Blackjack Glossary – S

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Scare Card

A Dealer’s up card with a high value.

Scratch

Also known as a hit. A player indicates he would like to be dealt another card by scratching the top of his cards.

Session

The period of time spent playing.

Settlement

This is the last stage of a wager. The pay out of bets at the conclusion of a hand or the collection from the player of wagers or chips.

Shiner

A device used to cheat at blackjack. A shiner is a device with a reflective surface and acts as a mirror. The cheat will attempt to use the shiner to see what the dealer’s hole card is.

Shoe

Usually in a casino, the box at the dealer’s disposal that contains up to eight decks of cards with an opening allowing each card to be dealt out one at a time.

Shoe Game

A shoe game is a game of blackjack where the cards are dealt from a shoe, which is a specially constructed container or box that multiple decks of cards can be inserted into.

Shuffle

Mixing the cards in the deck by cutting and thumbing through the deck so that the order in which the cards are dealt are consistently different from the previous deal.

Shuffle Master

A Company which produces automatic shuffling machines commonly used in casinos. Shuffle Master machines are popular with casinos as the shuffle is done after every hand and prevents the practice of card counting.

Shuffle Tracking

A card counting method used by players in casinos where they count the groups of high or low cards

Single Deck

The use of one deck of 52 cards used in Blackjack.

Soft Doubling

Double down bets allowed on soft hands.

Soft Hand

A soft hand is a hand that contains an Ace and can be used as a value of either 1 or 11.

Soft 17

A hand that contains an Ace, which if counted as an 11 gives the hand a value of 17 or if counted as 1 gives the hand a value of 7.

Spanish 21

Liberal version of Blackjack, which offers special pay outs for 21. A player’s Blackjack always beats the Dealer and card deck that contains no 10’s.

Split/Splitting Pairs

If the two cards dealt to the player are equal in value, the player can split the hand, thereby doubling a wager.

Spread

The practice of laying multiple bets down before the first deal

Spread the Deck

Refers to the placement of cards face up on the table top by the dealer so that players can look at them to reassure themselves the deck is whole.

Stake

The amount of money outlaid by a player on a bet.

Stand

A player will use the two initial cards dealt accepting no others. The signal is usually made with a sweeping movement of your hand palm facing downward.

Stay

Same as ‘stand’.

Stiff

A hand of cards with a value between 12 and 16 and with the potential of busting if another card is taken.

Suit

Suit refers to one of four symbols on cards; hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs.

Surrender

A player surrenders half his bet if he does not wish to bet against the dealer’s hand. He surrenders fifty percent of the value of his bet in exchange for two new cards