Glossary of blackjack terms

Last updated

The following is a glossary of terms used in the card game blackjack . This is not intended to be a formal dictionary; precise usage details and multiple closely related senses are omitted here in favor of concise treatment of the basics. [1] [2]

Contents

8

86'd
Being told by a casino that you are being removed, generally due to suspected advantage play.

B

balanced count
Any counting system which has an exact balance between plus cards and minus cards. In such a system, if the deck were counted down to the bottom, the sum would be zero.
blackjack
1.  A card game in which players try to approach 21 but not exceed it
2.  The best possible hand in the game blackjack, made up of an ace and a card valued at 10 (namely, 10, J, Q, K).
bust
Having a total over 21.
bust card
The individual card that brings the hand's total over 21.
basic strategy
A collection of actions that will offer the best odds off the top of the deck. These actions vary when different rules are applied to the game.

C

CSM
Initialism for continuous shuffling machine.

D

double or double down
After seeing their hand, a player can double by placing an additional bet equal to their original bet and drawing one and only one additional card. This move may only be used on the first two cards. [3]

E

even money
When the dealer shows an ace and the player has a blackjack, the player can opt for even money and get paid immediately at 1:1. This is a version of insurance rather than a different bet. If the dealer has blackjack, the hand is a push, but the player receives twice the value of the insurance, which is the same as the original bet. If the dealer does not have blackjack, the player wins 1.5 times the value of the original bet but loses the value of the insurance and still ends up with the value of the original bet.

F

first base
The betting spot located to the dealer's left, which is first to receive cards.
five card Charlie
A bonus or automatic win in some games when a hand contains five cards without busting.

H

hard hand
A hand without an ace or a hand where the ace must count as 1 to avoid busting.
hit
To ask for another card. If that extra card makes the total over 21, then the player busts.
hole card
A dealer card that is dealt face down and not revealed to players until after they have acted upon their hands.

I

insurance
When the dealer shows an ace, the player can choose to place a side bet of up to half the value of the original bet. If the dealer has blackjack, the bet pays 2:1. If the dealer does not have blackjack, the player loses the wager.

N

natural
A two card total of 21. A blackjack.

P

penetration
A number or fraction that represents how many cards/decks will be dealt before shuffling in contrast to the total number of cards/decks in play. It may be expressed in percentage form or as a fraction where the denominator is always the total number of decks in play such as "4.5/6" or "75% penetration".
pitch game
A blackjack game dealt from the hand of the dealer, normally using 1 or 2 decks
push
A tie; the player and dealer have hands with the same total below 22.

S

shoe
A device used to hold multiple decks of cards, typically 4, 6 or 8. Cards are dealt one at a time from the shoe.
shoe game
A blackjack game dealt from a shoe. Shoe games typically use more than 2 decks.
soft
A soft hand is a hand that includes an ace valued as 11, as opposed to 1.
split
If a player is dealt two cards of the same rank, they can choose to play each of them separately, putting up a bet for each one.
stand
To stop asking for more cards.
stiff
Any hard hand where the possibility to exceed 21 exists by drawing an additional card namely 12, 13, 14, 15 or 16
surrender
To surrender is to abandon your hand, while recovering half of your initial bet. This is only available as your first and only action.

T

third base
The betting spot located on the dealer's right which is last to act.

U

upcard
The card that the dealer is showing.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackjack</span> Gambling card game

Blackjack is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as "twenty-one". This family of card games also includes the European games vingt-et-un and pontoon, and the Russian game Ochko. The game is a comparing card game where players compete against the dealer, rather than each other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poker</span> Card game

Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, but in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game was played with just 20 cards, today it is usually played with a standard deck, although in countries where short packs are common, it may be played with 32, 40 or 48 cards. Thus poker games vary in deck configuration, the number of cards in play, the number dealt face up or face down, and the number shared by all players, but all have rules that involve one or more rounds of betting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baccarat</span> Gambling card game

Baccarat or baccara is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup has three possible outcomes: "player", "banker", and "tie".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red dog (card game)</span> Game of chance played with cards

Red dog, also known as Yablon, is a game of chance played with cards, in which two cards are dealt and a player bets on whether the rank of a third card would fall between them. While found in some land casinos, its popularity has declined, although it is featured at many online casinos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Card counting</span> Blackjack strategy used to determine advantage in upcoming hands

Card counting is a blackjack strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand.

Spanish 21 is a blackjack variant owned by Masque Publishing Inc., a gaming publishing company based in Colorado. Unlicensed, but equivalent, versions may be called Spanish blackjack. In Australia and Malaysia, an unlicensed version of the game, with no dealer hole card and significant rule differences, is played in casinos under the name "Pontoon". It was first introduced about 1995.

Double Attack Blackjack is dealt primarily in Atlantic City casinos.

Chinese Blackjack is also known as 21-point, ban-luck (Hokkien), ban-nag (Cantonese), and xì dách (Vietnamese). The game is played in South East Asia and resembles conventional Blackjack. In Malaysia, this variant is known as Kampung (Village) Blackjack to differentiate it from the standard Casino Blackjack, and it grew from the game played in the old days in villages.

<i>Blackjack</i> (Atari 2600 video game) 1977 video game

Blackjack is a video game simulation of the card game blackjack. It was designed by Bob Whitehead for the Atari Video Computer System. The game allows up to three players to play a variation of blackjack. Each player is given 200 chips where they can bet 1 to 25 of each round. The game ends for a player when they either run out of chips or earns 1000 chips or more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shoe (cards)</span>

A dealing shoe or dealer's shoe is a gaming device, mainly used in casinos, to hold multiple decks of playing cards. The shoe allows for more games to be played by reducing the time between shuffles and less chance of dealer cheating. In some games, such as blackjack, using multiple decks of cards can increase the house edge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Super Fun 21</span>

Super Fun 21 is a variation of blackjack. The game is played using a standard 52 card deck. Aces can be counted as either a one or eleven depending on which value would best benefit the player's hand. All the face cards in the deck each count as ten. The remaining cards are taken at face value. The player must first place a bet and is then dealt two cards face up. The dealer is dealt two cards as well, but one is face up and one face down. The player then has the option to either "hit", or "stand". The player's hand must beat the dealer's by coming closer to 21 without "busting". A winning hand with a total of 21 is called a blackjack, or natural.

Blackjack Switch is a casino gambling game invented by Geoff Hall and patented in 2009. It is based on blackjack, but differs in that two hands, rather than one, are dealt to each playing position, and the player is initially allowed to exchange ("switch") the top two cards between hands. Natural blackjacks are paid 1:1 instead of the standard 3:2, and a dealer hard 22 pushes all player hands except a natural.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysian Pontoon</span> Malaysian variant of the pontoon card game

Malaysian Pontoon is a card game related to Pontoon and blackjack and, like those games, a descendant of Vingt-Un or Twenty-One. It is played by those in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, where it is usually just called pontoon. This game is similar to match play 21 or Spanish 21, while original pontoon, played in Britain, holds closer to the traditional Twenty-One rules, but can be quickly distinguished by the use of the terms "twist" and "stick".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hole carding</span> Card games technique

In card games, hole carding is the obtaining of knowledge of cards that are supposed to be hidden from view. The term is usually applied to blackjack but can apply to other games with hidden hole cards, like three card poker and Caribbean stud poker. So long as it does not involve the use of a device like a mirror, actions like touching the dealer's cards, or having another person read and signal the hole card, in most jurisdictions hole carding is a legal form of advantage gambling. In some games, like stud poker, casinos normally have rules against rubbernecking or having a confederate stand behind an opponent to signal hole cards.

Shuffle tracking is an advantage gambling technique where a player tracks certain cards or sequences of cards through a series of shuffles. Shuffle tracking is typically done in blackjack games, although it can be done in other card games. Games with simple shuffles are generally easier to shuffle track than games with complicated shuffles. Thus, shuffle tracking is usually done in 6 or 8 deck shoe-dealt blackjack games, as these tend to have simpler shuffles compared to pitch games, due to the time required to accomplish a complicated shuffle on 6 or 8 decks of cards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sette e mezzo</span> Italian comparing card game similar to blackjack

Sette e mezzo is an Italian comparing card game similar to blackjack. In Spanish it is known as Siete y Media. It is traditionally played in Italy during Christmas holidays. The game is also known in English as Seven and a half.

Power blackjack is a variant of the card gambling game blackjack, modified by certain doubling and splitting rules, called "Power Double" and "Power Split," that are advantageous to the player, offset by the rule that, when the dealer makes a total of twenty two, any active player hands push rather than winning.

The following is a glossary of poker terms used in the card game of poker. It supplements the glossary of card game terms. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon poker slang terms. This is not intended to be a formal dictionary; precise usage details and multiple closely related senses are omitted here in favor of concise treatment of the basics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aces and eights (blackjack)</span> Two strategic starting hands in blackjack

Splitting aces and eights is part of blackjack basic strategy. Rules vary across gambling establishments regarding resplitting, doubling, multiple card draws, and the payout for blackjack, and there are conditional strategic responses that depend upon the number of decks used, the frequency of shuffling and dealer's cards. However, regardless of the various situations, the common strategic wisdom in the blackjack community is to "Always split aces and eights" when dealt either pair as initial cards. This is generally the first rule of any splitting strategy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twenty-one (banking game)</span> Card game

Twenty-one, formerly known as vingt-un in Britain, France and America, is the name given to a family of popular card games of the gambling family, the progenitor of which is recorded in Spain in the early 17th century. The family includes the casino games of blackjack and pontoon as well as their domestic equivalents. Twenty-one rose to prominence in France in the 18th century and spread from there to Germany and Britain from whence it crossed to America. Known initially as vingt-un in all those countries, it developed into pontoon in Britain after the First World War and blackjack in Canada and the United States in the late 19th century, where the legalisation of gambling increased its popularity.

References

  1. Dalton, Michael. "The Encyclopedia of Casino Twenty-One - Blackjack Review Network". Blackjack Review Network. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  2. "Glossary of terms" . Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  3. "Blackjack strategies". Casinoencyclopedia.