Poker Hand Signals

1. Poker Hand Signals
2. Blackjack Hand Signals
3. Poker Hand Signals

The real money online casino world depends on bonuses to attract and retain players. With no physical location and no way to see the player face to face, a casino must find a compelling reason for you to make a deposit to try out their games, and Blackjack Dealer Hand Signals the most common way to Blackjack Dealer Hand Signals do so is to give you a significant match play bonus to go along. Poker Starting Hands - Comprehensive guide to which poker hands you should play, including a 2020 Texas Hold'em poker starting hands chart. It's called clearing the hands and the intention is to make it clear to everyone that they have nothing in their hands. No money, no cards, no chips and no anything else that they aren't supposed to have. You'll notice that most casino cashiers do. In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot. In high games, like Texas hold 'em and seven-card stud, the highest-ranking hands win. Watch Poker Casino Guide Video: The Poker Hand Signals. It is important in the game of Poker to learn the hand signals that you can use to signify certain actions. This excellent tutorial covers all of the hand signals that you can use in the game of Poker, what they mean and how you perform them.

This post works with 5-card Poker hands drawn from a standard deck of 52 cards. The discussion is mostly mathematical, using the Poker hands to illustrate counting techniques and calculation of probabilities

Working with poker hands is an excellent way to illustrate the counting techniques covered previously in this blog – multiplication principle, permutation and combination (also covered here). There are 2,598,960 many possible 5-card Poker hands. Thus the probability of obtaining any one specific hand is 1 in 2,598,960 (roughly 1 in 2.6 million). The probability of obtaining a given type of hands (e.g. three of a kind) is the number of possible hands for that type over 2,598,960. Thus this is primarily a counting exercise.

Poker Hand Signals

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Preliminary Calculation

Usually the order in which the cards are dealt is not important (except in the case of stud poker). Thus the following three examples point to the same poker hand. The only difference is the order in which the cards are dealt.

These are the same hand. Order is not important.

Working with poker hands is an excellent way to illustrate the counting techniques covered previously in this blog – multiplication principle, permutation and combination (also covered here). There are 2,598,960 many possible 5-card Poker hands. Thus the probability of obtaining any one specific hand is 1 in 2,598,960 (roughly 1 in 2.6 million). The probability of obtaining a given type of hands (e.g. three of a kind) is the number of possible hands for that type over 2,598,960. Thus this is primarily a counting exercise.

Poker Hand Signals

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Preliminary Calculation

Usually the order in which the cards are dealt is not important (except in the case of stud poker). Thus the following three examples point to the same poker hand. The only difference is the order in which the cards are dealt.

These are the same hand. Order is not important.

The number of possible 5-card poker hands would then be the same as the number of 5-element subsets of 52 objects. The following is the total number of 5-card poker hands drawn from a standard deck of 52 cards.

The notation is called the binomial coefficient and is pronounced 'n choose r', which is identical to the number of -element subsets of a set with objects. Other notations for are , and . Many calculators have a function for . Of course the calculation can also be done by definition by first calculating factorials.

Thus the probability of obtaining a specific hand (say, 2, 6, 10, K, A, all diamond) would be 1 in 2,598,960. If 5 cards are randomly drawn, what is the probability of getting a 5-card hand consisting of all diamond cards? It is

This is definitely a very rare event (less than 0.05% chance of happening). The numerator 1,287 is the number of hands consisting of all diamond cards, which is obtained by the following calculation.

The reasoning for the above calculation is that to draw a 5-card hand consisting of all diamond, we are drawing 5 cards from the 13 diamond cards and drawing zero cards from the other 39 cards. Since (there is only one way to draw nothing), is the number of hands with all diamonds.

If 5 cards are randomly drawn, what is the probability of getting a 5-card hand consisting of cards in one suit? The probability of getting all 5 cards in another suit (say heart) would also be 1287/2598960. So we have the following derivation.

Thus getting a hand with all cards in one suit is 4 times more likely than getting one with all diamond, but is still a rare event (with about a 0.2% chance of happening). Some of the higher ranked poker hands are in one suit but with additional strict requirements. They will be further discussed below.

Blackjack Hand Signals

Another example. What is the probability of obtaining a hand that has 3 diamonds and 2 hearts? The answer is 22308/2598960 = 0.008583433. The number of '3 diamond, 2 heart' hands is calculated as follows:

One theme that emerges is that the multiplication principle is behind the numerator of a poker hand probability. For example, we can think of the process to get a 5-card hand with 3 diamonds and 2 hearts in three steps. The first is to draw 3 cards from the 13 diamond cards, the second is to draw 2 cards from the 13 heart cards, and the third is to draw zero from the remaining 26 cards. The third step can be omitted since the number of ways of choosing zero is 1. In any case, the number of possible ways to carry out that 2-step (or 3-step) process is to multiply all the possibilities together.

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The Poker Hands

Here's a ranking chart of the Poker hands.

The chart lists the rankings with an example for each ranking. The examples are a good reminder of the definitions. The highest ranking of them all is the royal flush, which consists of 5 consecutive cards in one suit with the highest card being Ace. There is only one such hand in each suit. Thus the chance for getting a royal flush is 4 in 2,598,960.

Royal flush is a specific example of a straight flush, which consists of 5 consecutive cards in one suit. There are 10 such hands in one suit. So there are 40 hands for straight flush in total. A flush is a hand with 5 cards in the same suit but not in consecutive order (or not in sequence). Thus the requirement for flush is considerably more relaxed than a straight flush. A straight is like a straight flush in that the 5 cards are in sequence but the 5 cards in a straight are not of the same suit. How many numbers on a roulette board. For a more in depth discussion on Poker hands, see the Wikipedia entry on Poker hands.

The counting for some of these hands is done in the next section. The definition of the hands can be inferred from the above chart. For the sake of completeness, the following table lists out the definition.

Definitions of Poker Hands

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Counting Poker Hands

Straight Flush
Counting from A-K-Q-J-10, K-Q-J-10-9, Q-J-10-9-8, …, 6-5-4-3-2 to 5-4-3-2-A, there are 10 hands that are in sequence in a given suit. So there are 40 straight flush hands all together.

Four of a Kind
There is only one way to have a four of a kind for a given rank. The fifth card can be any one of the remaining 48 cards. Thus there are 48 possibilities of a four of a kind in one rank. Thus there are 13 x 48 = 624 many four of a kind in total.

Full House
Let's fix two ranks, say 2 and 8. How many ways can we have three of 2 and two of 8? We are choosing 3 cards out of the four 2's and choosing 2 cards out of the four 8's. That would be = 4 x 6 = 24. But the two ranks can be other ranks too. How many ways can we pick two ranks out of 13? That would be 13 x 12 = 156. So the total number of possibilities for Full House is

Note that the multiplication principle is at work here. When we pick two ranks, the number of ways is 13 x 12 = 156. Why did we not use = 78?

Flush
There are = 1,287 possible hands with all cards in the same suit. Recall that there are only 10 straight flush on a given suit. Thus of all the 5-card hands with all cards in a given suit, there are 1,287-10 = 1,277 hands that are not straight flush. Thus the total number of flush hands is 4 x 1277 = 5,108.

Straight
There are 10 five-consecutive sequences in 13 cards (as shown in the explanation for straight flush in this section). In each such sequence, there are 4 choices for each card (one for each suit). Thus the number of 5-card hands with 5 cards in sequence is . Then we need to subtract the number of straight flushes (40) from this number. Thus the number of straight is 10240 – 10 = 10,200.

Three of a Kind
There are 13 ranks (from A, K, …, to 2). We choose one of them to have 3 cards in that rank and two other ranks to have one card in each of those ranks. The following derivation reflects all the choosing in this process.

Two Pair and One Pair
These two are left as exercises.

High Card
The count is the complement that makes up 2,598,960.

The following table gives the counts of all the poker hands. The probability is the fraction of the 2,598,960 hands that meet the requirement of the type of hands in question. Note that royal flush is not listed. This is because it is included in the count for straight flush. Royal flush is omitted so that he counts add up to 2,598,960.

Probabilities of Poker Hands

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2017 – Dan Ma

Introduction

For those who have never played a table game before, this section is for you. It will benefit everybody if you know the basics of gambling protocol before you sit down for the first time. Few things are more annoying than a beginner at a table who doesn't know what to do and has to be told everything several times by the dealer. Before your first time at a table game ask if your casino offers gaming instructions. At specific times of the day many casinos will give a tour of all the major games, explaining the rules and how to play. Some casinos offer a designated table where people can play with play chips to get their feet wet. If none of these options are available, then I would suggest watching a game from behind for a few minutes before sitting down. Notice the procedure and when you sit down try not to disrupt it. Following are some pointers which you can learn now or learn the hard way:

• Understand the rules before you sit down.

• Buy or cash in chips between hands only. If you sit down while a hand is in progress, wait patiently for the conclusion of the hand then buy in. Use this time to get your money ready.

• Know that red chips are $5, greens are $25, and blacks are $100. At the table you may ask the dealer to make change for a large denomination chip, but don't ask to exchange small denomination chips for large ones.

• When you cash out, the dealers prefer for you to trade in smaller denominations of chips for large ones. Between hands, give the dealer neat stacks of chips and let him/her count them and change them in.

• In some games the cards are dealt face up. If this is the case, never touch your cards.

• If the cards are dealt face down, then only touch your cards with one hand only! If you break this rule you will almost always get a sharp rebuke. Be gentle with the cards; don't bend them or put drinks on them. Some players have tried to cheat by bending specific cards slightly, for example the aces, and the dealers have to guard against this. I've seen new players told repeatedly to only touch their cards with one hand. If you can't seem to break the two-hand habit then sit on one hand if you have to. In some games, like Caribbean Stud Poker, you may not even touch your cards until the dealer signifies that you may by turning on a light.

• Never touch your bet once the first card has been dealt. Wait until after the hand is over.

• Do not drink excessively. Much worse than a new player is a drunk.

• Speaking as a non-smoker, if you must smoke please try to maximize the time between cigarettes. When you exhale do not do so in the face of other players or the dealer. When you are done with your cigarette please fully put it out, not letting it emit smoke from the ash tray. I respect your right to smoke, even at my table, but try to make it as painless for me as possible.

• In blackjack do not rebuke another player for the way they play their hand. There is a mistaken belief that unnecessary hitting causes everyone to lose at blackjack. This is addressed in more depth in my blackjack FAQ.

• Do not ask the dealer for advice. Dealers do not want to be blamed if you follow their advice and you lose so they will usually give a vague answer if you ask. An exception is pai gow and pai gow poker, where you may ask the dealer how he would play his hand according to the 'house way.'

• Do not ask for pity if you have a bad hand, it happens to everyone. Numerous times I have seen a player hit a stiff hand in blackjack and get an additional small card but still be in the 12-16 point range. When this happens some players will often show their cards to the dealer, make a big sigh, and expect some sympathy for having to make another decision. Nobody cares about your hand but you, make a decision quickly and do not hold up the game.

• Tipping is more open to your judgement than the other rules of etiquette. In my opinion you should tip 2/3 based on how friendly and helpful the dealer is and 1/3 on how much you are winning/losing. Even if you are losing you should still tip if the dealer has been trying to make the experience more fun.

• Some games, especially blackjack, involve hand signals to signify how you want to play your cards. You must use hand signals, verbal instructions are not enough. Please know them before you sit down, it is very annoying when a new player has to be instructed over and over. Here are the hand signals in blackjack when the cards are dealt face up:

  • Hit: Tap the table.
  • Stand: Wave your hand, palm open, parallel to the table.
  • Double/Split: Place your matching bet next to, never on top of, your original bet. If you have two fours or two fives, you should hold up one finger if you are doubling, and two fingers if you are splitting.

  Here are the hand signals in blackjack when the cards are dealt face down:

  • Hit: Lightly scrape the corner of the cards against the felt.
  • Stand: Slide your cards under your bet. Do not lift your chips in the process.
  • Double/Split: Place your cards face up on the table, just above your bet. Then place your matching bet next to, never on top of, your original bet. If you have two fours or two fives, you should hold up one finger if you are doubling, and two fingers if you are splitting.

  If you bust then lay down your cards face up by your bet. Do not throw them in disgust, as it is very rude. If you can't handle losing, then don't play at all.

• If you plan to play craps please visit my section on craps where I give specific craps etiquette suggestions.

Tipping

'Thou Shalt Tip' is one of my Ten Commandments of Gambling. This includes tipping dealers and cocktail waitresses. In my opinion dealers should be tipped 2/3 according to their service and 1/3 according to how much you are winning or losing. There is no firm social norm but I suggest about one half your average bet per hour. The smaller your average bet the greater the ratio of tip to bet should be. Cocktail waitresses should get $1 per drink, and water counts. I highly recommend CocktailDoll.com for more information on proper cocktail waitress etiquette. Tipping in electronic games, namely slots, video poker, and video keno, is a matter of much debate with no firm social norm. After discussing this with a number of experts in this area I think a good rule of thumb is to tip 0.5% to 1.0% on any jackpot requiring a hand pay. The smaller the jackpot the larger the percentage.

In an earlier edition of my etiquette tips I incorrectly said the player should only feel obligated to tip if the dealer is friendly and they are winning. Here is what some dealers had to say:

Love your page and agree with almost all your opinions I've read with the notable exception of tipping. As a person with years of experience dealing, I take exception to your advice in regards to not tipping unless you are winning. We dealers work just as hard for you regardless of your good fortune or, unfortunately more often, your bad. I, and most other dealers I know, feel that after any length of time at a table a tip should be offered occasionally even when losing. Now don't get me wrong. If you were to sit down and lose continuously, obviously I wouldn't think a tip would be forthcoming (I also think a change of tables, games, casinos or plans for the day would be in order). Since tips are given in return for a courteous service provided, tips shouldn't be withheld based on gambling success.

Poker Hand Signals

Thank You, Dave

Here is what another dealer said:

I appreciate that you provided a rebuttal for your tipping policy. Playing at a table with a friendly efficient dealer and failing to tip because you didn't win is the same as receiving good service from a restaurant and not tipping the wait staff because you didn't like the flavor of the soup. The waitress and dealer serve, with the understanding that you will tip if the service is good, they don't cook the food or decide the outcome of the game. If you can't afford the food and the tip for the server, eat at home. If you can't afford to gamble and tip the dealer, play at home. A tip is the price of the service, not tipping is stealing the service.

Brian
Casino Dealer

In the spirit of providing dealer comments here is another one:

I get so tired of being blamed for people losing, for being called names and for people getting so mad when they lose. I am also tired of dealing to drunk people. I work the graveyard shift and have for years now. I deal to intoxicated people often and it's no fun at all. In my opinion, the best player is the one who comes for fun and has a good attitude. If my cards aren't friendly, then move on to another table. We as dealers are teased a lot about being mean and taking people's money and while a lot of it's fun (we tease back too!!)..the player that gets too mad & frustrated because he's losing shouldn't be there at all!

S.R.
Biloxi Blackjack Dealer

Here are some more comments from a dealer about the etiquette of tipping:

I'm glad someone is curious about the topic of tipping. Dealers make minimum wage, plus tips. As dealers, we want all of the players to win so that they will come across with tips. Remember that pit bosses, hosts, and mangement want the players to lose because they are accountable for the 'hold' to the owners (who give out bonus checks). The bottom line is that dealers are the only friends the players have when playing table games. It's time for more players to treat dealers like friends. I can say with great confidence that less than 40% of the people who play blackjack tip the dealer. God bless the people who do tip!!!

Most casino dealers share tips, but the one I work for, and a few others keep their own tips. Players can always ask the dealer how tips are handled. Players will generally get better service in a casino where dealers keep their own tips. Regardless of which casino players are in, tipping is greatly appreciated because we depend on tips to survive. Being a dealer is much like being a waiter or bartender. Most people won't go out to eat if they can not afford to tip the food server; the same should apply to gambling in casinos. We dealers call tippers 'Live' or 'George,' and we call non-tippers 'Stiffs.' I don't mind dealing to Stiffs as long as they don't expect me to do anything but deal the game. There's nothing worse than dealing to a table full of Stiffs who want to be catered to, entertained, and talked to for the entire hour, but none of them are courteous enough to tip. Most Stiffs just don't know the etiquette of tipping because management doesn't allow dealers to encourage players to tip. A George is a high-roller who hands out hundred, five hundred, and thousand dollar chips to dealers. Georges are rare, but they're out there and are held in the highest regard by dealers. These are the players who make pit bosses wish they were still dealers. If a player wants to be considered Live, all they have to do is put the dealer up for .50 cents or a dollar on most hands they play (doesn't seem like much, but it adds up quickly). Don't hand the money in; bet it for the dealer. Players can ask the dealer how to bet the tip if they don't already know. Players should definitely not wait until the dealer goes on break before they finally give a tip; this isn't a cab ride, it's per-hand service. Bottom line: Don't be Stiff, be Live, and your casino experience is guaranteed to be much more enjoyable.

Chuck
Dealer

The following letter expresses another point of view regarding some of Chuck's comments:

Dear Wizard,

After reading a posted letter from a Dealer (Chuck) in your Gambling Etiquette section concerning tipping, I had to comment on a few of his statements. I have been in the casino business for 14 years at 8 different casinos (all in the Table Games department) and am currently an Assistant Manager in Tucson, Arizona.

Although I agree with Chuck the Dealer that guests should tip Dealers, I don't agree with the implied assumption that guests should tip all Dealers. Tipping, as you have pointed out, should be based on guest service. Most casinos in Arizona (as well as most of the west coast) are 'keep your own' so we deal with the entitlement issue every day. Although our Dealers do very well, there are always some who are never happy with how much they make. These seem to be the ones who have the attitude that they are entitled to more, even though their guest service (or dealing) skills are less than acceptable. If a Dealer, like any other service industry employee, wants to improve their bottom line, they should work to enhance their guest service skills. Remember, as a Dealer, you are a front line employee and there for the guest.

I also don't agree with Chuck's statement, 'I don't mind dealing to Stiffs as long as they don't expect me to do anything but deal the game.' As Table Games Management, we expect all Dealers to both deal their games to procedure as well as deliver excellent guest service regardless of the amount of tips they receive. I doubt Chucks employer would care much for his attitude. It sounds as though he is shooting himself in the foot--remember Chuck, all guests are potential tippers! Why would a guest tip you if you are doing nothing but 'dealing the game?' Even though it's an easy job, you still have to work.

Chuck is also quite misdirected with the statement that Pit Bosses, Hosts and Management want the guests to lose. On the contrary, we like nothing more than to see guests win and leave happy. It is not a question of wanting them to lose (remember, the odds are stacked in our favor). We don't want the guest to lose--they will lose. Gone are the days of the 'old school' casinos where they sweat the money and look at every guest as a potential cheat. The new casino attitude is not 'us against them,' but 'how can we make the guests experience more enjoyable?' As the Wizard can tell you, the numbers will take care of themselves.

Chuck mentions that Management does not allow Dealers to encourage players to tip, implying that we don't want our Dealers to make money. Casino Management does not allow Dealers to ask for tips (or hustle, as in hustling for tips) for obvious reasons — we don't want beggars dealing our games. Imagine how a guest would feel if their Dealer tried to 'shame' them into tipping. I have never been to a restaurant and had the waiter/waitress tell me how to tip and how much I should give them for their service. As mentioned before, the guest should tip based on service and not because they were pressured into it by a greedy Dealer.

I'm very glad that the subject of tipping has come up on your website so that players can become more educated on how and why they should tip. I have never worked with anyone in casino management who does not want their front line employees to be successful financially. On the contrary, I want our Dealers to be successful! If they are making lots of tips that means that our guests are happy and enjoy their experience in our casino and with our staff. That also means they will return to our casino and not go to our competitors. In both a management and front line sense, that is job security!

Thank you,
G
Tucson

This section is dedicated to Brian Coppersmith, a decent gambler but a habitual violator of gambling etiquette.