Online Casinos on the Net
Casino Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W
S
Sawdust Joint (US)
A term for a non-luxury gambling club.
Sawbuck
Ten dollars.
Scared Money
Money that you cannot afford to lose.
Session
A period of play or a table sitting at any gambling game.
Set
In Pai-Gow poker, players set their seven cards into two separate hands of two and five cards each.
Seventh Street
In seven-card stud, the fifth and final round of betting is called seventh street because players have seven cards.
Shark
A good/crafty player often posing as a fish early in the game. See also "Fish".
Sharker, Sharper, or Cardsharp
A cheater.
Sharp
Astute bettor.
Shill
A person who actively plays in the game for the house, club, or casino. Usually seen at a Baccarat table to fill empty seats, until more real players join in.
Shiner
A tiny mirror or any reflecting device used by a cheater to see unexposed cards. A reflecting device used to try and glimpse the dealer's hole card.
Shoe
Device, usually a wooden box, used for holding and dispensing playing cards to be dealt. Shoe games are typically composed of six or eight decks of cards.
Short Run
A short series of wagers or game events.
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.
Shuffle Tracking
A high level blackjack playing strategy used by card counters.
Shuffle Up
Premature shuffling of playing cards by the dealer.
Shuffling (Card Shuffling)
Is a generic term which encompasses all card mixing techniques used to prepare a deck or a shoe for continued play. All casino shuffling processes employ a combination of mixing techniques. These may include 'Stripping' or 'washing' the cards as well as 'riffling', 'boxing', 'plugging', 'cutting' and other off-spring techniques. All shuffling processes employ multiple riffles of 'clumps', 'picks', or 'grabs' to achieve some level of randomization. The shoe games, which use multiple decks of cards (4, 6, or 8 decks), will often employ the most intricate riffling patterns of all. In these, the picks are riffled together and then re-picked and re-riffled in complex symmetric patterns.
Shutter
A window covering a number on a reusable bingo card. The shutter can be pulled down to mark each number as it is called.
Silver Mining
Also called Slot Walking. The practice of looking for coins left in unattended slot machines.
Single
A Straight bet on one selection, also known as a straight-up bet.
Singleton
In poker, a card that is the only one of its rank.
Sixth Street
In seven-card stud, the fourth round of betting is called sixth street because players have six cards.
Skin
A dollar.
Skin Game
In poker, a game having two or more collusion cheaters.
Skinning the Hand
In poker, a cheater's technique to get rid of extra cards.
Skoon
A dollar.
Slot Club Member
Slot clubs were invented for slot fanatics. By becoming a member you are given a card (like a credit card). Using your card while playing the slots (also table games in some casinos) helps you earn free points / cash. The rules, number of points needed to achieve regular club status, and the benefits given to the player are different at every casino.
Slot Walking
Also called Silver Mining. The practice of looking for coins left in unattended slot machines.
Snake Eyes
When you roll a two in craps, it is called 'Snake Eyes'
eyes because they look like eyes, snake because they are bad news (for the shooter).
Soft Count
(To do with gaming machines). The count of the contents in a drop box, bill validator or video game receipt collection.
Soft Count Room
A room where the soft count is carried out.
Soft Hand
In blackjack, any hand that contains an ace counted as eleven is called a soft hand.
Spinner
A winning streak.
Spooking
Used in blackjack game. The act of standing behind the dealer to peak at the hole card and then secretly convey the information to a partner player sitting at the table. An illegal form of cheating.
Spot
Any number from 1 to 80 that a player selects on a keno ticket. It also refers to the number of numbers that are marked on a ticket.
Stack
A stack of chips, usually 20 chips in a column commonly used in Roulette.
Standing Hand
In blackjack, meaning a hand which hard-totals to 17 or more, which is very likely to bust if one more card is called and therefore the player is expected to stand.
Steaming
A blackjack term where a player has become frustrated with how badly the events of a session of play have turned out. 'Steaming' in blackjack has practically the same meaning as 'going on tilt' in poker. In either case the player has lost emotional control and is betting more aggressively and often recklessly in an attempt to turn things around.
Stiff (A Stiff Hand)
In blackjack, a hand that is not pat and that may bust if hit once. Stiffs include hard twelve through sixteen.
Straight Keno
The basic keno game, played by marking individual numbers on a keno ticket.
Streak Betting
Also known as 'Progressive Betting'. A system of raising or lowering the size of one's wager based on what happened on the previous round or rounds. There are basically two kinds of streak betting systems; negative and positive. In a positive streak betting or positive progression betting system the size of the player's wager is raised on the next round after a winning round. In a negative streak betting or negative progression betting system you do exactly the opposite by increasing the wager size on each subsequent loss. There is an almost endless number of variations of both negative and positive streak betting progressions, each one distinguished by when the progression is invoked, how much the wagers are raised or lowered, and when the progression is terminated.
Stripping (Card Stripping)
Is a shuffling technique which reverses the sequential order of the cards in the deck. For instance, imagine if a dealer took the first card off the top of a deck and placed it on the table and then took the second card off the top and placed it on top of the first card. If this process were continued until the 52nd card was placed on top, then the sequential ordering among the cards would have been completely reversed. This characterizes the basic process of striping. The process described above would be a very fine strip. Often the dealers will speed up the process by rapidly pulling small clumps of cards off the top of the deck rather than a single card at a time. The number of cards in the clumps determine how fine or coarse the striping process is.
Stud Poker
One of the two basic forms of poker game (the other is draw poker) and played with open or exposed cards (up cards) and with one or more concealed cards known as hole cards (down cards).
Suit
Any one of the four types of cards: clubs, diamonds, hearts or spades.
Sulky
(The Sulky) The modern harness racing vehicle (a driving rig) developed from a single-seat. Earlier racing had used carts. In its final form the sulky is little more than a U-shaped shaft mounted on two wheels with a seat at the end of the U.
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.
System
A method of betting, usually mathematically based, used by a punter or bettor to try to get an advantage. A prominent factor in most systems, is the criteria used to determine when the player's wagers should be raised or lowered. See Systems on this site.
