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Blackjack Glossary
Blackjack has its own vocabulary, and the terms come up constantly in strategy discussions and on the felt. This glossary defines the words you'll encounter most often, both at the table and across this site, in plain language.
- Basic strategy
- The mathematically optimal action for every hand against every dealer upcard, derived from computer simulation. Playing perfect basic strategy reduces the house edge to roughly 0.5% in a standard game.
- Bust
- Going over 21. A busted hand loses immediately. Because players act before the dealer, a player who busts loses even if the dealer later busts too.
- Double down
- Doubling your original bet in exchange for exactly one more card, after which your turn ends. Used when you have an advantage, such as an 11 against a weak dealer card.
- Hard hand
- A hand with no Ace, or one in which the Ace must count as 1 to avoid busting. A hard hand has no flexibility — hitting it can cause a bust.
- Hit
- Taking another card. You may hit as many times as you like until you stand or bust.
- Hole card
- The dealer's face-down card. It's revealed only after all players have finished acting.
- House edge
- The casino's long-run mathematical advantage, expressed as a percentage of each bet. For a basic-strategy player at a good table it's about 0.5%; for a guessing player it can be 2–5% or more.
- Insurance
- A side bet offered when the dealer shows an Ace, wagering that the dealer has blackjack. It pays 2:1 but carries a house edge near 7%, so basic strategy always declines it.
- Natural / Blackjack
- An Ace plus a 10-value card as your first two cards — an automatic 21 that beats any other 21 and typically pays 3:2.
- Push
- A tie between the player and dealer. No money changes hands; your original bet is returned.
- Shoe
- The dealing box that holds multiple decks of cards. Most casino blackjack uses a four-, six-, or eight-deck shoe.
- Soft hand
- A hand containing an Ace counted as 11 (for example, Ace-6 is a soft 17). It cannot bust on a single card, because the Ace can drop to 1.
- Split
- Separating a pair into two independent hands, each with its own bet. You always split Aces and 8s; you never split 10s or 5s.
- Stand
- Keeping your current total and ending your turn without taking more cards.
- Stiff hand
- A hard total of 12 through 16 — strong enough to bust if hit, weak enough to lose if stood. These are the hardest hands to play and the source of most close decisions.
- Surrender
- Forfeiting half your bet to end the hand early. "Late surrender," the common form, is allowed only after the dealer checks for blackjack.
- Upcard
- The dealer's face-up card. It's the single most important piece of information for choosing your action, since basic strategy keys every decision off it.
Put the terms into practice →