Rules
Written for someone who has never sat at the table. Each page covers the goal, the actions, how a round runs, how payouts work, and the mistakes that cost the most.
01
Blackjack
Blackjack is a race to 21 against the dealer alone. The other players at a real table do not affect your hand.
02Texas Hold'em
No-limit Texas Hold'em. Two private cards each, five shared cards in the middle, and four rounds of betting.
03Baccarat
Baccarat looks formal but it is the simplest table game in the room. You choose a bet and then watch. No decisions follow.
04Roulette
A wheel, a ball, and a layout of numbers. Roulette is the clearest way to see how payouts and probability relate.
A
Glossary
Every term the app uses, in one place.- Blackjack
- An ace plus any ten value card on the first two cards. It beats a plain 21 and normally pays 3 to 2.
- Soft hand
- A hand holding an ace that can count as 11 without busting. A soft 17 is ace plus six, and one more card cannot bust it.
- Hard hand
- A hand with no ace, or one where the ace must count as 1. A hard 16 can bust on the next card.
- Split
- When your first two cards are a pair, you can separate them into two hands and place a second bet equal to the first.
- Double down
- Doubling your bet in exchange for exactly one more card. Useful when your total is strong and the dealer's card is weak.
- Push
- A tie. Your bet is returned and nothing is won or lost.
- Insurance
- A side bet offered when the dealer shows an ace. It pays 2 to 1 if the dealer has blackjack, and it loses money over time.
- Surrender
- Giving up the hand after the deal and getting half your bet back. Late surrender is offered after the dealer checks for blackjack.
- Upcard
- The dealer's face up card. Every basic strategy decision starts with it.
- Basic strategy
- The mathematically best play for every combination of your total and the dealer upcard, assuming no knowledge of the remaining cards.
- Blind
- A forced bet posted before cards are dealt. The small blind and big blind rotate around the table each hand.
- Pot
- The total of all bets made in the hand. The winner of the hand takes it.
- Pot odds
- The price you are getting on a call. Calling 60 into a pot of 180 means risking 60 to win 240, so you need to win about 25% of the time to break even.
- Position
- Where you act in the betting order. Acting last is a large advantage because you see what everyone else does first.
- Equity
- Your share of the pot based on how often your hand wins from here. A hand with 40% equity in a 200 pot is worth about 80.
- Flop
- The first three community cards, dealt face up after the opening betting round.
- Turn
- The fourth community card.
- River
- The fifth and final community card.
- Board texture
- How connected and coordinated the community cards are. A board with three cards of one suit changes what hands are possible.
- Banker
- One of the two hands in baccarat. Betting on Banker is not betting on the casino, it is simply the name of the second hand.
- House edge
- The long run share of each wager the house keeps. A 1.06% edge means about one cent per dollar wagered on average.
- Natural
- A two card total of 8 or 9 in baccarat. It ends the hand immediately.
- Outside bet
- A roulette bet on a large group of numbers such as red, even, or a dozen. It wins often and pays little.
- Inside bet
- A roulette bet on specific numbers. It wins rarely and pays a lot.