Blackjack is a card game that pits player versus dealer. It is played with one or more decks of cards. Cards are counted as their respective numbers, face cards as ten, and ace as either eleven or one (in our game it will show on the counter as an 11 unless you are over 21). The object of Blackjack is the beat the dealer. Natural - slang for a blackjack. Nickels - slang for $5 casino chips. Paint - any Jack, Queen, or King (all painted pictures). Pat Hand - an original holding of hard 17 or higher. Penetration - number of cards the dealer deals out before shuffling. Pit Boss - casino supervisor who is in charge of the entire blackjack pit. Free FedEx Ground Shipping on website orders over $150 within lower 48.

Blackjack Terms, Jargon, and Slang

As a new player, you will often hear blackjack players using lots of blackjack terms and slang, so we've created this list of terms to be used as a blackjack glossary or blackjack dictionary. You can simply use this as a reference when you hear a term you are unfamiliar with or just read through the list and familiarize yourself with the blackjack terms.

Anchorman - the player in the last seat of the table, on the dealer's far right, who is last to act.

Barring a Player - a casino refusing to allow a player to play in a blackjack game.

Blackjack - an automatic winning hand containing both an Ace and a 10 value card.

Bust - having a hand totalling more than 21 points, an automatic loser.

Card Counter - a skilled player who keeps track of the cards as they are dealt.

Card Counting - the act of keeping track of the value of the cards dealt at a table.

Dealer - the casino employee, facing the players, who deals the cards at the table.

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Deck - a standard deck of 52 cards used in blackjack.

Double Down - the option for a player to double his bet with only one card to come.

Draw a Card - drawing an extra card, on top of the original hand.

Early Surrender - player's option to surrender half his bet while the dealer checks for blackjack.

Favorable Deck - the cards left in the deck are in the player's favor.

First Baseman - the player in the first seat of the table, on the dealer's far left, who is first to act.

Flat Bet - to bet the same amount each hand, without variation.

Floorman - the casino supervisor who oversees the dealers.

Hand - the original cards dealt to each player.

Hard Total - any hand where there is no ace, or the ace counts as one.

Head-to-Head - playing the dealer one-on-one with no other players at the table.

High Roller - a player who bets large amounts of money.

Hit - drawing an extra card, on top of the original hand.

Hole Card - the dealer's unseen card.

House - another term for the casino.

Insurance - optional bet that can be made when the dealer is showing an ace.

Marker - an IOU, signed by a player who has casino credit.

Mucker - a cheater who adds favorable cards to a multiple deck game.

Multiple-Deck - a game consisting of more than one deck of cards in a shoe.

Natural - slang for a blackjack.

Nickels - slang for $5 casino chips.

Paint - any Jack, Queen, or King (all painted pictures).

Pat Hand - an original holding of hard 17 or higher.

Penetration - number of cards the dealer deals out before shuffling.

Pit Boss - casino supervisor who is in charge of the entire blackjack pit.

Push - a tie between the dealer and the player, no one wins or loses.

Quarters - slang for $25 chips.

Round - complete series of play in which everyone has acted on their hands.

Shoe - box containing decks of cards, made to deal one at a time.

Shuffle - mixing up the cards before dealing them.

Single-Deck - a game of blackjack in which only one deck of cards is used.

Snapper - slang for a blackjack.

Soft Total - any hand containing an ace which has a value of 11.

Splitting Pairs - option to split identically ranked cards to play as seperate hands.

Stand, Stand Pat - the player's decision to not take any more cards.

Stiff Card - a card ranked from 2 to 6, which may force the dealer to hit.

Stiff Hand - any hand totalling 12-16, which will bust on a 10-value card hit.

Surrender - option of a player to forfeit half his bet after the dealer checks for blackjack.

Ten-Poor Deck - a deck in which more 10-value cards have been dealt.

Ten-Rich Deck - a deck in which less 10-value cards have been dealt.

Ten-Value Card - any card worth 10 points, a 10, Jack, Queen, or King.

Third Baseman - the player in the last seat of the table, on the dealer's far right, who is last to act.

Tip or Toke - a gratuity given to a dealer by a player.

Twenty-One - another name for the game of blackjack.

Unfavorable Deck - a deck with remaining cards favoring the casino, not the player.

Unit - a standard bet size.

Upcard - the dealer's exposed card, seen by all players.

Ada Blackjack (néeDelutuk; 1898 – May 29, 1983) was an Iñupiat woman who lived for two years as a castaway on uninhabited Wrangel Island north of Siberia.

Background[edit]

Ada Blackjack Johnson was born in Solomon, Alaska and raised by missionaries who taught her to read English.^[1] Early in her life, Blackjack relocated to Nome, Alaska. She married and gave birth to three children with her first husband, but only one survived past infancy. She and the first husband divorced after that. The divorce^[2] left her destitute, and she temporarily placed her son in an orphanage. Soon after, in 1921, she joined an expedition across the Chukchi Sea to Russia's Wrangel Island led by Canadian Allan Crawford but financed, planned and encouraged by Vilhjalmur Stefansson.

Expedition[edit]

Stefansson sent five settlers (one Canadian, three Americans, and one Iñupiat, Ada) in a speculative attempt to claim the island for Canada.^[3] The explorers were handpicked by Stefansson based upon their previous experience and academic credentials. Stefansson considered those with advanced knowledge in the fields of geography and science for this expedition.

On 15 September 1921, the team was left on Wrangel Island north of Siberia, to claim the island for Canada or Great Britain. Ada had many misgivings about joining the expedition, especially because she had been misled to believe she would be only one of many Alaska Native people to join the crew.^[4] The team included five people: Ada who had been hired as a cook and seamstress;^[5] the American men Lorne Knight, Milton Galle, and Fred Maurer; and Allan Crawford, a Canadian. Maurer had spent eight months in 1914 on the island after surviving the shipwreck of the Karluk.

The conditions soon turned bad for the team. After rations ran out, the team was unable to kill enough game on the island to survive. So, on 28 January 1923 three men tried to cross the 700-mile frozen Chukchi Sea to Siberia for help and food, leaving Ada and the ailing Lorne Knight behind. Knight was afflicted with the dietary deficiency scurvy and was cared for by Ada until he died on June 23, 1923. The other three men were never seen again, and so Ada was left alone except for the company of the expedition's cat, Vic.^[6]

Ada used her traditional Iñupiat skills to survive in the extreme freezing conditions until she was rescued on 19 August 1923 by a former colleague of Stefansson's, Harold Noice. Some newspapers called her a real 'female Robinson Crusoe'. Ada used the money she saved to take her small son Bennett to Seattle to cure his tuberculosis. She remarried and had another son, Billy. Eventually, Ada returned to the Arctic where she lived until the age of 85.

Last years[edit]

She was quiet and hated the media circus that developed around her and the attempts by her rescuer Noice and Stefansson to exploit her story. Except for the salary that she made on the trip and a few hundred dollars for furs that she trapped while on Wrangel, Ada did not benefit from her ordeal, and received nothing from the books that were written about it.

Ada Blackjack died in the state retirement facility, the Pioneer Home in Palmer, Alaska, and was buried in Anchorage, Alaska.

References[edit]

1. ^Hulls, Tessa (6 December 2017). 'Ada Blackjack, the Forgotten Sole Survivor of an Odd Arctic Expedition'. Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
2. ^Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic, by Jennifer Niven
3. ^Niven, Jennifer (2003). Ada Blackjack: A True Story Of Survival In The Arctic. New York: Hyperion Books. p. 431. ISBN0-7868-6863-5.
4. ^Hulls, Tessa (2017-12-06). 'Ada Blackjack, the Forgotten Sole Survivor of an Odd Arctic Expedition'. Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
5. ^Alexandra J. McClanahan, The heroine of Wrangel Island
6. ^Atlas Obscura: Ada Blackjack, the Forgotten Sole Survivor of an Odd Arctic Expedition

Further reading[edit]

• Caravantes, Peggy (2016). Marooned in the Arctic : the true story of Ada Blackjack, the 'female Robinson Crusoe'. Chicago Review Press. ISBN9781613730980.
• Sonneborn, Liz (2007). A to Z of American Indian women (Rev. ed.). New York: Facts On File. ISBN9780816066940.
• McClanahan, Alexandra J. 'The Heroine of Wrangel Island'. LitSite Alaska. University of Alaska Anchorage. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
• Healy, Luke. How to Survive in the North. NoBrow. ISBN9781910620069.

External links[edit]

Jack Black Jack Black

• The Papers of Ada Blackjack at Dartmouth College Library

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