The dealer is running a script, not playing a hand
When you sit down to deal blackjack, you are not playing against the players. You are executing a fixed set of house rules that removes almost every decision from your hands. The players decide whether to hit, stand, double, split, or surrender. You decide nothing except how cleanly you run the procedure. That distinction matters more than any card knowledge, because a dealer who improvises creates payout errors, misdeals, and disputes that a dealer who follows the script never sees.
Your job breaks into five phases: the shuffle and cut, the initial deal, the players' decisions, your mandatory draw, and the settlement. Each phase has a correct order, and the order is what protects both the players and the house from a misdeal or a mispay.
Before the first card: shuffle, cut, and the burn
Every round starts with the cards in a known, verifiable state. You spread the deck or decks face-up so the players can see there are no duplicates or missing cards, then wash the cards by spreading them across the felt and mixing them with both hands. After the wash you riffle, strip, and riffle again, then offer the cut to a player. The player places the cut card somewhere in the stack, you complete the cut, and you insert the cut card near the back of the shoe so the final portion of the deck never enters play.
Before the first hand of a new shoe, you burn a card: draw the top card face-down and place it in the discard tray. This is not a superstitious act. It is a procedural step that ensures no one, including you, has seen the top card before the first wager is settled. After the burn, you deal from the shoe or from your hand, depending on whether the table uses a shoe or a pitch game.
The initial deal and the hole card
The players place their bets before any card leaves the shoe. Once the bets are down, you deal in a fixed direction, almost always starting with the player to your left and moving clockwise, ending with yourself. Each player receives one card face-up, then you take one card. In a shoe game, your first card is face-up. In a pitch game, where you hold the deck, your first card is face-down, and you do not look at it until the players have finished their hands.
The second pass gives each player a second face-up card, then you take your second card. In a shoe game, your second card goes face-down under your up-card. In a pitch game, your second card is face-up. The table layout and the house rules determine which format you are running, and the format changes when you check for blackjack.
The dealer's fixed draw rules
Once every player has acted, you reveal your hole card and draw according to the house rule printed on the table. The standard rule is that you must hit on any total of 16 or lower and must stand on any total of 17 or higher. The variation that matters is whether the house stands on all 17s or hits on a soft 17, meaning a 17 that includes an ace counted as 11.
The two rules produce different long-run results, and the table rules state which one you are running. You do not choose. You read the felt, you follow the printed rule, and you announce your total as you go so the players can follow the hand.
| Dealer rule | What it means | Effect on the hand |
|---|---|---|
| Stand on all 17s | Dealer stops on hard 17 and soft 17 alike | Dealer never improves a soft 17 |
| Hit soft 17 | Dealer takes another card when holding an ace and a 6 | Dealer hand can improve or break; house edge shifts slightly |
| Hit on 16 or lower | Mandatory draw on any total below 17 | Dealer has no discretion; the draw is automatic |
| Stand on 18 or higher | Dealer never draws on a made total of 18 or more | Dealer hand is final once the total reaches 18 |
Your draw is not a strategy. It is a rule. You do not consider what the players hold, you do not adjust for the count, and you do not take a card because the table feels hot. You hit when the printed rule says hit and you stand when it says stand.
Player decisions and how you handle them
The players act in turn, starting from your left. Each player signals their decision with a hand gesture, and you announce the gesture so the surveillance camera and the pit boss can verify the action. A tap on the felt means hit. A horizontal wave of the hand means stand. A player who wants to double places an additional wager equal to the original bet next to it and receives exactly one more card. A player who wants to split places an equal bet and separates two same-value cards into two independent hands.
Your job at each decision point is to keep the action visible and the order clear. You take the hit card from the shoe and place it face-up in front of the player. You move to the next player only after the current player has signalled a stand, busted, or completed a double. When a player busts, you collect the bet immediately and place the cards in the discard tray. That immediate collection is a fixed part of the procedure, and it prevents a player from later claiming the bet was still live.
Settlement: reading the hands and paying correctly
After your draw is complete, you settle each hand in turn, starting again from your left. The comparison is simple: a hand total above 21 is a bust and loses. A hand total closer to 21 than the dealer's total wins. A total equal to the dealer's total pushes, and the bet is returned. A blackjack, meaning an ace and a ten-value card as the first two cards, pays at the rate printed on the table, commonly 3 to 2, but the payout is always stated on the felt and not assumed.
You pay winning hands by placing the player's winnings next to the original bet, not on top of it. You collect losing bets by pulling them into the chip tray. You leave pushing bets in place. The order is always: collect losers, pay winners, then clear the cards. This order keeps the chip tray balanced and makes every transaction visible to the camera.
Procedural mistakes that cause the most trouble
The first mistake new dealers make is looking at the hole card before the players have acted. In a shoe game, the hole card stays face-down until every player has finished, and the only exception is when the up-card is an ace or a ten-value card and the house offers insurance or a peek. The peek procedure itself is fixed: you slide the hole card under a mirror or a sensor to check for blackjack without exposing it, and you announce the result.
The second mistake is paying a blackjack at the wrong rate or paying a push as a win. The table layout prints the blackjack payout, and the pit boss will correct a mispay, but the correction always slows the game and draws attention to the error. The third mistake is dealing out of order, which creates a misdeal and forces the hand to be reconstructed from the camera record. When you deal in a fixed order, announce every action, and settle in the same order, the hand runs cleanly even when the table is full and the pace is fast.
What the dealer does not do
You do not advise players on their decisions, you do not comment on whether a hit was wise, and you do not slow the game to let a player reconsider a signal already given. You may explain the house rules when asked, and you may state the player's total, but the decision belongs to the player. A dealer who stays inside that boundary protects the game from disputes and protects themselves from the appearance of steering a hand.
The dealer's role is mechanical, but the mechanics are what make blackjack playable. Every player at the table is watching the same cards, the same signals, and the same settlement. When you run the procedure without variation, every player can see that the hand was dealt and paid exactly as the rules require.
FAQ
Does a blackjack dealer have to hit on 16?
Yes. The dealer's draw is governed by a fixed house rule, and the standard rule requires a hit on any total of 16 or lower. The dealer has no discretion to stand on 16, regardless of what the players are showing.
What is the difference between a shoe game and a pitch game for a dealer?
In a shoe game, the cards come from a dealing shoe and the dealer's first card is face-up with the second card face-down. In a pitch game, the dealer holds the deck and deals face-down to the players, with the dealer's first card face-down and second card face-up. The dealing order and the hole-card check differ between the two formats.
How does a dealer know when to pay a blackjack?
A blackjack is an ace and a ten-value card as the first two cards of a hand. The dealer checks for it according to the house procedure, typically when the up-card is an ace or a ten-value card, and pays it at the rate printed on the table layout. The payout rate is stated on the felt and is not left to the dealer's memory.
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This article is general information about how these mechanics work. It is not legal advice and not a recommendation to gamble or to use any particular operator. Availability and legality differ by jurisdiction — check the rules that apply where you are.