Blackjack Glossary
Blackjack has a vocabulary of its own, and much of it reaches the player in shorthand: three letters on a rule card, a button label on a screen, a term a dealer uses without explaining it. The entries below are grouped by theme, from the moves a player can make to the side bets and the versions of the game, so that related words sit next to each other.
Each entry gives the meaning and nothing more. How a full round unfolds is the subject of the how-to-play guide, while the blackjack odds page gives the price of each rule named here.
Every word a player meets at a blackjack table or on these pages, from hole card to true count, defined in a sentence or two.
PlayGuidePro Team
Player Actions
1
Hit
Asking for one more card. A player may keep hitting until choosing to stand or going over 21.
2
Stand
Ending the turn and keeping the current total. Some games label the button Stay.
3
Double down
Raising the stake to twice its size on a two-card hand in return for exactly one more card, after which that hand is finished.
4
Split
Breaking a pair into two separate hands, the second carrying a new stake equal to the first. Each hand then draws its own cards and is settled on its own.
5
Resplit
Splitting again when a hand made by a split receives another card of the same rank. Each table caps how many hands one starting pair can become.
6
Late surrender
Giving up the opening hand for half its stake, allowed only after the dealer's check has turned up no blackjack.
7
Early surrender
Folding for half the stake before any check for a dealer blackjack, so half is saved even when the dealer holds one. Very few tables offer it.
8
Insurance
A separate wager that the dealer's hidden card will turn an ace upcard into a blackjack. It costs up to half the main stake and pays 2:1.
9
Even money
Taking a guaranteed 1:1 on a natural when the dealer shows an ace, rather than waiting for the hole card. It is insurance under another name.
Hands and Totals
1
Blackjack
A total of 21 reached with the first two cards, one ace and one card worth ten. It pays more than any other win, at 3:2 on a standard table.
2
Natural
The older word for a two-card blackjack, still used on many rule cards and help screens.
3
Ten-value card
Any card worth ten points: a 10 or any picture card, in every suit.
4
Hard hand
A total without an ace, or one where every ace must count as 1 to stay at 21 or below. A hard 12 or more can bust on the next card.
5
Soft hand
A total in which an ace is being counted as 11, as in ace-six, a soft 17. Because the ace can fall back to 1, one more card can never take it past 21.
6
Stiff
A hard 12, 13, 14, 15 or 16: too weak to beat most finished dealer hands, yet able to bust on a single draw.
7
Pat hand
A hand that wants no further cards, such as a hard 17 or more, which a player stands on without a second thought.
8
Bust
Going over 21. A player who busts loses the stake on the spot, even if the dealer busts later in the round.
9
Push
A finished hand whose total equals the dealer's. The stake stays with the player, with nothing won or lost.
10
Pair
Two opening cards of the same rank, such as two sevens, which may be split into two hands. Many tables also treat any two ten-value cards as a pair.
The Dealer and the Table
1
Dealer
The house's player, who deals the cards, plays the last hand by a fixed drawing rule and settles every bet.
2
Upcard
The single dealer card shown to the players from the start of the round. Every strategy decision is read against it.
3
Hole card
The dealer's second card, dealt face down and kept hidden until the players have finished acting.
4
Peek
The dealer's look at the hole card under an ace or a ten-value upcard, to find a blackjack before anyone acts. A table without a hole card has no peek.
5
Shoe
A dealing box loaded with several decks shuffled together, from which cards slide out one at a time.
6
Cut card
A blank card pushed into the shuffled decks to mark where dealing stops. Once it shows, the current round is finished and the cards go back for a shuffle.
7
Discard tray
The holder at the dealer's side where played cards are stacked face down until the next shuffle.
8
Betting circle
The marked spot on the felt where the main stake is placed before the deal. Side bets have marked spots of their own beside it.
9
Box
One betting position at the table. A player who covers two or more boxes in the same round is playing multihand.
10
Rule card
The printed summary at a live table, or the help screen of an online game, that names the payout, the soft 17 rule, the deck count and the betting limits.
11
Continuous shuffling machine
A device that takes back the used cards after every round and mixes them in again, so the shoe never runs down.
12
Random number generator
The software that deals an online table, drawing each card at random from complete decks, which amounts to a new shuffle for every round.
Rules and Payouts
1
S17
Dealer stands on soft 17. The dealer stops on every 17, including one in which an ace still counts as 11.
2
H17
Dealer hits soft 17. Holding a 17 that relies on an ace counted as 11, the dealer takes another card instead of stopping.
3
DAS
Double after split. Permission to double down on a hand that came out of a split.
4
RSA
Resplit aces. When a split ace receives another ace, the new pair may be split once more.
5
HSA
Hit split aces. Permission to draw more than one card to each split ace, which most tables refuse.
6
No hole card
A dealing style in which the dealer's second card arrives only once every player has finished. A dealer blackjack then shows up late and, under some rules, also takes stakes added by doubles and splits.
7
Double on 9 to 11
A limit that allows doubling down only on hard totals of 9, 10 or 11. A stricter version allows only 10 and 11.
8
3:2
The standard payout on a natural, worth one and a half times the stake.
9
6:5
A reduced payout on a natural: six units for every five staked, so a stake of 10 wins 12 rather than 15.
10
1:1
Level payment, one unit won for each unit staked. It is the pay for an ordinary win, and on a few tables for a natural as well.
11
Dealer 22 push
A rule of Free Bet blackjack and Blackjack Switch: a dealer who ends on exactly 22 does not lose to the hands left on the table but ties them.
Strategy and Odds
1
Basic strategy
One play for each pairing of hand and upcard, chosen to give the best long-run result under a given rule set, without tracking which cards have been used.
2
Strategy chart
Basic strategy laid out as a grid: player hands down the side, dealer upcards across the top and a letter for the play where they meet.
3
Perfect play
Play that looks at the exact cards in a hand rather than its total alone. It improves on a chart only by a sliver.
4
House edge
The percentage of each starting bet the game wins back on average, measured over a huge number of rounds.
5
Return to player
The other face of the house edge: the share of all money staked that comes back to players over the long run. The two always add up to one hundred percent.
6
Percentage point
The unit for the gap between two edges or two returns. An edge that moves from one percent to two has risen by one point.
7
Expected value
The average result of a play if it were repeated without end, often given per 100 units staked. Comparing these values is how each chart play is chosen.
8
Swing
How far actual results stray from the average over a run of hands, measured as a standard deviation. Doubles and splits widen it, since they put more money on one round.
Card Counting Terms
1
Card counting
Keeping track of the cards that have left a shoe dealt down to a cut card, to tell when the cards still to come favor the player.
2
Hi-Lo
The most widely taught count. Each card from 2 to 6 adds one, each 7, 8 or 9 adds nothing, and each ten-value card or ace takes one away.
3
Running count
The total of the counting tags kept from the first card after a shuffle, before any allowance for how many cards remain.
4
True count
The running count divided by the number of decks left to deal, which puts counts from shoes of different sizes on one scale.
5
Penetration
How deep into the shoe the cut card sits, and so how much of it is dealt before a reshuffle. Deeper placement gives a count more to work with.
6
Effect of removal
How much the house edge moves when one card of a given rank is taken out of the shoe, the measure on which counting tags are built.
7
Bet spread
The range between a counter's smallest and largest bet, with the larger bets placed when the count turns in the player's favor.
Side Bets
1
Side bet
An optional extra wager decided by a few particular cards, with its own schedule of pays, separate from the main hand.
2
Pay table
The list of what each winning result of a bet pays. Two versions of one side bet can carry different pay tables and so different prices.
3
Perfect Pairs
A wager that the player's first two cards make a pair, paying more for a pair in one color and most for two identical cards.
4
21+3
A wager that pays when the dealer's upcard and the player's opening two cards make a flush, a straight, three of a kind or better.
5
Lucky Ladies
A wager on a two-card 20 for the player, with its largest award reserved for two queens of hearts held against a dealer blackjack.
6
Buster
A wager on the dealer going over 21, with bigger pays for a bust that took more cards to reach.
7
Match the Dealer
A wager that the dealer's upcard will find a twin among the player's first two cards by rank, with a larger pay for a twin of the same suit too.
Versions of the Game
1
American classic
The standard table with a hole card and a peek, so a dealer blackjack costs a player only the original stake.
2
European blackjack
The no-hole-card game widely dealt online, often with doubling limited to totals of 9, 10 and 11.
3
Atlantic City blackjack
An eight-deck game in which the dealer stands on every 17 and late surrender is allowed.
4
Single-deck blackjack
A game dealt from one deck, which on its own helps the player, and so usually comes with a smaller natural payout or tighter doubling rules.
5
Double Exposure
A version that shows both dealer cards from the start, paid for by giving the dealer ties and paying a natural at even money.
6
Free Bet blackjack
A version in which the house puts up the extra stake on certain doubles and splits, balanced by the dealer 22 push.
7
Blackjack Switch
A version dealt as two hands per player whose second cards may trade places, with a natural paid 1:1 and the dealer 22 push.
8
Spanish 21
A game dealt from decks with the ten-spot cards taken out, balanced by liberal player rules and bonus pays on some 21s.
9
Multihand blackjack
A format in which one player fills several boxes in the same round, every one of them facing the same dealer hand.
10
Live dealer
A table run by a person on a video stream, dealing from a real shoe. It is played for money only.
Where Each Term Is Explained in Full
The actions above each have a page that prices them hand by hand: doubling down, splitting pairs, surrender and insurance and even money. Two rule-card lines get the same treatment, the soft 17 rule and the blackjack payout.
The charts that put basic strategy to work are in the strategy guide, and the misplays that cost the most are ranked on the blackjack tips page. Counting terms are put to use in the card counting guide, and every wager in the side bets group has a row on the side bets page. Each version of the game is summarized on the blackjack overview, and all of them can be tried among the free blackjack games, with no account.