Blackjack Glossary

Ace/five count – a very simple card counting strategy devised by the Wizard of Odds which tracks only the ace and five cards.

Advantage – the statistical edge that either the player or casino has over the other. Normally the casino has a small percentage advantage over the player but this can be inverted by card counting together with perfect play.

Anchorman – the player to the dealer’s far right. The last player to act at the table.

Back counting – counting cards as a game spectator. See ‘Wonging’.

Balanced count – a card counting system having an equal number of positive and negative value counts. The sum of the count of all of the cards in the shoe will always equal zero.

Bankroll – the amount of funds the player has to gamble with.

Bar – when a casino bans a player from the premises. This most often occurs to those suspected of card counting.

Basic strategy – The mathematically correct play for any hand in blackjack when not counting cards.

Black chip – a chip with a cash value of $100.

Blackjack – a hand totalling 21 comprising of an ace and a ten card. Automatic win.

Bust – a hand totalling more than 21. Automatic loss.

Cage – this is where the casino cashier is located.

Card counter – a player who tracks the level of high cards remaining in the shoe. Bets are raised when the count indicates a high number of tens and aces left in the shoe.

Colour-up – to exchange small denomination chips for larger ones.

Comp – abbreviation for complimentary. The casino often offer perks for players who wager large sums of money including free food, accommodation, show tickets and more.

Cut card – a plastic card indicating to the dealer that the deck should be reshuffled when it is at the front of the shoe. See ‘penetration’.

Dealer – the person who deals cards to the players at the table.

Deck – a standard deck comprising of 52 cards. Often multiple decks are used in blackjack.

Discards/discard pile – the cards that have already been played.

Double down – a game rule that allows players to double their initial bet in exchange for a single additional card from the dealer.

Downtown Vegas – the area around Freemont street and off the strip. Casinos in downtown Vegas generally offer more player-favourable rules for blackjack.

Edge – the percentage advantage that the player or casino have in any time. See ‘advantage’.

Eye in the sky – the surveillance cameras monitoring the casino floor for cheating and signs of card counting.

Face card – a Jack, Queen or King card.

First baseman – the player on the dealers far left. The first player to act at the table.

Flat betting – wagering the same fixed amount on each bet without deviating.

Green chip – a chip with a $25 value.

Hand – the players cards.

Hard total – any hand not comprising of an ace, or where the ace counts as one.

Heads up – playing alone at a table against the dealer.

High roller – a player who places large bets.

Hit – drawing another card from the dealer in addition to the two originally dealt.

Hole (card) – the dealers face-down card.

House – casino.

House edge – the casinos percentage advantage over the player in a particular game.

Insurance – an optional side bet that can be made when the dealer is showing an ace as his up-card.

Kelly bet – staking a percentage of the remaining bankroll equal to the percentage advantage. This is statistically the optimal bet size.

Level – refers to the number of different values used in a card counting system. Level one uses only +1 and -1, level two uses +1, -1, +2 & -2. A level three count would also use +/-3 in addition to the other values. Generally the higher the level, the more complex the system is to learn and use.

Loss limit – the amount of money or units a player is willing to lose in a session. Once the player hits the loss limit, play is stopped.

Money management – the method a player uses to control his bankroll. Kelly betting and ‘loss limits’ are two such management strategies.

Multiple deck – a game using several decks of cards in the shoe.

Penetration – the percentage of the shoe that is dealt out before reshuffling.

Pit – the area of the casino with the table games.

Pit boss – a supervisor in charge of table games and dealers.

Push – a tie between the dealer and player.

Rated – a player who has had their game-play assessed by a casino host to see what comps they qualify for.

Red chip – a chip with a $5 value.

Resplit – splitting cards after one of those cards came from an original split. Often casino rules do not allow resplitting.

Round – a series where all players at the table have acted on their hands.

Running count – the sum of the card values that have been dealt.

Session – a period of time spent in gambling play.

Shill – a casino employee who pretends to be a normal player. This is often done to attract genuine players to a table.

Shoe – a storage box used in multi-deck games of blackjack. Its design allows for only one card to be dealt at a time. Single deck games are generally dealt by hand.

Shuffle/reshuffle – mixing the cards in a random fashion before dealing them.

Soft total – any two card hand containing an ace.

Split – a rule allowing for cards of the same rank to be played as separate hands by doubling the initial bet.

Spread – the difference between a players’s minimum and maximum bets. This is often presented as a power of two, e.g. a 1-4, 1-8, 1-16 etc. Although bigger spreads are statistically advantageous to card counters, jumping from low to high bets will attract the attention of the pit boss so is perhaps best avoided.

Stand – the option of the player to take no more cards from the dealer.

Stiff total – a hand totalling 12-16 which would bust with the addition of a ten value card.

Strip rules – the rules commonly used in on the Las Vegas strip. These rules are often less favourable to players than Downtown Vegas rules.

Surrender – the option for the player to forfeit half his bet when the dealer has a possible blackjack.

Ten card – a card worth 10 points (10, J, Q, K).

Toke – a gratuity paid to the dealer or cocktail waitress.

True count – the running count divided by the number of decks remaining in the shoe. Using an unbalanced count method (like K-O) this conversion is unnecessary.

Unbalanced count – a card counting method with an uneven number of positive and negative cards. This means that conversion from running count to true count is made unnecessary.

Unit – the base bet or standard bet that the player will generally wager unless increasing.

Up-card – the dealer’s exposed (face-up) card.

Variance – the deviation from your statistically expected return.

Wonging – back counting a game as an observer then joining the game when the count is positive and is in the player’s advantage. This strategy is named after Stanford Wong, the famous author of ‘Professional Blackjack’. Due to Wonging some blackjack tables have a ‘no mid-shoe entry’ rule, essentially making the strategy redundant.

Whale – another term for a high roller.