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It can feel a little overwhelming going to the Casino for the first time and when it comes to remembering the intricate details of proper casino etiquette it can take a little getting used to. One of the more confusing aspects of attending a physical casino is remembering the proper hand signals when you want to convey something to the dealer or the dealer needs to relay something to the table. To that end, we’ve come up with this handy breakdown of some of the common gestures that you’re going to use in the casino!
The most common hand gestures you use are going to be in poker and blackjack, games where you see a lot of non-verbal communication when you’re informing the dealer and other players of your intentions. Blackjack is a little tricky as the conventions vary depending on what style of game you’re playing- if the cards are coming face up then the signals you use are different to the ones you use when they’re face down. For example, if you’re playing a game where the cards are face up then you tap the table to indicate you want to hit and wave your hand over the cards to show you wish to stand. If the cards are face down then you scrape a finger along the table to show you want to hit and slide your cards under your chips to show you want to stand. Quite different, right? The actual placing of bets is fairly similar for both, if you wish to double down you place an identical stack of chips next to the initial bet and hold up your index finger. If you want to split, you do the same gesture but hold up both your index and middle fingers.
It’s likely you already know what it looks like in a game of poker when the players use hand gestures, the visual of players crowded round a table and tossing chips into the middle is quite well known, but there are a few finer points that are definitely worth knowing if you’re planning to play for real. It’s fairly simple, if you’re the first to play you slide the initial stack of chips into the middle of the table for everyone to see. If you’re not first then it’s up to you to either slide an identical stack in to ‘check’ or to follow up with another stack to raise. When you’re all done, tap the table to show your sticking or, if the bet gets too high for your liking, you can slide your cards face down into the centre of the table to show your folding.
To help you get a better idea what this looks like, we have this handy infographic that also has the common hand gestures for Craps and Roulette too!
