California card rooms are not just for poker.
Players starting hand busting percentage:
The left side of this chart contatins the busting percentages for the player’s starting hand. The players staring hand is the first two cards dealt to the player, and this percentage changes after the player hits.
Dealers busting percentge showing one card:
The right side of the chart contains the dealers busting percentage with a certain up card, before the hole card is revealed or the dealer hits.
Some probabilities on the Dealer’s hands :
1) Blackjack or 21 – 12.2% chance
2) 20 points – 17.6% chance
3) 19 points – 13.5% chance
4) 18 points – 13.8% chance
5) 17 points – 14.6% chance
6) Dealer Busts – 28.3% chance
The odds that a dealer will not bust is 71.7% chance (before any cards are flipped)
Blackjack Players
Here’s the probability of receiving the following two card point total:
1) Blackjack – 4.8% (winning hand)
2) 17 – 20 – 30.0% (automatic stand)
3) 12 – 16 – 38.7% (decision hands)
4) 4 – 11 – 26.5% (must hit)
Notes:
There is a certain type of blackjack players who tend to complain a lot.
One of the more common complaints I hear is “How come you always give me 13 or 14?”
The probability of the player being dealt hands with point value similar to that are almost 40% and provide a mathematical answer to that question.
Conversely the odds of a player being dealt a blackjack is 4.8%. At less than 5% of your hands, it is easy to see why players feel like they don’t come around very often. The word most commonly heard after a player is dealt a blackjack is “Finally”.
The law that provides for card room blackjack.
PENAL CODE SECTION 330.11
California cardroom blackjack
330.11. “Banking game” or “banked game” does not include a controlled game if the published rules of the game feature a player-dealer position and provide that this position must be continuously and systematically rotated amongst each of the participants during the play of the game, ensure that the player-dealer is able to win or lose only a fixed and limited wager during the play of the game, and preclude the house, another entity, a player, or an observer from maintaining or operating as a bank during the course of the game. For purposes of this section it is not the intent of the Legislature to mandate acceptance of the deal by every player if the division finds that the rules of the game render the maintenance of or operation of a bank impossible by other means. The house shall not occupy the player-dealer position.
Many card rooms offer the surrender option to their guests
Surrender offers you as a player the choice to fold your hand, at the cost of half of the original bet. You must make that decision prior to taking any other action on the hand. For example, once you draw a third card, or split, or double down, surrender is no longer an option.
Not every game offers surrender, and those, that do, fall into two categories: Early vs Late.
The two varieties of surrender, early and late, differ only in the way a dealer blackjack is handled. In an early surrender game, a player may choose to surrender before the dealer checks his cards for blackjack, offering a cheap way out even if the dealer turns out to have blackjack. Because this offers a healthy advantage to the player, this version (early surrender) is rarely offered. The much more common variation is late surrender, where the dealer checks for blackjack first, and then only if he does not have blackjack will he allow players to surrender their hands.
Surrender is an excellent rule for players who use it wisely. Unfortunately, many players surrender far too many hands. If you play in a game with surrender, use basic strategy to determine when surrender is the appropriate play. To understand how bad a hand must be to properly be surrendered, consider the following:
To lose less with surrender, you must be only 25% likely to win the hand (ignoring pushes). That is, if you lose 75% of the time, and win only 25% of the time, your net loss is about 50% of your bets, equal to the amount you’ll lose guaranteed by surrendering.
So, learn to use the surrender option, but make sure you know when it is appropriate.
Ace Rich – Is a phrase used to describe a deck that is full of Aces since not many have been dealt.
When a deck is Ace Rich you should be making a larger than average wager.
If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
-Chinese proverb
The Rules of the Game:
When gambling, you should know the basic rules of the game, the best strategic way to play that game and your odds of winning or losing.
You should also know some etiquette of the game or at least be open for suggestions.
The Stakes:
Decide ahead of time how much money you wish to gamble with and stay inside of your budget, just as if you were budgeting to see a play in the city.
The great part gambling is they will never pay you to go see a play in the city, that’s what makes gambling such a unique hobby.
The Quitting Time:
When you head out to your local card room to play cards, you should predetermine an approximate time that you wish to play to avoid long of sessions. If you were going to a movie you would allot a certain amount of time for the movie, so do the same when you play cards.
Gambling responsibly, by knowing the game, deciding the stakes and knowing when to stop, is a really fun pastime and a hobby and occasionally, they will pay you to do that!.
Cardroominsider.com promotes responsible gaming. If you feel you have a problem
or would like help, visit the California Council on Problem Gambling web site.
Insider Term: Dealer Tokes
Dealer tokes or tips are gratuities, given to dealers as “tokens of appreciation”.
Dealers are paid minimum wage and rely on tips to make a living. A toke can be given to a dealer in a couple of different ways.
The most common way for a player or guest to tip a dealer is to make a “toke” bet for the dealer by placing an additional bet, directly in the front of the player’s bet. This is the preferred method for most dealers, or at least this dealer anyway. You may also just lay a chip on the felt and tell the dealer “this is for you”.
Why tip a dealer?
There are a variety of reasons why a guest might tip the dealer. One reason would be that they are winning, but that is not the only reason a guest may tip.
Guests do not need to be winning to tip, you could also tip because the dealer…
Deals the game noting some of your preferences.
Is engaging and entertaining
Is Good natured when you are either winning or losing
Meets your needs or preferences consistently.
Maintains table etiquette
Advises the guests when another player has either added a hand or taken one out
Mindful of keeping your area clean and your glass full
In other words, guests may tip the dealer, or bet for the dealer, when either winning, or losing, if they give great customer service..
“Go for your own” vs. “pooled/shared” Tokes:
Go for your own:
Generally speaking, blackjack/cal games dealers in a cardroom , “go for their own” tokes.
“Go for their own” simply means, whatever tips they generate that day are theirs to keep and they do not share or pool with other dealers. (In some instances they are required to give the Cal Games Floor person a percentage)
In some cases, Card Room dealers who “go for their own”, can also let their tips ride, meaning, if you win the hand, they can let all or a portion of the winning toke bet ride on the next hand, resulting in a larger tip.
Tip Pooling or Sharing:
Many of California’s Tribal gaming casinos and Nevada Casinos “pool” or “share” dealers tokes, in one of the following ways:
Splitting tips by the day:
In this method all of the tips generated by all dealers in a 24 hour period are marshaled together and then divided by the number of dealer hours on the floor that day. This gives you an hourly toke rate. The casino will pay the dealer the tokes earned on their checks for every hour the dealer worked that day.
Splitting tips by the shift:
The three classified shifts that casinos dealers work are Day shift, Swing shift or Graveyard shift. When casino’s use the “split tips by shift” method, the tips generated by dealers are kept separate, by shift. At the end of each shift, tokes are counted, divided between only those dealers that worked that day and on that shift. The tokes earned are put on the dealers paychecks.
When “pooling” tips, dealers are not allowed to let tips ride, in effect they would be wagering other people’s money, so the casino doesn’t allow that. If you place a toke bet for a dealer who shares tips, they will pick up the winning toke bet and place it in the toke box at the conclusion of each hand.
Casinos that pool tips can also require dealers to share their tokes with Floor Persons.
“Go for your own” or “Sharing” Dealer Tokes and its Impact on Customer Service:
Do guests receive better service with the “go for your own” method or the “pooling” method?
In regards to customer service, there are some pros and cons for each.
The tip pooling method can reward dealers who might not give the best customer service The dealers receive the same amount, regardless of the amount of tokes they generate. The motivation to provide great customer service may be compromised using this method.
Card room dealers who “go for their own”,try and give the customers who tip individual and personalized service. Cal games dealers that “go for their own” in a card room generally provide a richer experience for those who tip. The question with this method is, do the customers who do not tip, or do not tip well receive great customer service?
Tipping in a card room:
If you are new to the Card room environment, just approach a dealer and feel free to ask them any questions you may have. If they provide a favorable experience for you, be sure and give them a tip or place a “toke” bet for them.
Cardroom Insider 