In poker, you and your opponents give off poker tells whether you know it or not. In blackjack, dealers give off tells whether they realize it or not. In order to be on top of your blackjack game, you need to know what these blackjack dealer tells are and how you can recognize them. If you can do this, you’ll have a leg up on everyone at the table.

Tells Aren’t Always There

Before we begin, the most important thing to understand is every dealer is different, which means some will express unknown gestures while others will not have expressive tells. In fact, you could table hop in a casino from one table to the next and go through several of the tables prior to finding a table that has a dealer that expresses his tells. With that being said, let’s move on.

Hole Cards

When the dealer takes a look at his card, study the amount of time he spends looking at the card and how high he pulls it up to view. He may not realize it but he may very well be giving you information that you need to know to determine how you need to play your hand.

When the dealer lifts the card up higher than usual then it usually means he holds a card of somewhere between two and six. The reason for this is because he needs to make sure the card isn’t an Ace as it is hard to see these smaller valued cards. The same for if the dealer views the card for longer than usual. As I said before, the card is difficult to see because of the number being so small so it takes longer to realize what the card is.

If the dealer holds a card between Jack and Ace then he won’t need to hold the card up as high nor will he need to take as long looking at it as it is simple to tell if you have a face card and the A for Ace is quite simple to see. It just takes a quick glance and the dealer knows he has a good card.

For cards between seven and 10, the dealer will likely spend a little bit more time glancing at the card than when he does with six and below value cards but a little less time than with face cards and Aces.

Practice Always Makes Perfect

You can’t expect to arrive at the casino, sit down at a blackjack table and begin reading the blackjack dealer tells immediately. Things take time and so does reading tells. Taking your time and being patient through the whole process, you can certainly increase your odds way before the end of the night. Once you leave the casino, be sure to take a look at the dealer and maybe even see if you can get his name if he isn’t wearing a name badge. You’ve already learned his tells so why start all over if you can try to find him first the next time you come to play at the casino.

Eventually, though, even when you have a brand new dealer, it won’t take you no time to learn his tells.