ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BLACKJACK
W-2G. United States casinos must file this federal income tax form to report gambling winnings and any federal income tax withheld on those winnings. According to the folks from TurboTax in 2022, “Not all gambling winnings are subject to W-2G reporting. Casinos and other gaming organizations will send you a W-2G when you win $1,200 or more on a slot machine or from bingo, keno jackpots of $1,500 or more, more than $5,000 in a poker tournament and all other games you win $600 or more at, but only if the payout is at least 300 times your wager.” “Table games in a casino, such as blackjack, roulette, baccarat, or craps are exempt from the W-2G rule.” For advice on taxes and legal questions check out the book reviews in the OTHER BOOKS OF INTEREST section.
[ IRS.gov ] [ Turbotax ] [ How to Pay Taxes on Gambling Winnings and Losses ]
wager. See bet.
Wahoo. Winner of the 2018 “Grosjean Cup” at Max Rubin’s annual Blackjack Ball.
Walker, Alice. The first woman to win the televised World Series of Blackjack (Season 4: $500,000 prize money) in 2007. This event took place at the Hilton Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Show date: June 4, 2007.
[ World Series of Blackjack ]
Walker, Katarina Halga. (Apr 3, 1966 – Jul 17, 2015) (aka Kat) Considered a world authority on Spanish 21 and pontoon. Author of the book The Pro’s Guide to Spanish 21 and Australian Pontoon which, at the time, was the best book on Spanish 21. Kat died in 2015, at the young age of 49.
[ OBITUARY ]
War Blackjack. (c2014?) From AGS, this is an optional side bet that is independent of the player’s main bet. Pays even money when the player’s first card is higher than the dealer’s card. Otherwise, the War bet loses. Aces are the lowest card. (HA ~ 1.17%)
[ playags.com ] [ wizardofodds.com ]
warp. A way in which a card may be bent due to the policies of dealing and dealer checking for naturals. Aces and ten-valued cards can sometimes be distinguishable from other cards by their warps. See warp play.
[ 78 Wong Winning Without Counting ] [ 90 Patterson Blackjack: A Winning Handbook 75 ]
warp play. {WPS}. (Stanford Wong). The strategy of using information from warped or bent cards to play the hand. Warp play is usually possible only if dealers peek under tens and aces.
[ 78 Wong Winning Without Counting 111 ] [ 92 Wong Basic Blackjack ] [ 21 Snyder Radical Blackjack 204 ]
wash. 1) When a fresh pack (or packs) of cards is removed from a sealed package and introduced into play through a predetermined procedure. Washing by itself will usually not randomly mix the cards but rather will clump families of cards together. 2) In casinos that use plastic cards, they literally wash the cards at the end of each shift or day.
[ 1/88 Moore Why the Wash Doesn’t… GT 34 ]
Washington. In 2016, the State of Washington had 70 casinos with over 400 blackjack tables.
[ qfit.com ]
Washington Solos. A blackjack team. TBD
Washington Young Bloods. A blackjack team. TBD.
[ 19 Jones 21st Century Card Counter ]
Wasserman, Dr. John. One of the many aliases Ken Uston used during his blackjack career. See Daniel Saunders.
[ 79 Uston One Third of a Shoe ] [ 4/16/79 Sports Illustrated ]
Watson Sum-Plus-One. {TCS}. See Sum-Plus-One.
Wattenberger, Norm. (aka Norman Wattenberger) Author of the best selling software from QFIT.com and card-counting.com. According to his online bio, Norm began card counting in the mid-1970s and began distributing blackjack software used by card counters in the mid-1990s. Norm is currently one of the foremost blackjack software developers in the world today. Author of the book Modern Blackjack. See Software Reviews. A nominee for the Blackjack Hall of Fame.
[ blackjacktheforum.com ] [ normanwattenberger.com ] [ ARCHIVE: thepogg.com ]
Waugh, Steve. A professional blackjack player interviewed on the Gambling with an Edge podcast.
[ PODCAST: Jan 13, 2016 ]
wave. 1) See stand. 2) A team technique to gain a large bet spread at a table with the goal of not drawing heat from the pit. Several counting team members sit at the same table and alternate their bet sizes such that their overall bet spread is large but appear more natural to the pit. This technique is designed to eliminate the need for a big player.
wave-off. A blackjack team term that refers to the signal to the big player to leave the table. See call-in.
[ Wattenberger Modern Blackjack Vol. 2, 623 ]
WBN. Acronym for Wong’s Blackjack News, which was later renamed Current Blackjack News.
WBT. See World Blackjack Tour.
WCB. 1) See World Championship of Blackjack. 2) An NBJ acronym for World Class Blackjack.
Web. See Internet.
WGBJB. Acronym for Humble and Cooper’s book The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book.
whackers. A term coined by Henry Tamburin in c2008, to describe players that go into casinos and “whack” them for some of their cash 🙂
whale. A casino expression for a high-roller with lots of money to gamble. We are talking lots of money here folks.
wheel. As in a “blackjack wheel”. Usually referring to a basic strategy device. See calculators, games and wheels.
White Belt.
(WB) A reference to one of the restricted member’s only pages on Arnold Snyder’s Blackjack Forum web site. See Green Belt. See AdvantagePlayer.com.
[ ARCHIVE: rge21.com 1999 ]
Wikipedia. 
Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. There is a considerable amount of good user edited blackjack information here but please use caution when browsing the site. The Blackjack Review Network has created a Wikipedia Resources page that includes a few of the top blackjack categories for your review.
[ Blackjack Review Wikipedia Archive ] [ Wikipedia.org ]
Wild Aces. (WA) (c2013) A blackjack side bet. If your first card is an Ace you can make the Wild Aces side bet up to your original wager or $100, whichever is less. If your second card is any 10 valued card then your Wild Aces bet will pay 2 to 1. In other words, it is similar to taking insurance.
[ wizardofodds.com ] [ 888casino.com ]
wild card. See jokers.
Willis, Jane. (Born 1970) A former member of the MIT Blackjack Team. She is a 1991 graduate of Harvard University in Applied Mathematics and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1994. After her MIT blackjack team experience, Jane became a partner at the Boston Law firm Ropes & Gray.
[ History VS Hollywood ] [ New York Post ] [ WIKIPEDIA ]
Wilson, Allan N.. (July 21, 1924 – June 5, 2001) A mathematician at General Dynamics in San Diego, California when he became one of the early computer analysts of blackjack prior to the publication of Beat the Dealer. A previous nominee for the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Author of the classic book The Casino Gambler’s Guide. Allan Wilson passed away on June 5, 2001. See Wilson Point-Count.
[ BJ21.com ] [ Fall 2001 Snyder BJF 113 ]
Wilson, John. See Zeljko Ranogajec.
Wilson Point-Count. {PCS/L1}. (WPC) (Allan Wilson). Significant preliminary work in developing a winning blackjack strategy. Generally unknown until 1965.
A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 1
[ * Calculated using CVData Efficiency Calculator ] [ 70 Wilson Casino Gambler’s Guide ]
win
. As in to win a hand. For a typical shoe game, the basic strategy player will win 43.3% of the time. See lose. See push.
[ Blackjack History Database: Wins ]
Win At Blackjack System. See Grant System.
win/loss. As in win/loss ratio. A mathematical term that reflects the ratio between the total amount of wins divided by the total amount of losses.
BJRnet Poll: At the present time over your lifetime,
are you ahead financially playing blackjack?
Win Cards. See calculators.
win rate. A player’s long-run expectation. Generally expressed in dollars/hour, dollars/hands played or in percent form. See casino win rate.
window. A spooking term for the space through which the value of the dealer’s hole-card is seen, usually (with a right-handed dealer) between the left side of the dealer’s body and his left upper-arm.
[ 81 Uston Million Dollar Blackjack 322 ]
Winning Blackjack. {BS}. (Wayne Young) TBD
[ 88 Watson Beating Casino’s Blackjack 92 ]
wired. To have a good hand such as a 20.
[ 81 Uston Million Dollar Blackjack 322 ]
Wisconsin. In 2016, Wisconsin had 14 casinos with over 170 blackjack tables.
[ qfit.com ]
WizardofOdds.com. (Since Jan 27, 1998) Michael Shackleford is The Wizard of Odds! Excellent website with great advice on playing casino games and lots of odds of course. According to his bio: Michael Shackleford is a professional actuary who has made a career of analyzing casino games. He has run the numbers on many new games for casinos and game developers and has helped design many of the popular slot machines on the Internet. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Casino Math at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a former contributing editor to Casino Player magazine, and the author of the book Gambling 102, published by Huntington Press. The Wizard’s landmark research into the actual returns of slot machines on the Las Vegas strip garnered international attention in 2002, and he has appeared numerous times on national television as a recognized expert on gambling strategy. This site was purchased by Joshua Chan and the LCB Network in 2014.
[ wizardofodds.com ] [ wizardofvegas.com ] [ wizardofmacau.com ] [ ARCHIVE: calvinayre.com ]
Michael Shackleford is the Wizard of Odds
WLPC. Acronym for the Blackjack Switch classification system: Winner – Loser – Push – Chance. Coined by Arnold Snyder and discussed in his book Big Book of Blackjack.
[ 2012 Snyder The Big Book of Blackjack 245 ]
women. See female players.
Wong, Stanford. (aka John Ferguson) (Born April 3, 1943) Author of several excellent blackjack books under the Pi Yee Press company name including Professional Blackjack, Blackjack Secrets, and Basic Blackjack. Publisher of Current Blackjack News. Former editor of the Blackjack Pages website. A 2003 member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. From his bio, “… When he was in graduate school, playing blackjack was his major source of income, and he stayed in school long enough to earn a Ph.D. from Stanford. He published his first book, Professional Blackjack, in 1975 while a student at Stanford. … BJ21.com is devoted to discussion of getting an edge at casino games.” See Reports. See BJ21.com.
[ Blackjack Hall of Fame ] [ BJ21.com ] [ WIKIPEDIA ] [ ARCHIVE: blackjackbomb.com/stanford-wong/ ] [ ARCHIVE: aleaconsultinggroup.com 2019 ] [ PODCASTS: Oct 28, 2011, Mar 23, 2012, Jan 11, 2013 ] [ Photo credit: Stanford Wong interview in the Hot Shoe ]
Wong, Wonging. {CS}. A method of betting coined by Atlantic City card counters in the late 70’s after the style of play blackjack expert Stanford Wong proposed and used. Wonging refers to back counting at a table until the count is very positive. A single bet (or a few sequences of bets) is then made at or near the table maximum. A bet spread is therefore not required since all bets are made when the count is strongly positive. See hit and run. See table hopping.
[ 81 Wong Professional Blackjack 68 ] [ 83 Snyder Blackbelt in Blackjack 66 ] [ 93 Wong Blackjack Secrets ]
Wong High-Low. {PCS/L1}. (Stanford Wong) (c1977). This is one the most popular 1-level balanced card counting systems available. Described in Wong’s book Professional Blackjack. See Hi-Lo.
A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
-1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 -1
[ 80 Braun C&S Vol.10,39 ] [ 81 Wong Professional Blackjack ] [ 93 Wong Blackjack Secrets ] [ qfit.com ]
Wong Halves. {PCS/L3}. (Stanford Wong) (c1977). A 3-level balanced card counting system described in Wong’s book Professional Blackjack.
A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
-1 .5 1 1 1.5 1 .5 0 -.5 -1
[ 81 Wong Professional Blackjack ] [ qfit.com ]
Woods, Alan. (1945 – Jan 26, 2008) Alan Woods was the leader of an Australian card-counting team who has worked with Bill Benter and Zeljko Ranogajec. Woods retired from professional blackjack in 1982. See Australian Syndicate Team.
[ WIKIPEDIA ]
Word Association. A team play term referring to the use of associated words or phrases with the running count. For example, a spotter might signal a big player to the table and then make a comment. That comment will have a word or phrase that discloses the count to the player.
words. Words can get you into trouble at the blackjack table. What we say and how we react to others can often mirror our intelligence, and reflect on our experience and knowledge. At the blackjack table, card counters don’t want to appear too bright or they run the risk of arising suspicion in the dealer and/or floor person’s eye.
[ Dalton Words to Die By! ]
World Blackjack Tour. (WBT) A Game Show Network (GSN) program that premiered in 2006, and broadcast from the Las Vegas Hilton. Ben Mezrich, author of the book Bringing Down the House, was one of the hosts.
[ WIKIPEDIA ]
World Championship of Blackjack. (WCB) The first WCB tournament was held December 17-20, 1978, at the Sahara Hotel and Casino and televised on NBC-TV. Organized by Ed Fishman, David Fishman and Duke Rohlffs, 1,408 players competed for a $50,000 first place payout. Entry fee was $250 and players played with a real cash buy-in of $500. Other prizes included 10 trips for two to Hawaii, television sets and many other cash and prize payoffs. The total package came to about $125,000.
[ Romero Las Vegas: The Untold Stories 220 ] [ Desert Sun Newspaper Sept 29, 1978 ] [ Humble Worlds Greatest Blackjack Book 383 ] [ 78 C&S Vol 4, 31 ]
World Series of Blackjack. (WSOB) (March 15, 2004 – June 4, 2007) A televised blackjack tournament created and produced by the Game Show Network (GSN). This was a closed tournament where players were either invited to play or won a spot in a satellite tournament. Max Rubin provided commentary for the first two seasons.
[ WIKIPEDIA ] [ gameshows.wikia.com ] [ imdb.com ]
World’s Most Liberal 21. (c1996) A reference to the blackjack game at the Plaza and former Las Vegas Club in Downtown Las Vegas. This game started at the Las Vegas Club and indeed, the game had the most liberal rules. When the game moved to the Plaza in the 2000s, rules were changed for the worst giving a house edge of about 1.3%. Looking back at Wong’s Blackjack Newsletter from 1980, shows the Las Vegas Club house edge for their shoe game at about 0.2% and this was “before” adding more liberal rules in the 1990s.
[ Las Vegas Advisor ]
WPC. Acronym for Wilson Point Count.
WSOB. See World Series of Blackjack.
WTA. Acronym for Winner Takes All. As in a WTA Blackjack Tournament.
[ BlackjackTournaments.com ]
W/L. An abbreviation for win/loss.
WRX. A well known advantage play and member of BlackjackInfo.com. Winner of the Munchkin Award at the 2022 Blackjack Ball.