Blackjack Table Positions: Do They Matter?

BetMGM Apr 02, 2025, 8:20 AM
min read
A top-down view of a blackjack table. There are three decks of cards on the table. On the left and right side of these decks are several stacks of different colored casino chips.

Gamblers, including people who play the blackjack table game, can be superstitious people with specific habits and preferences. A common matter of habit and preference among blackjack players is their location at the blackjack table. The blackjack table position determination applies to both land-based casinos and live dealer casino games.

There are no rules against picking a particular position but players should be aware that because of the random element of blackjack, there’s no better or worse seat at the table in terms of how position affects probabilities. It’s all about comfort and perspective.

What Are The Blackjack Table Positions?

If you ask blackjack veterans whether it matters where you sit at a blackjack table, you’ll hear them talk about the anchorman position in blackjack. Some players will also refer to this position as third base as it’s the last position in the rotation before the game cycles back to the dealer.

Continuing with the baseball analogies, there’s also first base, which is the position immediately to the dealer’s left. This player will be the first to take their turn in making their moves like hitting or splitting. Other positions between the ends of the table are commonly referred to as shortstop positions. 

Best Seat at the Blackjack Table

Many players have their preferences and their reasons for those tastes. However, there’s no evidence to support that their position improves their odds of winning. Blackjack is a game of chance due to the randomness of the card dealing.

Even if you employ the best blackjack strategy, you don’t know what cards are coming before they are dealt. Mastering blackjack basics is more a matter of familiarizing yourself with the probabilities and managing risk than sitting in a particular position at the table. 

So It Doesn’t Matter Where You Sit?

While your position has no bearing on the probabilities, there’s something to be said for being comfortable when you play games like blackjack. If occupying a certain position helps you focus on the game and enjoy your time playing more, it could be worth it to deliberately choose the position you favor.

If you have a preference for where you like to sit, it’s good blackjack etiquette that you look for a table with that seat open or wait until the seat becomes free, rather than insisting that other players move to accommodate your taste. They may have similar preferences and their experience is as important to them as yours is to you.

Some people feel that it’s crucial to have an experienced player in the anchorman position and might display some displeasure with the moves that the person occupying third base makes. If you want to avoid that issue, you might choose to avoid taking that seat.

It’s still crucial to observe that the luck of the draw, not your decisions or another player’s decisions, ultimately determines your fate in blackjack. That’s the case whether you play at a physical casino or online.

Are You Assigned Seats in Online Blackjack?

People who are new to playing online blackjack often wonder whether they will have the same options for positions as they would playing at a brick-and-mortar casino. When you play live dealer blackjack online, the process is similar as if you were physically at the table.

For the most part, it’s first come, first served as far as choice of positions go with online live dealer blackjack games. If the seat you want is occupied in a game, you can try again at a different time or see if you can snag the position you want in a different game.

BetMGM Casino has many live dealer blackjack options available simultaneously and to fit all players’ schedules. The odds of finding the blackjack table with all the particulars you prefer makes BetMGM your best play.

Tips for Picking A Good Blackjack Table

Getting the position you want at a table you like can be important for playing blackjack with confidence. BetMGM goes out of its way to provide that for players.

With BetMGM, you can find dedicated live dealer tables offering both standard games and interesting variations on blackjack. All these games offer the chance to earn BetMGM Rewards points with your real-money bets.

As soon as you register for BetMGM, you can start to earn those rewards and experience all the other reasons players love BetMGM’s blackjack offerings. Regardless of where you like to sit at the blackjack table, being a BetMGM customer is the ideal position.

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