Glossary: S
- Scare Card
- The dealer's up-card, when it has a high value.
- Scratch
- To request a hit.
- Second Base
- A player seated between other players (neither first nor last).
Also used to refer to a player who is sitting dead center, directly
across from the dealer.
- Second Dealing
- A technique, generally cheating, when the dealer delivers cards
the second, rather than the first, card.
- Settlement
- The financial resolution of a hand, including the payoff or
collection of wagers.
- Shill
- A casino employee who poses as a player to attract customers.
- Shoe
- A piece of gaming equipment used to hold multiple decks of cards.
- Shuffle Up
- Shuffling the deck before the cut card appears. Typically done to
eliminate a counter's advantage (and drive him away).
- Shuffle
- The process of re-mixing the cards. Typically effected by cutting
and riffling the deck.
- Silver
- Refers to silver dollars or metal gaming tokens (in houses where
these are used instead of white $1 cheques).
- Single Deck
- A game played with one 52-card deck.
- Size Into
- To use a stack of cheques that has already been counted as a
measure for another stack that has not.
- Soft Hand
- A hand in which an ace is counted as 11 (and can be converted
to 1 later)
- Soft Game
- A game in which many of the players are unskilled.
- Spanish Deck
- A deck of 48 cards. Identical to the standard (French) deck,
without the tens (ie., 2-9, face cards, and aces in each suit).
- Splitting Pairs
- An option that allows a player to split his first two cards into
two separate hands when cards of the same index are dealt.
- Spots
- The areas of the layout designated for making wagers.
- Spread the Deck
- To lay the cards face-up on the table, spread out so that prospective
players may inspect them to ensure the decks are complete. This is
typically done when a table is opened.
- Stack — A stack of 20 cheques in the rack.
- Stand
- An indication that the player is satisfied with his hand and does not
want any more hits.
- Stay
- Same as stand, above.
- Steaming
- Said of a player who is making mistakes because he is upset.
- Straighten the Rack
- To arrange the cheques in the rack, placing them into 20-cheque stacks
so that the pit boss can easily count its total value.
- Stripping (a deck)
- A method of shuffling that consists of dropping a few cards alternately
from the top and bottom of the deck.
- Suit
- One of the four categories of cards — diamonds, spaced, clubs,
and hearts.
- Suited Blackjack
- A blackjack in which the ace and ten-value card are of the same suit.
- Surrender
- An option to abandon a hand and reclaim half of the original wager.
Typically allowed only after the initial deal (when the hand has not
been hit). If surrender is allowed after hits have been taken, it's
called "Late Surrender."
- Sweeten (a Bet)
- To increase a wager (when it is permissible to do so).
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