H - Glossary of Terms
Hand. 1. The cards held by a player or the dealer to form a complete play. 2. A reference to a completed round of play. 3. A completed play at other table games, such as craps.
Handle. Casino term for the total amount of wagers, stated in dollar terms, made by the players at a game during a specific period of time. Not to be confused with Drop. [See Drop. See Handle. See Win.]
Hard. Any total of cards in the game of blackjack which either do not include an ace or where the ace is counted as a one rather than an eleven.
Heads up. Playing in a game one-on-one with the dealer.
Heat. A form of harassment that counters are often subjected to by casino personnel. It can range from very mild forms, such as a pit boss intently watching a player to more overt forms, such as a pit boss counting down the cards in the discard tray, particularly after a player has raised his bet. Most counters consider heat to be a warning sign that the casino suspects they are counting.
High-low pick-up. The way the dealer picks up the players' or his cards from the table, is rigidly set down by each casino. "High-low pickup" is when the dealer, while pretending to follow house rules, picks up in separate slugs a pack of high cards (like face cards) and low cards, and then proceeds to control these slugs in the shuffle for a certain purpose (ie dealing high cards to a confederate at the table, dealing himself stiff hands etc).
High roller. A person who makes large wagers in the casino. What constitutes a high roller in one casino may be very different from one casino to another one. For example, a $100 bettor may be considered a high roller in a small downtown casino such as Fitzgerald's, but wouldn't attract too much attention at the Mirage.
High Stakes. There is no exact definition, but it is commonly accepted that playing using a normal maximum bet of $500 and above is playing for high stakes. See also: Stakes.
Hi-Lo count. A balanced level one counting system which values the 2 through 6 cards as a plus one and the tens, face cards and aces as a minus one. It has become the universal language of card counters, in the sense that many of the standard references to the count in games use the Hi-Lo count as a basis, such as the Illustrious 18. Often, when there is no other frame of reference, if someone refers to a count number, it is assumed that the reference is based on the Hi-Lo count. The most comprehensive guide to the Hi-Lo count can be found in Stanford Wong's book, Professional Blackjack.
Hi-Opt I. A balanced level one counting system included in Humble and Cooper's book, The World's Greatest Blackjack Book. It assigns the value of plus one to 3's, 4's, 5's and 6's and minus one to ten valued cards.
Hi-Opt II. A balanced level two system which is sold separately from the Hi-Opt I system. It assigns a value of plus one to 2's, 3's, and 4's; plus two to 5's and 6's, and minus two to ten valued cards.
Hit. To request another card from the dealer. The request is almost never made verbally. In a hand-held game, it is made by scratching the cards against the felt, and in a face-up game, it is made by tapping the felt when it is the player's turn to either refuse or accept another card.
Hit card. This can be a reference to a card requested by the player during play or to additional cards the dealer must take to complete a hand.
Hold. See hold percentage.
Hold percentage. A measure of casino earnings over a specific period of time, in percentage terms. It is the ratio of Win over Drop, where Win is the amount of money won by the casino over a period of time and Drop is the amount of chips purchased by players over the same amount of time. In other words, Win is the amount of chips that the players, after a specific period of time, do not get to cash in but leave at the table as losses. [See Drop. See Handle. See Win.]
Hole card. The dealer's unexposed down card in a game of blackjack.
Hole card play. To play blackjack with the knowledge of the dealer's unexposed hole card.
Hopping the deck. The action of a cheating dealer in single deck blackjack with which he nullifies the player's cut of the cards and returns them to their pre-cut order.
House advantage. Also called the house edge, the theoretical win percentage, or expected win percentage - when referring to the casino. It is a measure, in percentage terms, of the advantage that a casino enjoys in a specific game. It is the ratio of expected Win divided by expected money wagered (i.e. expected Win divided by expected Handle). The theoretical House Advantage is not necessarily the same as the actual House Advantage. Because of the law of large numbers, as the number of trials gets larger, the actual Win percentage should get closer to the theoretical Win percentage (House Advantage). In some games, the House Advantage can be affected by the skill level of the players. [See Drop. See Handle. See Win.]
HTML. An abbreviation for Hypertext Markup Language, the software language that allows us to put bold face and italics in our posts, among other things.
H17. An abbreviation used to signify that the rules of a particular blackjack game include requiring the dealer to hit a soft seventeen.