The Systems Approach
WHICH SEAT IS THE BEST AT A BLACKJACK TABLE?
Frankie plays blackjack almost every week. When he has a choice, he always sits at the last table, which is called third base. He doesn’t like to sit at the first seat - first base - and be the first to get the cards.
Frankie prefers to see all the other cards come out before his cards. He’s not a card counter, but all the same he gets certain "feelings" about which cards are coming next and third base is the perfect place for this.
What drives Frankie crazy when he doesn’t sit at third base is when the last player takes the dealer’s bust card. He never does that when he sits there.
Does it really matter whether you sit at first base, second base, or third base at the blackjack table? Your seat has absolutely no bearing on the natural order of how the cards come out in the shoe, so it doesn’t matter.
Many players complain about how the third player disturbs the order of the cards, by taking the dealer’s breaking card. By sitting at the third base, or "anchor" position, they feel they can dictate what kind of card the dealer receives.
Is this logical? How can Frankie tell whether the card coming to him would be beneficial? He can’t and he conveniently forgets it when his draw card would have busted the dealer.
Even a card counter wouldn’t be able to know for sure whether a Ten or a low card was coming, and his play would be dictated by what’s best for him, not what was worst for the dealer. If you’ve got a 15 and the dealer has 10, a Ten - value card coming would be detrimental to the third base player regardless of whether he drew it or the dealer drew it.
And one thing players tend to overlook is that the third base position will do as much to help the other players at the table as he will to hurt them. It just follows that the natural order of cards would not necessarily favor either player or dealer.
You can prove this for yourself. Keep track for a decent amount of time of how many times the third base player hurts the other players and how many times he helps them. You’ll be surprised at what little effect the "anchor" has on the game.
But you’ll never be able to convince Frankie.