's not that big of a deal. It happens. Cards go over the table all the time. Just get the card back and you'll be good. One of the ways you could stop this from happening is to practice pitching at home.

When you practice at home, you want to set up an area with targets. These targets will simulate bets. You never want to pitch to the player. You always want to pitch to the bet or to the target. Now you can use stuff from home, like cleaning products, spray bottles, anything like that. You just want to give yourself something you can hit, something to aim at. Practice aiming and try to hit the targets.

Go from left to right and keep practicing. Do this for at least an hour every day until you feel comfortable pitching the cards. Now there will be times where the cards will fly over into the neighbor's area. If you're pitching and your card goes over to the neighbor's area, it’s not a big deal. Don't freak out. Just stop what you're doing, take the card and move it over to the correct area, then continue. One of the ways to keep this from happening is by lots of at home practice. You want to make sure you practice at home for a good amount of time.

Now another thing you have to keep in mind with pitching is you don't want carpal tunnel. If you're pitching incorrectly, you could get carpal tunnel. It really just depends on how you're pitching. For example, this happens more with poker dealers than with blackjack dealers.

When you pitch, if you're flicking your wrist, and you're not keeping your wrist straight, this will cause you to have carpal tunnel. You want to use the middle finger to flick the cards while keeping your wrist completely straight. This will keep you from getting carpal tunnel. If you're flicking the cards with your wrist, this will cause you to get carpal tunnel.

For homework. I want you to practice pitching. I want you to set up seven targets, and practice aiming at those targets. Practicing for at least an hour every day or until you feel comfortable pitching.

Tucking the Hole Card

Another thing you need to keep in mind, when you're on a single or a double deck, is you're going to have to tuck your hole card.

When you get to yourself, the very first card you get you are going to flip the card face up. Then pitch the second round of cards. Then we get back to the dealer and you're going to have to tuck your hole card. Keep your deck hand as low to the table as possible and using the middle finger, just press down on the edge of this card to keep it in place. With your other hand, slightly raise this edge of your up card. Make sure your hand is protecting the card, so no one can see it. Take the card out and then quickly slide it under the up card. And that is how you tuck your hole card.

Again, take the card out, and you see that my forefinger and middle finger are holding the card. You see that my hand is blocking the card from third base. And you're seeing that my middle finger is holding down the up card. So, I can easily slide it in. And when you slide it in, you want to make sure you adjust the edges of the card so the hold card cannot be seen.

If you're left-handed you have to worry about flashing your hole card to first base. If your swing is too high and you're not protecting the hole card, third or first base will be able to see it. When you are practicing, if you have a friend on first or third base and they're watching you, they could tell you if you're flashing your hole card.

Keep practicing tucking the hole card until you feel comfortable with it. Usually, it's 30 minutes every single night until you feel comfortable. And again, you want to do it as low to the table as possible and as quickly as possible. You want to work up to being as quick as a normal dealer. Start out slow, make sure you are doing it correctly, and slowly build up your speed. You want to make sure your actions are correct before you speed up.

Multiple Hands

When dealing at a casino, if a player is playing 2 or 3 hands, they may have to double or triple the table minimum per hand. At a casino party, players can play as many hands as they like without being forced to increase their bet. In a casino, the player must play their first hand before doing anything with their second hand.

Now there are two methods that you can use when pitching to someone who is playing multiple hands. For both methods, the first hand will always be pitched behind the bet, like normal.

Now the first method has you pitching the second hand in front of the second bet. The second method has you placing the card neatly in front of the second bet. Now this second method is much easier to do. Plus, you can easily tell if someone messed with the cards or touch the cards because the cards would be messy. When dealing a casino game, this won’t matter because you don’t have to worry about game security and table protection when the chips aren’t worth any money.

In a casino, the player must play their initial hand before playing their second hand. The only exception to this rule is when the dealer has an ace up card and is asking for insurance. Then the player could look at both hands to see if he wants to insure them or not.

Mock Blackjack Game

In this section, we deal out a mock blackjack game. This way you are able to see how we pulled together everything we learned to deal several hands of blackjack. Watch the video to see how all of these elements come together to create a blackjack game.