Can You Bring a Strategy Card to the Table?
Updated
Yes, in almost every casino, and the gift shop probably sells one. Casinos allow strategy cards for a simple reason: a player using one still loses. What they do not allow is anything electronic, and in Nevada that distinction is the difference between a hobby and a felony.
- A printed card is allowed almost everywhere.
- Casinos sell them. A basic-strategy player still loses about 0.46%.
- Phones and devices are not allowed, and in Nevada using one is a felony.
- Keep it on the felt, do not slow the game down.
Why casinos do not mind
A player following a chart perfectly still gives up about 0.46% of everything they stake. The casino is not losing anything by letting you play well — it is losing a smaller amount more slowly, from a customer who stays longer and enjoys it more.
What costs the casino money is counting, which needs no card at all. A visible chart is if anything a signal that you are not counting.
How to use one without irritating anyone
Keep it flat on the felt rather than waving it around. Look up your hand while the dealer is serving someone else, not when it is your turn. Do not read it aloud, and do not use it to advise other players.
Some dealers will comment. Most will not. Nobody will stop you.
The line you must not cross
A phone at a blackjack table is a problem everywhere, even if you are only checking the time. An app that tells you how to play is unambiguously a device.
In Nevada, using any device to help you play is a felony under state law — not a house rule, not a warning, a criminal offense. This is the one part of blackjack where the legal consequences are serious and clearly defined. The full legal position is here.
Getting a card
The important thing is that it matches your table. A chart drawn for eight decks used at a double-deck game is wrong in several cells, and one drawn for a table with surrender is wrong if yours has none.
Ours the chart for your exact rules, and there is a version you can print.
Keep reading
By Martin Kosek · every number on this site is computed by us, not copied.
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