Casino & Table Games

Baccarat is a card game where you bet on which of two hands, Player or Banker, will score closer to nine. The Banker bet has a 1.06% house edge, among the lowest in any casino, and no decisions are involved.

Basic strategy is the mathematically optimal decision for every blackjack hand against every dealer upcard. It reduces the house edge to around 0.5% and is the single most valuable thing to learn in a casino.

Blackjack is a card game where you aim to beat the dealer's hand without exceeding 21. Played with correct strategy under good rules it has a house edge around 0.5%, the lowest of any common casino game.

To bust is to exceed 21 in blackjack, losing the hand immediately. Because the player acts first, a player bust loses even if the dealer would also have busted, which is the source of the house edge.

Card counting tracks the ratio of high to low cards remaining in a blackjack shoe, allowing a player to raise bets when the deck favours them. It is legal, it works, and casinos are entitled to ban you for it.

A casino is a venue or platform offering games of chance where the operator holds a mathematical edge on every game. That edge, applied across enough bets, is the entire business model.

A chip is a token representing money at a casino table. Converting cash into chips is a deliberate psychological step. Chips are demonstrably easier to bet than the equivalent banknotes.

A come bet works exactly like a pass line bet but can be placed after a point is established, letting you have several numbers working at once. It carries the same 1.41% house edge and the same zero-edge odds option.

A comp is a complimentary benefit given to players based on how much they wager. Drinks, meals, rooms or cashback. It is calculated from theoretical loss, not actual loss, so winning does not reduce it.

Craps is a dice game with an unusually wide range of bets, from a 1.41% house edge on the pass line to nearly 17% on some proposition bets. It also contains the only zero-edge bet in a casino.

Doubling down means doubling your bet in exchange for exactly one more card. It is the main way a blackjack player wins money back from the house, and failing to use it correctly is expensive.

En Prison holds your even-money bet for one more spin when zero lands, rather than losing it. Win the next spin and the stake is returned; it halves the house edge on those bets to 1.35%.

To hit is to request another card in blackjack. You can hit as many times as you like until you stand or exceed 21, at which point you bust and lose immediately.

House rules are the specific variations a casino applies to a game, and they change the house edge significantly. Two blackjack tables in the same building can differ by more than a full percentage point.

An inside bet in roulette covers one or a few specific numbers on the main grid, paying between 35:1 and 5:1. It has the same house edge as any other roulette bet, with far higher volatility.

Insurance is a side bet offered when the dealer shows an ace, paying 2:1 if they have blackjack. It carries a house edge of about 7% and should essentially never be taken.

La Partage returns half your even-money stake when the ball lands on zero. It halves the house edge on those bets from 2.70% to 1.35%, making French roulette the best version of the game.

The maximum bet is the largest stake a game accepts. It caps the operator's exposure and makes doubling-up systems mathematically impossible to sustain.

The minimum bet is the smallest stake a game will accept. Low minimums often come paired with worse rules, so the cheapest-looking table is frequently the most expensive to play.

An outside bet in roulette covers a large group of numbers, red, black, odd, even, dozens or columns, paying 1:1 or 2:1. The house edge is identical to inside bets; only the volatility is lower.

The pass line is the fundamental craps bet, backing the shooter to win. It carries a 1.41% house edge and is the prerequisite for the zero-edge odds bet placed behind it.

Roulette is a wheel game where you bet on where a ball will land. The house edge comes entirely from the zero pockets: 2.70% on a single-zero wheel, 5.26% on a double-zero one.

Sic Bo is a three-dice game where you bet on the outcome of a roll. House edges range from about 2.8% on the best bets to over 30% on the worst, making bet selection unusually important.

A soft hand in blackjack contains an ace counted as 11, so it cannot bust on the next card. Soft hands are played more aggressively than hard hands of the same total.

Splitting separates a pair into two hands, each receiving a new second card and each requiring a matching bet. Always split aces and 8s; never split 10s or 5s.

To stand is to decline further cards in blackjack, keeping your current total. Once you stand your hand is final and the dealer plays out their hand against it.

A straight up bet backs a single roulette number, paying 35:1. It is the highest-paying and most volatile bet on the table, carrying the same 2.70% house edge as every other European roulette bet.

Table limits set the minimum and maximum bet allowed on a game. The maximum exists largely to defeat doubling-up systems, which require an unlimited ceiling to work.