Blackjack 101: Buying Your Casino Chips

Once you've found a blackjack table, make sure it is right for you. Check if blackjack game played on the table seems apt for your skill level, take a seat and get ready to buy your chips. Here is some advice when buying chips at a blackjack table.

Most of the time you'll have to wait until the hands being played are finished. When there's a break in the table action then that would be the appropriate time to bring your cash out. Some casinos would have the dealer shuffle before letting players join in and buy chips.

The next question when we buy chips would be how much cash should we take out and buy our chips. The first thing we should check to determine this is how much is our average bet. Are you the type of blackjack player who goes for five-dollar bets, ten, or twenty? This will dictate how much blackjack chips we're going to buy.

Let's say, for instance, you're the type of player who bets an average of five dollars. Your buy-in amount should be about ten to twenty times your average bet (a buy-in amount is the amount of money that each player must bring to a game). So if you are into making five-dollar bets, then you can make your buy-in amount to be $50 to $100. That is usually a typical buy-in range in blackjack.

Don't ever try to just hand your cash over to the dealer to buy your chips. Dealers in casinos aren't allowed to take any money from blackjack players' hands as a safety precaution. The correct way to buy your chips is to lay your cash on the table. The dealer will then pick it up, give you an equal value of chips, and drop the cash in the slot at the tabletop. Remember that you're not going to get any change, so bring an exact amount.

You will also notice that the chips are color-coded. The colors are pretty standard among casinos with red for a five, green for twenty-five dollars, black for a hundred. There are also one dollar chips (they often come in white) and silver one dollar tokens. There are some casinos that would use pink colored chips (valued at two dollars and fifty cents).

Chips that go beyond a hundred dollars in denomination have varied colors, casinos get to choose their chip colors after all. A common color among casinos is purple for your $500 chip.

After getting your chips, count them and make sure you've got the correct amount. Afterwards, you're ready to make your bets and play blackjack.