Blackjack Encyclopedia of Casino Twenty-One: P

P. 1) A common acronym for pair splitting. Also seen as SP. A P is commonly seen in the blackjack literature to mean pair split and is used to distinguish from an S, which usually means stand. 2) Acronym for poor penetration.

A	A	K	K
2	2	Q	Q
3	3	J	J
4	4	X	X
5	5	9	9
6	6	8	8
7	7	7	7
8	8	6	6
9	9	5	5
X	X	4	4
J	J	3	3
Q	Q	2	2
K	K	A	A

pack. 1) A new deck of cards still in the box, complete with undiscarded jokers. Typical new card order of a high quality pack of cards includes both rising and falling sequences as shown in the side chart. 2) A reference to the total collection of cards in play. This may be any number of decks.

paddle. The tool used to push paper money, markers, and fill slips into the drop box.
[80 Solkey Dummy Up and Deal 117]

paint. A picture face card - a jack, queen or king and sometimes even a ten.

pair splitting. (P). A common advantageous rule option that allows the player to split his original two cards if they are of the same value and wager on them independently. This has the effect of doubling the player's original bet. Proper pair splitting gives the player a 0.4% gain over a mimic the dealer strategy. See split aces.

parlay. As in to parlay your winnings. To continue betting with the original wager plus its winnings. See press.

past post. {CHS} A cheating technique that involves placing or adding to a wager after the cards have been dealt or after a win is assured.

pat hand. 1) A hand in no need of any more cards. 2) A hand totaling 17 to 21. Dealers are required to stand on all hard counts of 17 to 21 and soft counts of 18 to 21. Depending on the rules of the casino, dealers may or may not stand on soft 17. See S-17 and H-17.

pattern. Players often see what they believe to be a predictable pattern as the cards are dealt. This is impossible in a randomly shuffled deck for any apparent pattern is simply a random event. However, some believe and are using methods to exploit shuffles that are not random. Card clumping due to the natural pickup order in a game and the introduction of new cards in a game have both been the basis of many pattern recognition strategies. See TARGET. See NBJ.

Patterson, Jerry. Author of several blackjack books including Blackjack: A Winner's Handbook and co-developer of the TARGET system.

Patrick, John. Author of several blackjack and gambling books including books in the So You Wanna Be A Gambler? series.

pay off. As in to pay off a bet. Casino dealers will always pay off from their right to their left. In other words, third base gets paid first. Dealers will pay off players in one of three ways:

PC. 1) An abbreviation for percentage, usually used when referring to the house advantage. Also referred to as the win-rate. A table PC is determined from the final count of money in the drop box and money given out of the chip tray. See hold. 2) Acronym for playing correlation. 3) Acronym for pit critter.

PCS/Ln. Acronym used in this book to mean a Point Count System of level n.

peek. To look at a card. The dealer is said to peek when looking for a possible natural with an ace or 10 up-card. A cheating dealer will try to peek to determine the value of the top card of the deck.
[66 Thorp Beat the Dealer 148]
[87 Humble World's Greatest Blackjack Book 399]
[88 Casinos That Peek BJF]

peek freak. A term used by casino personnel to describe a hole-card player.
[81 Uston Million Dollar Blackjack 320]

Pell. (1982) Invented by Talton Pell, this game was offered at Sam's Town in East Las Vegas during 1982. Eight decks were used with four decks placed in two shoes. One card was drawn from each of the shoes. Players bet on whether both cards will be red, both black, both the same suit, etc. This game was easily beaten by card counters.
[3/82 Wong Nevada Blackjack & CBN 48,53]

penetration. The percentage or fraction of a deck or shoe that is dealt out to players. Some prefer to use the point at which the dealer will deal another hand rather than shuffle to define penetration. Although this is a minor point for shoe games it is a major point for single-deck. Penetration is considered one of the most important factors in determining the profitability of a blackjack game. See depth charging.
[ http://www.BJRnet.com/member/openfree_archive6/index.cgi?read=4468 ]

perfect shuffle. Also called a faro shuffle or the 'out' shuffle. A shuffle operation that separates the top and bottom 26 cards of a 52-card deck and precisely interleaves them, the top and bottom cards remaining unchanged in position.
[03 Poolside The Poolside Report: Blackjack Ace Tracking]

PHASE II. {RWC}. (1987) (Eddie Olsen). A playing strategy for games with excessive like-card clumping.
[7-11/87, 7/88 Olsen Blackjack Confidential]

pick and pay. The dealing method of turning over a player's cards, paying or taking bets, then picking up that hand before proceeding to the next player's hand. Pick and pay is the style of dealing most common in Northern Nevada. See lay and pay.
[86 Forte Read the Dealer 43]

Piemaster 21. {BP} (Ed Piechocki) (1992) A small pocket sized card with an incorrect basic strategy chart and a progressive betting scheme.
[Win 93 Dalton Blackjack Review 14]

pinks. Gaming check (chip or token) worth $2.50. Some casinos, such as those in Atlantic City, use this denomination to make it easier to pay a $5 winning blackjack. In this case, a $5 bet would win $7.50 if the player receives a blackjack. Many dealers are upset with this policy because it tends to reduce player toking. See twofers.

pip(s). The suit designs (club §, diamond ¨, heart ©, spade ª) on a playing card that indicate its denomination. It is required to memorize the pip arrangements on cards to enable the player to determine their value when peeking. See spooking.

pit. The area that is surrounded by and including the gaming tables. Photo link available.

pit boss. (PB) The most senior gaming supervisor in a grouping of tables. The floormen report to the pit boss and the pit boss typically reports to the shift boss or casino manager.

Play 21 Every Day and Win. {PBS}. (E. C. Rocker) Las Vegas, NV.
[80 Casino & Sports Vol.9,24]

play all. To play through all counts, both negative and positive. Essentially the opposite of Wonging.

player. The gambler or individual who places the bets and makes the playing decisions. Blackjack tables general have a maximum of 6 or 7 spots for players to sit at, however, only one player is required for the game to be dealt. In many locations, especially in Europe and Asia, additional players (who are not seated) are permitted to place bets on a player's hand (who is seated).

playing correlation. (PC). The playing correlation of a card counting system is related to what is known as the inner product or the sum of products of the point values of each counted card and the effect of removal of that card. See playing efficiency.

playing efficiency. (PE). A measure (related to the playing correlation) which indicates how closely a card counting system responds to changes in playing strategy. Single parameter systems can approach an optimum playing efficiency of about 70%. Higher playing efficiencies can be obtained only if separate counts are kept for different types of cards or if a multi-parameter system is used. See efficiency. See betting correlation.
[82 Snyder The Blackjack Formula 85]
[88 Griffin Theory of Blackjack 45]
[90 Chambliss Fundamentals of Blackjack 205]

playing strategy. As compared to betting strategy. The strategy a player uses to play his hand after being dealt his initial two cards. An ideal playing strategy would require knowledge of all the remaining cards in a deck.
[76 Andersen Turning the Tables on Las Vegas 16]

PLM Money Management. {PBS}. PLM, Inc., Trenton, NJ. A 3x5 card-sized money management mini-booklet and wallet-sized plastic card with some minor variations of basic strategy.
[80 Casino & Sports Vol.9,22]

ploppy. An uniformed gambler. Appears to be a term coined by gambling author Frank Scoblete in the early 1990s.

plucking. As in plucking checks and as opposed to picking checks. Dealer terminology for the manner in which checks are removed from a tray.

plugging. Part of a shuffling procedure. To take the remaining cards (cutoffs) and plug them into the cards already dealt (discards). Double plugging would refer to breaking the cutoffs into two stacks and then plugging each stack into a different portion of the discards. Bottom plugging would refer to placing the cutoffs beneath the discards prior to the shuffle. Also called slugging.

pocket. 1) Where you will see some dealers keep player tokes. When the top shirt pocket of a dealer is bulging with chips it is often due to player toking within the last 20 minutes or so. 2) Where you will see some players hide chips during play in order to keep the pit from keeping track of actual wins and/or losses.

point count system. A card counting system in which a card is assigned a value, either positive, negative, or zero, as it is played. For the most part, cards favorable to the player are usually given a negative value while those unfavorable are given a positive value as they are removed from the deck.

The pointer. Term coined by Steve Forte to refer to a dealer who is always pointing to the player's betting circle, rushing him along to act quickly on his hand.
[86 Forte Read the Dealer 46]

pontoon. A corruption of the French term vingt-et-un, pontoon is the social version of twenty-one and the Americanized casino banking game of blackjack. Pontoon and variations of the game of blackjack were very popular for allied troops during the first and second world wars.
[66 Thorp Beat the Dealer 3]

poor. 1) As in the deck is 10 poor. To have a smaller than normal percentage of that card value present in the deck. See rich. 2) What the novice gambler becomes after playing thousands of hours in a negative-expectation game.

Precision Blackjack. (PBJ) (Ron DiBenedetto) A non-counting blackjack method that stresses money management, table selection, card play, betting , table departure and discipline.
[ http://www.precision21.com/ ]

preferential shuffle. {CHS} The cheating action by a dealer of shuffling up the deck (or decks) that are positive to the player, and dealing out the deck (or decks) that are negative to the player. Preferential shuffling is most commonly found in hand-held games.

Pro Blackjack. (1991) Saitek Ltd. A hand held, battery operated, electronic blackjack game and computer. Can be used as training tool to learn the Hi-Opt I count or as a game. Includes Las Vegas rules (except no standing on soft 17), 1-4 players or hands, 1 or 6 decks only, insurance, doubling, splitting up to 4 hands, and surrender. Includes hint key for play advice.
[Fall 92 Dalton Blackjack Review 20]

probability. The classic definition of probability can be expressed as follows: If a trial can result in n equally likely events and if m of these are favorable to the occurrence of an event E, then the probability P(E) of the event E occurring is:

The probability of an event, P(E), is always a number between 0 and 1 and is often expressed as a percentage (%). A sure bet S could be expressed as P(S) = 1 or 100%.
[66 Thorp Beat the Dealer 188]
[ http://www.bjmath.com/bjmath/Stats/stats.htm ]

probable error. A parameter equal to 0.6745 times the standard deviation. Half of the individual results will lie within one probable error of the mean value, if the distribution is normal.
[90 Chambliss Fundamentals of Blackjack 205]

progression. As in a betting progression. To increase one's bet size in some systematic manner. See Martingale.
[9/80 Sayre Math Case Against Prog Betting Systems GT]
[9/81 Positive Progression Blackjack GT]
[1/88 Newell In Defense of Prog Blackjack GT 52]

Progressive Blackjack. Also called Progressive 21. 1) A marketing promotion that rewards players who manage to get a specific combination of cards. For example, in March of 1991, the Tropicana Casino in Las Vegas introduced games with a jackpot worth at least $2000. All the player had to do was make $5 minimum bets and get 4 red 5s of any combination of hearts and diamonds (e.g., 5¨ , 5© , 5© , 5¨ ). 2) In other variations, the player is required to make a side bet (e.g., 50 cents or $1) for a chance at a progressive jackpot. 3) A table game adaption from Mikohn Gaming - IMAGE | TABLE | LOGO
[4/91 Olsen Trop. Introduces 'Prog. Blackjack' BJC]
[5/24/93 Business Week 130]
[Sum 93 Banker Prog. 21 Makes Debut in A.C. BJR]
[9/93 The Boardwalker Not so Progressive 21... BJF 42]
[ http://www.mikohn.com/ ]
[ http://www.mikohn.com/Products/tables_games/Progressive_Blackjack.cfml ]

promotion. A casino marketing event or device to encourage play. See coupon. See funbook.

proportional betting. To bet a proportion of your bankroll depending on your advantage in a game. You must have an edge to justify making a bet. If your expected win is negative, your optimal bet size is zero. See Kelly Criterion.
[10/81 Wong Blackjack World Vol.3,162]
[8/83 Wong Return on Investment for... BJW 135]
[84 Cant Crash Goes Prop. Betting C&S Vol.26,29]

Puerto Rico. Legal six-deck shoe games can be found in Dorado, Humaco, Mayaguez, Rio Grande, and San Juan.
[81? McArdle 20 Years of BJ in Puerto Rico...]
[90 Olsen Blackjack Confidential]

push. A standoff or tie. A situation in which the player and dealer both attain the same hand value. No money changes hands in the event of a push in most games. All pushes are standoffs except when the player busts before the dealer. In this case, if the dealer subsequently busts, the player still loses his wager. On average, the basic strategy player will push about 9% of the time. See win and lose.

p21. The rule abbreviation for players push a dealer's blackjack when the player has 21 in three or more cards.