Casino Glossary: A - B

Action - the amount of money wagered by a player during a playing session. In Poker, the placing of money into the pot.

Active - one who is still in the pot. All In: Putting all your money in.
Anchor - the player sitting in the last position on a Blackjack table before the dealer. This is the person who makes the final decision, thereby anchoring the game.
Ante - also called a blind bet, an ante is a small wager made by all players before seeing their cards.
Any Craps - a one-roll dice bet covering the 2, 3, or 12.
Any Seven - a one-roll dice bet covering any 7.
Baccarat - a card game where the winning hand totals closest to 9 discounting all units of 10.
Back Door - a hand-made 'back door' is one made using both of the last two cards. A back door flush in Texas hold'em is about 20-1.
Banker - in a card game, dealer or the players who books the action of the other bettors at the table.
Bankroll - a player's total available gambling money.
Bar the 12 - in Craps, makes the 12 a push on the don't Pass Bar.
Base - area on the dice table where the majority of bets are made and paid.
Base Deal - cheating by dealing from the bottom of the deck. Base Dealer - dice dealer in charge of one of the bases.
Basic Strategy - this is the name given to the mathematically correct play for every match-up of dealers hand against players hand in Blackjack.
Bet - wager or gamble betting limits In a table game, the minimum and maximum amounts of money that you can wager on one bet. You cannot wager less than the minimum or more than the maximum amount posted.
Betting Wrong - betting on the don't Pass Line or against the shooter.
Big Blind - a wager used to initiate betting in a pot before a game begins. A player will make this wager immediately after the small blind. It is usually in the amount of the minimum betting limit.
Blackjack - a card game where the players try to beat the dealer by getting closest to 21 without going over. Also know as 21.
Bluff - in Poker, players bluff when raising a weak hand in the hope of driving out players with a stronger hand.
Board - in Poker, the community cards dealt face-up in the center of the table are referred to as on the "board."
Boat - another term for a full house.
Book - running a 'book' is the act of quoting odds and accepting bets on an event. Hence the term 'Bookmaker'.
Box - in Craps, the area of the dice table controlled by the Boxman
Boxman - where the center bets are placed.
Boxcars - in Craps, when you roll two sixes.
Bust - to exceed 21 in Blackjack, making it a losing hand. Also known as break.
Button - Big white marker in the shape of an ice-hockey puck the denotes the position of dealer in house dealt games.
Buy - To buy a pot is to make a bet large enough that other players would be unlikely to call.

Glossary: C - D

Call - when a player matches another players bet.
Card Counting - keeping track of all cards that have been played since the shuffle.
Card Sharp - a person who is an expert at cards.
Carousel - a group of Slot Machines that are positioned in a ring, enabling a change person to stand in the center.
Carps - dice term for 2, 3, or 12.
Cashier's Cage - the place in a casino where players may redeem their casino chips for cash.
Casino Rate - a reduced hotel-room rate that the casinos offer good customers.
Check - when a player declines to put a bet down, thereby passing the action to another player.
Chip Tray - the tray in front of a dealer that holds that table's inventory of chips.
Chips - round tokens that are used on casino gaming tables in lieu of cash.
Cold - a player on a losing streak, or a Slot Machine that isn't paying out.
Color Up - when a player leaving a game exchanges smaller denomination chips for larger denomination chips.
Come Bet - a wager placed on the Come Line in Craps. Same as the wager on the Pass Line except it is placed after the point has been established.
Come Line - the area on a Craps table where the Come Bets are placed.
Come Out Roll - the first roll of the dice or the first roll after a point has been made. This roll establishes the point.
Community Cards - Upturned cards resting in the center of the Poker table. These cards do not go directly to any one player, but rather serve can be used at a players discretion.
Complete Hand - a Poker hand that is defined by all five cards. That is a straight, flush, straight flush, or a full house.
Craps - dice term for 2, 3, or 12. Craps Out - rolling a Crap (2, 3, or 12) on the come-out roll.
Croupier - the French word for dealer, used in the games of Baccarat and Roulette.
Cut - when the dealer divides a deck into two parts and inverts them after they have been well shuffled.
Cut Card - a hard plastic card used to cut the deck or a card of a different color.
Cycle - in video Poker it's the statistically predicted average number of hands dealt per top jackpot, usually a royal flush.
Dealer Button - A small disk that sits in front of a player, designating them as the dealer. Although this is just a title, and does not entail any duties, it plays a large factor in the game. Therefore, it is rotated in a clockwise fashion to a new player each game.
Designated dealer - in Poker games like Texas hold'em, the player to the left of the dealer bets first. In a Poker room where each game has a resident dealer, a different player serves as the designated dealer for each hand.
Deuce - two
Discard Rack - area of the table where the used cards are placed.
Discard Tray - a tray on the dealer's right side that holds all the cards that have been played or discarded.
Double Down - in Blackjack, it is the players option to double their original bet in exchange for receiving only one more card. To do this the player turns over their first two cards and places an equal bet alongside the original bet.
Dozen Bet - a bet on twelve numbers in Roulette. ie 1-12, 13-24 or 25-36. draw In draw Poker, the second round of cards that are dealt.
Draw Button - allows video Poker player to draw up to five new cards. drop box On a gaming table, the box that serves as a repository for cash, markers, and chips.
Drop - money lost.

Glossary: E - N

Edge - or house edge, is the casino's advantage.
Even Money - a bet that pays you back the same amount that you wagered, plus your original wager. shown as a ratio of 1:1. Expected Return - in video Poker it's the average amount paid back on a particular play for a particular bet.
Expected Win Rate - a percentage of the total amount of money wagered that you can expect to win or lose over time.
Face Cards - the king, queen or jack of each suite.
Family Pot - in Poker, when everyone at the table decides to enter a pot
Fifth Street - the fifth card dealt. first base At the Blackjack table, the position on the far left of the dealer is considered to be first base and is the first position dealt with.
Fishing - a player who stays in a Poker game longer than advisable generally is fishing for the card or two that will make the hand a winner.
Five Number Bet - a bet only possible on the double zero Roulette games which includes 00, 0, 1, 2, 3 and has the highest house edge of 7.89%.
Float - the table bank. flop In a game of hold'em, the three cards dealt face-up in the center of the table.
Flop - refers to the first round of dealing cards after the initial hand.
Flush - In Poker, five cards of the same suit, in no particular order.
Four of a Kind - four matching cards of rank.
Fourth Street - the fourth card dealt in a hand of Poker.
Freezeout - a Poker tournament in which only the initial entry is permitted, i.e. no re-entry once all your chips are lost full house In Poker, a hand consisting of a three of a kind and a pair.
Full House - three matching cards of rank in conjunction with two matching cards of rank.
Full Pay - in video Poker it's usually the best payoff schedule offered for a particular game.
Hand - the cards that you hold, or to everything that happens in a card game between shuffles of the deck.
High Card - in the case in which no player has a legitimate Poker hand, the hand with the highest ranking card wins. (In all tie hands, the one with the high card wins)
Hard hand - in Blackjack, any hand that does not contain an ace valued at eleven.
High Hand - top traditionally rated hand. (As opposed to Low Ball hands)
High Poker - standard Poker, as compared to low Poker or lowball. In high Poker, high hands win. hit In Blackjack, to take another card. The card received is also called a hit.
Hold'Em - Poker where the players have only two cards, both face down. A flop of five communal cards gives the player a choice of five from seven to make the best possible hand.
hole card In Blackjack, the facedown card that the dealer gets. In stud and hold'em Poker, the facedown cards dealt to each player.
Horn Bet - a one-roll bet that combines the 2, 3, 11 and 12.
House Edge - the percentage of each bet that you make that the house takes in. Winning bets are paid off at less than the true odds to generate income for the house.
Inside Bets - a Roulette bet placed on any number, or small combination of numbers.
Inside Straight - in Poker, four cards of a straight where the straight can only be completed one way.
Insurance - in Blackjack, a side bet that the dealer has a natural. Insurance is offered only when the dealers up card is an ace. The insurance bet wins double if the dealer has a natural, but loses if the dealer does not.
Limit - in Poker, any game that has a fixed limit on how much you can bet or raise in each round.
Low Poker - also called lowball, is Poker in which the pot is awarded to the hand with the lowest Poker value.
Mini Baccarat - the scaled-down version of Baccarat, played with fewer players, dealers, and formality but following the same rules as Baccarat.
Natural - in Blackjack, a natural is a two-card hand of twenty-one points. In Baccarat a natural is a two-card total of eight, or nine.
No Limit - a game that allows a player to bet all his chips at any betting round.

Glossary: O - R

Odds - the ratio to which your bet will be paid if your bet wins. e.g. 3-1 means for every £1 you bet, you will receive £3 of winnings
One-Roll Bets - wagers that win or lose depending on the next roll of the dice.
Open - in Poker, the player who bets first.
Outs - ways of improving your hand to win the pot.
Outside Bets - Roulette bets located on the outside part of the layout. They involve betting 12 to 18 numbers at one time.
One Pair - two matching cards of rank.
Palette - the flat paddle used on the Baccarat table to gather the cards.
Pass - to not bet, to fold.
Pay cycle - a theoretical expression that reflects the number of plays required for the Machine to cycle through all possible winning and non-winning combinations.
Pay Line - the line on a Slot Machine window on which the symbols from each reel must line up. Slot Machines can have as many as eight pay lines, although most have only one.
Payoff - your payback; the return you see on a wager. payout Percentage - also referred to as the payback percentage, the percent of each dollar played in a video or Slot Machine that the Machine is programmed to return to the player. Payback percentage is 100 percent minus the house edge.
Pit - the area inside a cluster of gaming tables, where the center is restricted to dealers and other casino personnel.
Poker Hand - a collection of exactly five cards that constitute a hand according to the accepted list of hands.
Pot - this is where all wagers are collected; That which the winner takes.
Probability - a branch of mathematics that measures the likelihood that an event will occur. Probabilities are expressed as numbers between 0 and 1. The probability of an impossible event is 0, while an event that is certain to occur has a probability of 1.
Progressive Slots - Slots that allow you to increase the potential jackpot each time a new coin is inserted for play. When the progressive jackpot finally hits, the amount resets to the starting number.
Push - a tie hand between a dealer and a player; no money changes hands. A push at Blackjack occurs when both the player and the dealer have a unbusted hands with the same total points.
Quads - four of a kind.
Qualifier - in Poker, the minimum standard a hand must meet in order for it to be eligible for part of the pot.
Rack - plastic, wooden or metal tray to place rows of Poker chips.
Rake - the money that the casino charges for each hand of Poker. It is usually a percentage (5-10%) or flat fee that is taken from the pot after each round of betting.
Raise - In poker, one step up from a call, a raise occurs when a player makes a bet exceeding the amount of another players bet.
Rank - the worth of a set of cards. red-black bet In Roulette, an outside wager on whether the next spin will be a red or a black number. This bet is played off at even money.
Reels - display wheels showing the symbols and usually three or five per Machine.
River - In Poker, the final card dealt in a hand of stud or hold'em. In seven-card stud, staying in until the fifth and final round of betting is called going to the river.
Royal Flush - in Poker, the five highest ranked cards - Ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace - all of the same suit.

Glossary: S- Z

Seven Card Stud - popular variant of stud. Seven cards each, dealt two down, four up, one down.
Shooter - the person rolling the dice.
Shorten - odds that reduce, say from 10-1 to 8-1, are said to have shortened.
Showdown - in Poker, after the last betting round, the players who remain in the pot must show their hands in the showdown to determine the winner.
Slot Schedule - the details usually at the top of a Slot Machine detailing the type of Machine, denomination, and payout details.
Small Blind - a wager used to initiate betting in a pot. Players are selected in rotation to make this wager usually in the amount of half the minimum betting limit before a game begins.
Snake Eyes - in Craps, when you roll a two.
Soft Hand - a hand in Blackjack that contains an ace counted as eleven.
Split Bet - a combination bet across two numbers on the inside of the Roulette table.
Stack - all your chips.
Steal - in Poker, to win the pot by bluffing.
Stiff - In Blackjack, a hand that is not pat and that may bust if hit once. Stiffs include hard twelve through sixteen.
Straight - five cards in consecutive order of rank. The suits of each card can be dissimilar, and the hand can not go "around the corner", such as a Queen, King, Ace, 2, 3.
Straight Flush - in Poker, five cards of the same suit in consecutive order of rank.
Street - Many times a betting round will be referred to as a Street designated by a number, such as Fifth Street. Each numbered street refers to how many cards a player has to potentially form their hand at any given betting round.
Stud Poker - a Poker game with no draw.
Surrender - in Blackjack, to give up half your bet for the privilege of not playing out a hand. In Roulette, you effectively lose only half on an even-money bet when the ball lands on 0.
Texas Hold'em - see Hold'em.
Three of a Kind - Three matching cards of rank.
Toke - a tip given to the dealer in the form of money or chips.
Token - the casino coins used to play Slot Machines.
Tote - short for Totalisator, a system introduced to Britain in 1929 to offer pool betting on racecourses. trips In Poker, three of a kind.
True Odds - the real odds of something happening as opposed to what the bookies offer.
Turn - refers to the second round of dealing cards.
Two Pair - two sets of matching ranked cards. In a five-card Poker hand this might be two seven's, two Queens, and an Ace.
Upcard - the exposed card held by the dealer.
VIP - a big bettor that is worthy of full complimentary treatment.
Wild Card - a joker or other card that can be used as any other card to complete your hand.
Working - dice term meaning that the bets are in place.