Dealer Check For Blackjack

Both land-based casinos and online blackjack casinos that support live dealer blackjack require dealers to take at least one more card with the dealer has a soft 17 showing. The dealer will continue taking more cards—until the house’s hand either becomes a hard 17 or higher, or the hand goes over 21 and goes bust. If the Dealer's card is a 10-value card, they will check the 'ace' corner of the down card to see if the card is an ace. If the dealer sees no black mark, then the play will continue as normal. The dealer doesn't even know what the value of the card is - they only know that it's not what they were looking for in order to complete a Blackjack. Live dealer blackjack is a game of online blackjack that is played in real-time and run by a real dealer. Some of the advantages of playing blackjack with a live dealer include. Professional dealers handle the game. Live video is streamed in high definition. You get to interact with the dealer.

1. How Do Dealers Check For Blackjack
2. Blackjack Dealer Rules

In card games, hole carding is the obtaining of knowledge of cards that are supposed to be hidden from view. The term is usually applied to blackjack but can apply to other games with hidden hole cards, like three card poker and Caribbean stud poker. So long as it does not involve the use of a device like a mirror or actions like touching the dealer's cards, in most jurisdictions hole carding is a legal form of advantage gambling in casino table games. In other games, like stud poker, casinos normally have rules against rubbernecking or having a confederate stand behind an opponent to signal hole cards.

Blackjack players must usually make playing decisions based on only seeing one of the dealer's cards (the upcard). But if the dealer's hole card is spotted, a player who plays correctly has a theoretical advantage of up to 13% instead of the normal player disadvantage of around 0.5%. A hole-card player will often choose not to make certain plays, such as hitting a hard 19 against a dealer 20, so as not to reveal that he can see the dealer's hole card.

This technique is not applicable in most games outside of the United States where the second dealer card is normally not dealt until all players have played.

Strategies[edit]

A normal blackjack strategy has ten columns, for an ace through dealer ten value card. Strategy tables for hole carding differ from normal blackjack tables as they include a column for each possible total dealer hand instead of simply the visible card. Below is a sample hole card hit/stand table for six decks, stand on soft-17. The columns are based on the dealer hand and the rows based on the player hand. Green denotes a hit.

First-basing and spooking[edit]

One method of hole carding is to peek at the card when the dealer checks the hole card for blackjack. This is called 'first-basing'.^[1] A modification called 'spooking' refers to a partner with a better view peeking at the hole card in the same circumstance and communicating the information to the player. Peeking devices have made these methods largely obsolete.^[2]

Front-loading[edit]

Front-loading refers to observing the hole card as it is slid under the upcard.^[3] Newer methods of hole-carding concentrate on observation before the down card is placed under the upcard. This provides information about the card even if the dealer upcard is not a ten or an ace. The advantage varies depending on the rules, the percentage of cards seen, and the strategies used.

Partial information[edit]

At times the player will see a corner of the hole card, but not enough to determine the exact card. For example, if there is no pip in the corner, the card may be an ace, 2 or 3. Or, if there is a pip in the corner, it is a 4-10, but not a face card. To make use of this additional information, a different set of strategy tables must be used depending on the set of possible cards in the hole.^[4]

Below is a sample blackjack, partial hole card hit/stand table for two decks. The columns are based on the dealer upcard and the rows based on the player hand. Partial hole card tables contain ten columns as the dealer's total hand is not known with complete certainty. A different set of tables must be used depending on the information acquired from the hole card. In this table, the hole card is a six or seven. Green denotes a hit. One might note that this table bears little resemblance to standard blackjack strategy.

Next card play[edit]

Hole carding generally refers to knowing the dealer’s hole card. Next card play refers to knowing the next card to be dealt. If a round has not started, and a player knows what his or her first card will be, one can simply alter one's bet depending on the value of that card. In a game like blackjack, if the dealer has already dealt a player's first two cards, and the player knows the next card to be dealt, it becomes possible for playing decisions to be altered to include this additional information.^[4]:255 Strategies are significantly more complex as there exists a different strategy table for each possible next card. Strategies may also differ depending on a player's position in the dealing rotation:

• First Seat – If the player does not take the known card, another player gets it.
• Last Seat – If the player does not take the card, the dealer may draw it. This also applies in a situation where no player to one's left is likely to draw a card.
• No hole card – In a no-hole-card game, if the player does not take the card, it may become the dealer’s second card.

Other methods[edit]

• Warped cards – In a casino where a blackjack dealer bends the hole card to check for a blackjack, the cards can become warped. The warps can be later used to determine the value of a face down card. This method is largely obsolete as most casinos use devices instead of bending cards to determine dealer blackjacks, and cards are regularly replaced with new decks.^[5]
• Dealer tells – When a blackjack dealer checks for a blackjack, some dealers may give clues as to the value of the down card, akin to poker tells. Again, most casinos now use devices to check the down card, rendering this obsolete in most casinos.^[6]
• Peeking at other players' cards – Depending on the game and casino, this may or may not be acceptable and may aid player decisions.
• Counting by inference – In blackjack where player cards are dealt face down, the actions of other players can provide clues as to their hidden cards. This is less valuable in modern casinos due to the fewer number of single-deck games and reduction in penetration (how deeply the dealer deals before shuffling.)

Notes[edit]

1. ^Blaine, Rick. Blackjack blueprint : how to play like a pro-- part-time. Huntington Press. p. 154. ISBN0-929712-16-1.
2. ^Snyder, Arnold. The big book of blackjack (1st ed.). Cardoza Pub. p. 311. ISBN1-58042-155-5.
3. ^Uston, Ken. Million dollar blackjack (6th rev. print ed.). Gambling Times. p. 197. ISBN0-89746-068-5.
4. ^ ^abGrosjean, James. Exhibit CAA : beyond counting (1st ed.). South Side Advantage Press, LLC. p. 279. ISBN0-9790061-4-7.
5. ^Humble, Lance; Cooper, Carl. The world's greatest blackjack book (Rev. ed.). Doubleday. p. 141. ISBN0-385-15382-1.
6. ^Snyder, Arnold (2005). Blackbelt in blackjack : playing 21 as a martial art (3rd ed.). New York: Cardoza Pub. ISBN978-1580421430.

By John Crawford

You might think that checking for blackjack is a largely universal process but, as a matter of fact, there are two ways that blackjack dealers can check for blackjack and offer insurance to their players. These rules aren’t just exclusive to land-based casinos either, they can be adopted by live dealer casinos too.

Checking for blackjack is something that happens via high-definition (HD) live streams at slotscalendar.com blackjack casinos which also offer a string of live-streamed blackjack game variants, including Blackjack Surrender. These two scenarios for checking blackjacks are ingrained in the gameplay of all kinds of live blackjack, but all too often players are unaware with how their dealers are required to handle their own hole cards.

To offer some clarity on the rules for checking blackjack with live casinos, we’ve gone into more detail on the two possible scenarios you could be faced with:

The “no peek” blackjack rule

The “no peek” blackjack ruling is synonymous with most European land-based and online casinos. If the dealer pulls an ace from the deck as their up card, they will immediately ask players at the table whether they would like to take insurance. However, they will continue to deal cards to all active players at the table, allowing them to make decisions on their hands such as splitting or doubling down before a dealer’s blackjack can be revealed. Lasvegasadvisor.com discussed this and revealed that the “no peek” rule results in the house having a greater edge over players worth 0.62%. That’s because the house can take the player’s additional chips for splitting and doubling down, on top of their original bet, before a dealer’s blackjack is announced.

The US-style blackjack rule

Wherever possible, players should try to find live blackjack tables that abide by the US-style “peek” rule of checking blackjack. In most US online and land-based casinos, the dealer will peek at their face-down card before players are given any cards. If the dealer does have blackjack, they will display it to the table and immediately take all the original bets from the players. This can save you money and prevent you from committing to doubling down or splitting a hand in the no-win scenario of the dealer having blackjack.

How Do Dealers Check For Blackjack

It’s a similar case in live blackjack with surrender too. Some live casinos will allow players to surrender their hand if the dealer’s up card is an ace and their other card is drawn face down. In other cases, live casino dealers may only draw one card face down for themselves, with the other remaining in the deck until all players have decided how to play their hands. In this instance, players will be offered what is known as “late surrender”, crucially offered after the dealer has checked for a possible blackjack. The issue of surrender is a hot topic on quora.com among players, reinforcing the challenge of rules not being the same in one casino as the next.

Ultimately, the rules on live casino dealers checking for blackjack and offering insurance will depend on whether your chosen live casino adopts the European or US blackjack format. It’s a good idea to be mindful of this before you sit down at a live dealer table, so that you can plan for both eventualities.

Blackjack Dealer Rules