How to Play Table Games Online

What Counts as a Table Game

Table games are the games a casino deals, spins or shakes rather than runs as a reel: blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, pai gow poker, three card poker, Let It Ride, Caribbean Stud, casino war and sic bo. In regulated markets they are defined in law rather than by convention. Pennsylvania's Subpart K on table games gives each one its own chapter — roulette at 617a, pai gow at 621a, craps and mini-craps at 623a, sic bo at 625a, baccarat at 631a, blackjack at 633a, Caribbean Stud at 639a, Let It Ride at 643a, pai gow poker at 645a, three card poker at 649a, casino war at 651a — each setting out the wagers that may be placed, the number of decks, the procedures and the payout odds. That is why these guides can describe how the games work from primary sources rather than from folklore.

There Is No House Edge for Table Games

The most common thing said about table games is that they carry a lower house edge than slots. It is not a statement about table games; it is a statement about some bets on some of them. The figures Ontario Lottery and Gaming publishes span almost the whole range a casino offers:

• 0% on the free odds wager taken behind a craps line bet — a wager carrying no house edge at all, and available only alongside a bet that costs 1.41% or 1.36%.
• 1.06% on a baccarat Banker bet and 1.24% on the Player bet, both with the standard 5% commission on winning Banker bets.
• 1.41% on a craps Pass or Come bet, 1.36% on Don't Pass or Don't Come.
• 1.52% to 6.67% on a craps place bet, depending only on which number it backs.
• 2.7% on a single-zero roulette wheel, 5.26% on a double-zero wheel.
• 14.36% on a baccarat Tie bet at 8 to 1 — on the same table as the 1.06%.
• up to 16.67% on other craps bets, which OLG notes lean more heavily in favour of the house than in many other casino games.

A player who takes the sentence 'table games have a low house edge' at face value and sits down at a baccarat table betting Tie is paying many times over what the player next to them is paying.

The Rule Set Comes Before the Number

A figure belongs to a rule set, and without the rules it is not a fact.

• Roulette has identical payouts on both wheels and a different edge on each, because a single-zero wheel has 37 compartments and a double-zero wheel 38.
• Blackjack moves with the deck count, whether the dealer stands or draws on a soft 17, what a blackjack itself pays, and what surrender, doubling and re-splitting are allowed. No single house edge describes it.
• Baccarat has three bets with three different edges and a commission that can be waived in exchange for other rule changes.
• Sic bo and three card poker have more than one paytable licensed for the same game — two for sic bo, four Ante Bonus and five Pair Plus tables for three card poker.
• Keno has no standard paytable at all: one supplier's catalogue publishes returns from 87.5% to 96.2% across six titles that play identically, and from 80% upwards across its keno titles as a whole.

Which Games Involve a Decision

Some table games ask something of the player and some do not, and it is worth knowing which before sitting down. Blackjack gives a decision on every hand — surrender, double, split, stand or draw. Three card poker, Let It Ride and Caribbean Stud each give one or two bet decisions after seeing cards. Pai gow poker asks the player to split seven cards into two hands, with a wager lost outright if the split is illegal. Casino war gives exactly one decision, and only when the cards tie. Baccarat, roulette, sic bo and keno give none at all: the rules settle every round without input.

Where decisions exist they reduce the house edge; they do not reverse it. In blackjack the player acts first and a bust loses immediately, whatever the dealer then does. OLG's own phrasing for what correct play achieves is that players must use basic strategy to minimise the house edge, which is the accurate claim.

Decks and Equipment Are Not Decorative

Pennsylvania's regulations fix the equipment for each game and the numbers differ more than readers expect: six to eight decks for baccarat, one deck for three card poker, Let It Ride and Caribbean Stud, one deck plus a single joker for pai gow poker, at least one deck for blackjack and no more than two where it is dealt from the hand, and six, eight, or twelve to sixteen decks for casino war depending on whether an automated shuffler is used. Craps uses two dice and sic bo three, kept inside a shaker. Any figure for a game assumes a particular configuration of this equipment.

Reading a Game's Own Rules

The practical lesson across all of these guides is the same. A table game's name tells a reader very little; its posted rules and its paytable tell them what they are paying. Where a regulator licenses more than one paytable for a game, the one in use is posted at the table. Where a supplier publishes a return figure for an online game, it publishes it against that game's own identifier and that game's own rules. Both are worth reading before a stake goes down.