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Glossary T - Z

• TAB - In Horse-racing. Totalisator Agency Board. The body appointed to regulate off-course betting or bets made by people who are not present at the race track.
• Table Hold - The total amount of money won by a casino table game from the players during an eight-hour work shift.
• Table Stakes - In Poker. The stakes in which the betting and raising is limited to the amount of money a player has on the table in front of him.
• Taking the Odds - There are two basic forms of betting. 'Taking the odds' and 'Laying the odds'. In most casino games the player is 'taking the odds' by betting an amount less than they will receive if they win, that is; if you wager $1 and you win, you will win more than $1. In most forms of sports betting, some odds are so high in favor of the likely winner that winning wagers get paid an amount less than the amount wagered and this is what is meant by 'laying the odds'.
• Tapping Out - A player who loses his entire gambling bankroll and has to stop playing.
• Tell Play - Studying the dealer's body language and expressions so as to guess what his hole card is. In poker games, 'tells' refer to quirks or other readable aspects of a player's actions, verbal behavior or body language that supposedly reveal information about what cards they are holding.
• Third Base - In Blackjack. The spot nearest the dealer's right hand, which will be the last place played before the dealer plays his hand.
• Third Street - In seven-card stud, the first round of betting is called Third Street because the players all have three cards.
• Three-Card Monte - A three-card game similar to Bragg.
• Three of a Kind - In Poker, three cards of the same value, e.g. three 7's.
• Ticket - A card.
• Time Cut (Also, Axe or Collection) - The money that is charged to each player on a time basis by the casino or by the poker room owner. The charge is usually on a 3 minute or an hourly basis.
• Toke - Short for 'token'. This is a tip given to the dealer by a player in money or chips. Tokes, unlike tokens, are the tips that the game dealers receive from the players. A player who is known to toke a dealer heavily is sometimes referred to as a 'George' or a 'Real George'.
• Token - Special casino coins which are used to play slot machines instead of real coins.
• Touch Wand - In Keno. A pointing device used to select numbers on Keno video machines.
• Tournament - A competition game between a group of players over a period of time. For example, in Poker tournaments many poker players sit down with the same number of chips and play. Eventually only one player will have any chips left. That is the end of the tournament. In order to make sure that the tournament will finish in a reasonable time, a schedule is made by which the blinds and/or antes increase. Tournaments are usually played with chips that have no value outside of the tournament. So a buy-in of $30 might get you $500 in tournament chips to play with, but you can't cash them. The winner of a tournament, who is the last player to bust out, as well as several of the other top finishers are usually awarded prize money according to the predetermined schedule. Tournament details vary widely, but a typical arrangement may include an initial buy-in, a re-buy period during which a player who runs out of tournament chips may buy more, and an opportunity to add on to one's stack after the re-buys have ended. Details of the tournament structure can vary widely according to how it is designed by the casino.
• Trips - Three cards of the same value.
• True Odds - The real odds of something happening, taking into account the casino edge. In general terms it is the ratio of the number of times one event will occur to the number of times that it will not. Casinos do not usually post the true odds.
• Underlay - An event that has more money bet on its happening than can be justified by the probability of it happening. In other words, a bad or unfavorable bet.
• Unit or Betting Units - A technical term used to express the smallest amount of money used in wagering without specifying the actual currency amount. The player's actual 'chip' bet may be $1, $5, $25, $100 or some other value. However, for purposes of simplifying gambling related calculations, the wager is specified as simply one betting unit or one chip.
• Up Card or Upcard - In Blackjack. The face up card in the dealer's initial hand. Standard casino rules require dealers to deal their own opening hands with one card face-up and one card face-down. The card that is dealt face-up is the dealers 'up card'. The card that is dealt face-down is said to be the dealers 'hole card'.
• Vig., Vigorish - The casino profit or edge, fee or commission taken by the house.
• VIP - A Very Important Person. Refers to a big bettor or a high roller in a casino.
• VLT - Video Lottery Terminal
• Wager - A bet.
• Washing or Card Washing - Spreading the cards face down on a table and then mixing them around with his hands flat in a face-washing-like action before gathering them up and performing a normal shuffle. Card washing is intended to remove consistencies in the sequencing among the cards that new decks of cards have, or that were produced as a result of previous play. In standard table poker, the cards are washed after every hand before they are subjected to a more conventional shuffling. In blackjack and baccarat, the cards are washed when old decks are taken out of play and fresh new decks brought in to replace them.
• Whale - A player who places extremely high bets. Unlike high rollers who consistently wager $100 or more per round, whales are typically those who make wagers amounting to thousands if not tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per round.
• White meat - Profit.
• Wild Card - A joker or other card that can be used as any other card in order to complete a hand in a card game.
• Wired cards or Back-to-Back - In Poker. A pair, trips, or four of a kind dealt consecutively or back-to-back in a hand, usually in a stud hand starting with the first card.