Gambling terminology

Just before the grand 4th of July weekend, you shoudl all have a bit of information before you run off to watch bright lights and gamble and have all kidns of 3-day-weekend fun.

Lately, in a lot of gambling writing, I’ve noticed terminology slipping. Terms that for years and years and years have meant one thing have been creeping into other areas and the meaning gets distorted. There are two specifically I’ll write about here, but keep in mind there are a LOT of these examples about. When you go to pick up the flavor-of-the-month book be very aware of what is being written. Especially in poker books, which are easily the worst books ever written in the history of paper and ink.

First: “Hole Card”
This should only refer to the dealer’s card in blackjack that is left face-down. In the past few months it’s been used to refer to the player’s cards in Hold ‘Em poker (and Omaha and Pineapple, etc). This isn’t as horrible as the alterations other terms go through, but it’s pretty bad, especially considering that players will have two, three, or four cards face down depending on if they play Texas Hold ‘Em, Pineapple, or Omaha, respectively.

Second: “vig”
This has, for centuries as far as I’m concerned, referred to the percentage a bookkeeper takes on a placed bet. Some might call it the juice, some might call it the cut, still others might call it the over but they usually get pummeled. Recently it’s become a fashionable term for the percentage change in a player’s likelihood of winning (positive or negative) based on the analysis of their play after the fact. So if you go back and see that a player gained a 5% advantage in blackjack by retroactively applying a different card-counting system, you might call that the “vig”. Which as far as I’m concerned does nothing but confuse everyone involved except the sellers of whatever system you’re being conned into buying. The only reason they aren’t confused is because they don’t care enough to think about what they’re saying to begin with.

There are many more examples but these are two of the ugliest ones going around, and two of the ones most likely to throw you as you sit down to a casino game this summer. Heads up. Don’t listen to anyone else at the table.