Equipment You Need

Before we start learning any of the basics, we need to talk about equipment. What do you need in order to practice at home? And the first thing you need is a deck of cards. Cards will be very helpful when you're learning how to shuffle and handle the cards or pitch the deck. Another thing that you're going to need is a stack of chips.

Now, the next thing you need is something that mimics a table. Not everyone has a casino table in their home. So what we use, typically when practicing at home and I'm talking about normal casino dealers, is we get out our ironing board and we practice on our ironing board. It's about the right height. We have a little padding underneath, which helps. And, it's a good substitute for a casino table. You can also place a blackjack felt layout over it, as this blackjack layout will help simulate a casino table.

Another thing that you could do is just take a normal kitchen table, an island or a bar, and put a comforter or a folded blanket on top of it. And this should give you the padding that you need, in order to practice. If some of you are feeling adventurous and you actually want to make your own blackjack table, which I've had people do. Then you can buy the foam on Amazon (get foam that is 1/8 inch thick) and everything else you could get at a Lowe's hardware store or Home Depot. The standard table is 36 inches wide by 72 inches long. Here is one foam sheet that would cover a standard table. And it's pretty easy, to make, nothing to it, really. After you have the equipment, you need to get started. just so you know, throughout this course, not only are you going to be doing homework. We're also going to be having you do drills, test quizzes, and we're going to be giving out student handouts.