Blackjack Glossary

Action: 
This is a general gambling term which refers to the total amount of money bet in a specific period of time. Ten bets of ten dollars each is $100 of action. 

Burn Card: 
A single card taken from the top of the deck or the first card in a shoe which the dealer slides across the table from his/her left o the right, and is placed into the discard tray. The card may or may not be shown face up (which can affect the count if you are counting cards). A card is burned after each shuffle.

Cut Card:
A solid colored card typically a piece of plastic which is given to a player by the dealer for the purpose of cutting the deck(s) after a shuffle.


Hole Card:
Any face down card. The definition most often refers to the dealer's single face down card. 

Shoe: 
A device that can hold up to eight decks of cards which allows the dealer to slide out the cards one at a time. 

Hard Hand:
A hand in which any Ace is counted as a 1 and not as an 11. 

Soft Hand: 
A hand in which any Ace is counted as an 11 and not as a 1. 

Pat Hand: 
A hand with a total of 17 to 21. 

Stand:
To decline another card. 

Hit: 
To request another card. 

Bust: 
When a hand's value exceeds 21... a losing hand. 

Push:
A player-dealer tie. 

Pair:
When a player's first two cards are numerically identical (ie, 7,7). 

Point Count:
The net value of the card count at the end of a hand. 

Running Count: 
The count from the beginning of the deck or shoe. The running count is updated by the value of the point count after each hand. 
The running count adjusted to account for the number of cards left in the deck or shoe to be played. 

Bankroll: 
The stake (available money) a player plans to bet with. 

Flat Bet: 
A bet which you do not vary, if you are flat betting ten dollars, you are betting $10 each and every hand without changing the betting amount from one hand to the next. 

Black Chip:
A $100 chip. 

Green Chip:
A $25 chip.

Red Chip:
A $5 chip. 

Foreign Chip:
A chip that is issued by one casino and is honored by another as cash. A casino is not necessarily obligated to accept them. 

Settlement:
  The resolving of the bet. Either the dealer takes your chips, pays you, or in the case of a push, no exchange of chips occurs. 

Toke:
To "toke" the dealer is just another word for tipping the dealer. 

Marker: 
An IOU. A line of credit provided by the casino to a player. 

Junket:
An organized group of gamblers that travel to a casino together. Junkets are usually subsidized by a casino to attract players. 

Comp:
Short for complimentary. If you wave lots of money around, the casino may give you things like a free room or free food, hoping you'll keep losing money at the tables in their casino. 

Heat: 
The pressure a casino puts on a winning player, typically someone who is suspected of being a card counter. 

Shuffle Up:
Prematurely shuffling the cards to harass a player who is usually suspected of being a counter. 

Nut: 
The overhead costs of running the casino. 

Pit: 
The area inside a group of gaming tables. The tables are arranged in an elliptical manner, the space inside the perimeter is the pit. 

House:
The Casino of course. 

Cage:
Short for cashier's cage. This is where chips are redeemed for cash, checks cashed, credit arranged, etc. 

House Percentage: 
The casino's advantage in a particular game of chance. 

Drop Percentage:
 That portion of the player's money that the casino will win because of the house percentage. It is a measure of the amount of a player's initial stake that he or she will eventually lose. On average this number is around 20 percent. That is, on average, Joe Gambler will lose $20 of every $100 he begins with. 

Head-On: 
To play alone at a BlackJack table with the dealer. 

WAG Player: 
Wild Assed Guessing player. 

SWAG Player:
Scientific Wild Assed Guessing player. 

Tough Player:
 A player who can hurt the casino monetarily with his or her intelligent play. 

Counter: 
Someone who counts cards. 

High Roller:
A big bettor. 

Mechanic:
 A manipulator of the cards, typically for illicit purposes. 

Shill: 
A house employee who bets money and pretends to be a player to attract customers. Shills typically follow the same rules as the dealer which makes them somewhat easy to spot (ie, they don't Double Down or Split). 
An employee of the casino whose job is to supervise BlackJack players, dealers, and other floor personnel.