Half the men I photographed at tables in Monte Carlo and Macau this year also play from home, on a phone, between flights. The rooms have moved online and the dress code has gone with them. What is left is the part of the dress code that was always about character rather than clothes, and it turns out to be the part that matters.
The etiquette, translated
At the Casino de Monte-Carlo the jacket rule exists to make you behave like a guest. Online, the equivalent is the licence. A serious online casino or poker room is regulated by a real authority, publishes the return-to-player figure for every game, and pays out in days rather than weeks. The men I trust on this subject use one or two sites, the way they use one or two tailors, and they chose them the way they chose the tailor: by reputation, not by the discount in the window. A welcome bonus is the window display. The wagering requirement in the small print is the cut of the cloth.
Baccarat, blackjack, slots
Baccarat online is the same game as in Macau and still the best house edge on the floor if you bet the banker and ignore the tie. Blackjack rewards the same patience it rewards in Las Vegas, and basic strategy is not cheating, it is dressing properly. Slots are the fruit machines of the English pubs I grew up around in a new suit: pure entertainment, and the return-to-player figure in the information screen is the only number worth reading. Live dealer tables, with a real croupier streamed from a studio, are the closest thing to the Salle Blanche you can reach in a bathrobe, and I say that with affection.
The rules that survive the move
- Decide the budget before you sit down. The money clip rule. Every licensed site lets you set a deposit limit; do it the day you register, before the first hand.
- Never chase. A loss is the price of the evening. Betting more to recover it is the online equivalent of raising your voice at a croupier.
- Play one table. Multi-tabling is for professionals and people who think they are.
- A drink is fine. Three is a tell. Nobody can see you, which is precisely the problem.
- Leave when you said you would. The most elegant thing a man can do at any table, anywhere.