The role of the Croupier
If the Blackjack is so popular, it is exactly because it is different from all of the other casino games.
Its originality is mainly due to the essential and specific role played by the Croupier, known also as banker, dealer, assistant...
Unlike other casino games, the role of the Croupier in Blackjack is more active: s/he is a players him/herself. S/he is much more than this, s/he is the enemy for all of the other players. It is against him/her and, at the same time, thank to him/her that the game proceeds.
A card dealer
The Croupier in Blackjack has got an incontestable function. S/he must excel in the card distribution, showing an irreproachable rapidity and dexterity. A part from the rules of Blackjack, he must handles the use of the sabot: a tool which is indispensable for the automatic distribution of the cards.
In front of him/her, you can see the half-moon shaped Blackjack table, composed by 7 compartments, also called spots, where you can find a maximum of 3 players par spot.
- S/he thus raises her/his banker cup and controls rigorously everyone’s bets. S/he thus becomes the object of every gaze: his/her actions and gestures observed and analysed continuously.
- S/he then distributes adroitly and furtively an up-facing card to each player, starting from the player sitting on his/her left and concluding with him/her.
- The sabot makes a new tour by distributing an up-facing additional card to each of the players but the croupier.
- The latter goes back to the player sitting on his/her left and makes him/her choosing between different options according to the rules of the game: card, to stand, sidebet, slit, double down.
- In the first case (card), the role of the croupier becomes essential: s/he musts give new cards to the player who chose so, until the player stops the Croupier.
- It is in relation to the only card of the Croupier that the other players elaborate their strategies...
- Once every player around the table passed the turn, the Croupier becomes officially a player, the enemy of all of the other players... suspense!
- The second card that s/he picks and that will constitutes his/her turn, can turn the game upside down. If this combination of cards do not constitutes a Blackjack, then s/he can continue to pick cards until s/he does not reach an amount of points between 17 and 21.
- From now on, the match is his/her hands. The rule is simple: if s/he goes over 21. s/he “jumps” and the other players still in contention can gain his/her bet. By contrast, if the Croupier has got a turn between 17 and 21 points, all of the players whose turns are higher than the Croupier’s one gain the same amount as his/her bet, if their turns are loer, they lose their bets.
- S/he then takes his/her banker cup again for bet payments and repayments. A new distribution can begin.