Casino Night Glossary

Chips The coloured playing tokens used on every table, exchanged for fun money at the start of play and handed back when the session closes. Many hosts add a finale where the guest holding the biggest stack wins a small prize provided by the host, and the croupiers will happily run the count.

Croupier The trained, uniformed professional who runs a casino table, deals the games, and teaches any guest who hasn’t played. The poker world prefers the word “dealer”, but the job is the same and our staff are trained on both.

Layout The printed cloth on a casino table showing where chips can be placed, from the numbers and colours of roulette to the pass line of craps. Reading the layout is the croupier’s job, not yours.

Session The window during which the tables are open and the games run. The standard session at a Royale event is three hours, which suits most weddings, parties, and corporate evenings.

Full-size table A casino-grade table built to the dimensions of a real casino floor, rather than a folding or tabletop alternative. Every table we hire out is full size, which is most of the reason the room feels like the real thing.

Inside plays Chips placed on the numbers themselves on the roulette layout, singly or in small groups. They win less often and pay much more, up to 35 to 1.

Outside plays Chips placed around the edge of the roulette layout covering large groups of numbers at once: red or black, odd or even, dozens, and columns. They win often and pay less, which makes them the friendliest place for a first-timer to start.

Straight up A roulette play on one single number. It pays 35 to 1 in fun money, the longest shot on the table and the one that gets the biggest cheer of the night when it lands.

Zero The single green pocket on the roulette wheel, standing apart from the red and black numbers 1 to 36. It’s the reason seasoned players smile knowingly when the ball drops somewhere nobody backed.

No more bets The croupier’s call as the ball begins to drop towards the roulette wheel. From that moment no chips move, and everyone watches the same few seconds together.

Blackjack The best hand in the game that shares its name: an Ace plus any ten-value card as your first two cards. It pays 3 to 2 in fun money, just as it would in a real casino, and earns the loudest cheer of the round.

Hit To ask the dealer for another card in blackjack. The table signal is a tap of the felt with your finger, and you can hit as often as you like until you’re happy or you bust.

Stand To stick with the blackjack hand you have and take no more cards. The signal is a flat wave of the hand over your cards, and the dealer moves on to the next player.

Split In blackjack, to turn a matching pair (two 8s, two Aces) into two separate hands, played independently, by adding matching fun money. Two Aces should always be split; a pair of tens never should.

Double down To double your fun money mid-hand in blackjack and receive exactly one more card, no more. It’s strongest when your first two cards total 9, 10, or 11.

Bust To go over 21 in blackjack. A bust hand loses straight away, whatever the dealer is holding, and avoiding it is the central tension of the game.

Hole card and upcard The dealer’s two cards in blackjack. The upcard is dealt face up for the whole table to see; the hole card stays face down until every player has finished their turn.

Soft and hard hands In blackjack, a soft hand counts its Ace as 11 (an Ace and a 6 is a soft 17), while a hard hand has no Ace, or must count its Ace as 1 to avoid busting. Soft hands are forgiving; you can take a card without any risk of going over.

Push A tie between a player and the dealer in blackjack. Nobody wins, nobody loses, and your fun money stays exactly where it is for the next round.

Basic strategy The mathematically best decision for every combination of your blackjack hand and the dealer’s upcard. You don’t need it to enjoy the game: a rough version (stand on 17 or more, take a card on anything under) gets you most of the way, and the croupier will guide you.

Texas Hold’em The world’s most-played poker game: two private cards each, five shared cards in the middle, and the best five-card hand takes the chips in the pot. At a fun casino night the only thing at stake is bragging rights.

Hole cards The two private cards dealt face down to each player in Texas Hold’em. Only you see them, and everything you do in the hand is built on them.

Community cards The five shared cards dealt face up in the middle of a Texas Hold’em table. Every player combines them with their own two hole cards to make the best five-card hand.

Flop, turn, and river The three stages in which the community cards arrive in Texas Hold’em: the flop is the first three dealt together, the turn is the fourth, and the river is the fifth and final card. There’s a round of action after each.

Blinds Two small opening contributions of fun money posted before each Texas Hold’em hand by the players to the dealer’s left, so there’s always something in the pot to play for. In a tournament the blinds rise on a timer, which keeps the action moving towards a finish.

Check, call, and raise The three ways to stay in a poker hand on your turn: check passes the action on without adding chips (only possible if nobody has put chips in that round), call matches the last contribution, and raise puts in more to apply the pressure.

Fold To give up your hand and sit out the rest of the round, in poker, three card poker, or Teen Patti, losing only what you’ve already put in. Folding a weak hand early is a winning habit, not a defeat.

Bluff Playing your chips as though your hand is stronger than it is, in the hope everyone else folds first. It’s where the drama of Texas Hold’em lives, and it works best when the story you’re telling makes sense.

Cash table and tournament The two formats poker runs in at an event. A cash table is relaxed and sociable, with guests coming and going as they please; a tournament gives everyone the same starting stack of fun money, raises the blinds on a timer, and knocks players out until one champion remains.

Hand rankings The order that settles poker showdowns, from a royal flush at the top down to a lone high card. One quirk worth knowing: in three card poker a straight beats a flush, because with only three cards a straight is harder to make.

Play or fold The single decision in three card poker. Look at your three cards and either match your ante to play on, or fold and let the hand go; the dealer’s reveal settles it in seconds.

Pair Plus An optional extra play in three card poker that pays on the strength of your own three cards, regardless of what the dealer holds. It pays for at least a pair and pays more for stronger hands, all the way up to a straight flush.

Qualify In three card poker, the dealer needs a Queen-high hand or better to qualify. If they don’t, players still in the round are paid on their ante and their play chips are returned.

Punto banco The standard version of baccarat, and the one played at a fun casino night. Guests simply back a side; the croupier deals both hands to fixed rules and the drama runs itself.

Player and Banker The two hands dealt in every round of baccarat. Guests place chips behind whichever they think will finish closer to 9; Banker wins very slightly more often, but only just, so either side is a fair shout.

Tie The third option in baccarat: backing the Player and Banker hands to finish level. It lands rarely, which is exactly why some guests can’t resist it.

Baccarat scoring Closest to 9 wins. Face cards count as zero and double-digit totals drop the tens digit, so 7 plus 8 makes 15, which counts as 5. The croupier may deal a third card to either hand according to fixed rules, with no decisions needed from anyone.

Chemin de fer The baccarat variation where players take turns holding the bank, and James Bond’s game in Ian Fleming’s novels. The version at a fun casino night is punto banco, which keeps things simpler while losing none of the atmosphere.

Shooter The player rolling the two dice in craps. The role passes around the table, and everyone else places chips on the outcome of each roll, so the whole table shares every throw.

Pass line The simplest and most popular play in craps: backing the shooter to do well. It’s the only thing a first-timer needs to learn, and it keeps you in step with the whole table.

Come-out roll The first roll of a craps sequence. A 7 or 11 wins the pass line straight away, a 2, 3, or 12 loses it, and any other number becomes the point.

Point In craps, the number (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10) set by the come-out roll. The shooter then keeps rolling, trying to land that number again before a 7 appears, while the whole table wills it home.

Seven-out Rolling a 7 before the point is hit in craps. The pass line loses, the dice pass to the next shooter, and it’s the one roll the entire table hopes to avoid.

Stickman The crew position at a craps table that moves the dice with a long stick and calls each roll. Our full-size table is built with stickman and base dealer positions, just like a real casino pit.

Teen Patti Literally “three cards”: the game played at weddings, Diwali nights, and family gatherings across India and the diaspora, using a standard 52-card deck. Hands rank from a lone high card up to a Trail.

Boot The ante in Teen Patti: the fun-money contribution every player makes at the start of each round, so there’s always something on the table to play for. You’re in until you fold.

Blind Playing a Teen Patti hand without looking at your cards, for fewer fun-money tokens. The nerve is the whole point, and a confident blind player unsettles everyone else.

Seen The opposite of playing blind in Teen Patti: you look at your three cards first and play on, for more fun-money tokens than a blind play. Once seen, you play on the strength of what you actually hold.

Chaal and show Chaal is the turn-by-turn play that keeps a Teen Patti hand moving, each player adding tokens to stay in; the show is the reveal that settles it. The last player standing, or the highest hand at the show, wins.

Trail Three of a kind, the highest hand in Teen Patti. Rare enough that landing one is an event in itself.

Pure Sequence Three consecutive cards of the same suit in Teen Patti, the equivalent of a straight flush, sitting near the very top of the rankings.

Andar Bahar The lightning-fast guessing game that pairs naturally with Teen Patti and can run on the same table. Guests back one of two sides, Andar or Bahar, and the deal decides it in seconds.

Money wheel Another name for the wheel of fortune: a big, brightly coloured, vertically mounted wheel divided into segments, typically marked with numbers or denominations of fun money. Guests pick a segment, the croupier spins, and there’s a result on every turn; the smallest segments pay the most.

Flapper The pointer at the top of the wheel of fortune that clicks past each division as the wheel spins and finally settles on the winning segment. The clicking is half the theatre.

Reels The spinning columns of symbols inside a slot machine. Three matching symbols pay out, some combinations pay more than others, and the screen explains the rest.

One-armed bandit The old nickname for a slot machine, earned by its single pull handle. At a fun casino night the machine runs on fun-money tokens with no cash value, so it’s all arm and no bandit.