Blackjack Card Placement

The traditional method of card placement dictates that the top card is positioned where it covers the lower left quarter of the card beneath. Some may say to cover about a postage stamp sized portion of the lower left bottom card or the lower left corner pip. In either case, the principle is that by being able to see at least three-quarters of the bottom card its value can be determined by the visible pips. Although that concept is true in itself, in real world dealing the combination of speed and human inaccuracy often leads to far more than desired amount of pips being obscured resulting in an unreadable view of the value of a hand.

To account for human error and to provide better game protection it is recommended that all pips be exposed as often as possible. Rarely will a situation occur where a player splits and/or Doubles Down making it necessary to show less than the entire face of all the cards.

Some dealers resist this idea of showing all their pips because they were originally taught different and people tend to not like change. More often than not, when there is a beef on Blackjack over the dealer taking an alleged push or pushing a winner it almost always going to be a difference of one in the value of the disputed hand. The ability of surveillance to provide the correct decision as to who actually won, lost or pushed comes down to proper card placement. When the dealer is absolutely certain they were correct, but, surveillance cannot read the hand it will be deemed "inconclusive" and the player will receive the benefit of the doubt, i.e. get paid.

It does matter, and is pointless to argue, that every card dealt to the players is initially fully exposed and therefore the value of every hand can be determined by "rewinding" back to the beginning of the hand and totaling the hands. The decision will be based on the view of the cards at the end, after the dealer has acted on their hand. So protect yourself and your game by showing all your pips.

Sometimes the player is taking a shot. Sometimes it is an honest mistake on the player's part. Sometimes it is your fault. Everyone makes mistakes. Call surveillance with confidence in the correct decision being made because of your excellent card placement.

The following video is an example of proper card placement. Click the annotation link on this video "Incorrect Card Placement" to see what a hand should not look like, but, too often does.

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