Blackjack

Once you receive a new deck of cards, if you have players, you need to instruct your players to remove all of their bets off of the bet-spots.

Your floor will place the deck of cards on the table. This is your opportunity to spread the cards face up and verify that all cards are present.

Next, you will sweep up the cards and then spread them on the table face down in order to check every card for mis-prints, torn corners, marks, or any anomalies that will enable a player to distinguish one card from another. This is also your chance to count the cards and ensure that there are a total of 52 cards present.

Once the cards have been verified and inspected, some casinos may require that you "wash" the deck. This is simply smearing the cards throughout the table in order to accomplish a rough shuffle. You will then consolidate the cards and if you need to tilt the cards on their sides, ensure that the backs of the cards are facing the players.

You will then begin your house shuffle. The house shuffle will differ from casino to casino. However; the house shuffle that is presented in this video will show you all of the basics that any casino is usually looking for although they may have you perform the "turn" in a different fashion and may have the entire shuffle procedure performed in a different order. This is expected as every house can have their own house rules.

The house shuffle performed in this video is:

Riffle
Riffle
Strip
Riffle
Turn
Riffle

Ensure that during the riffles, do not allow big chunks of unshuffled cards; this will defeat the purpose of the shuffle and accomplishing this will take practice.

During the strip, do not lift the main portion of the deck more than 2 inches off of the shuffle pad; this will discourage players from seeing the unprotected bottom card.

When performing the turn, it is industry-standard to perform the turn of the top half of the deck with 1 finger; usually the index finger or the pinky depending on your house rules.

Lastly, when you are offering the cut to the player, do not let the deck extend past the insurance line and do not raise the deck off of the table.

When a player cuts the deck with the cut-card, they are not permitted to cut within 10-12 cards of the top or bottom of the deck or "brush" the deck with the cut-card before placing it in the deck. Players like to say, "Thin to Win" because they know that the house does not allow thin cuts and if they can get away with it, they will consider it a lucky cut.

Every time that you offer the cut to the players, choose a different player to cut after each completed shuffle. However; sometimes the players may elect to have the same "lucky" person continue to cut. This is completely fine and is within the spirit of the game.

If you run into the condition where all players refuse to cut the deck, the dealer will make an ALERT CALL to floor by saying, "Dealer Cut!" Then promptly cut the deck in the middle with the cut-card and complete the rest of the procedure to begin dealing.